Aspidium .] 
FERNS. 
41 
Hab. — F ound by Rev. W. Bree, in 1815, on Ingleborough, on a natural 
platform, near the foot of the mountain, and towards the neighbouring village. This 
was, I believe, the only situation recorded for this fern, at the publication of my 
first edition in 1837. Since then it has been sought after and found in three or 
four places, considerably distant from each other ; and there is reason to suppose 
that it is pretty generally distributed all over the Ingleborough range, towards the 
foot of the hills. Thus Mr. IV. Wilson finds it at Wliarnside. Mr. Chorley 
has kindly communicated to me specimens from near Settle, where he and 
Mr. J. Tathani find it abundantly. Also other fronds of the true plant have 
reached me from Miss Beever, a young and enthusiastic botanist, who finds it at 
Arnside Knot, not far from Silverdale. 
Geo. — Switzerland, Prussia, Germany, &c. 
8.— ASPIDIUM SPINULOSUM. 
PRICKLY SHIELD-FERN. 
(Plate 3, fig. 6.) 
Cha. — Frond bipinnate. Pinnie opposite. Lobes finely cut, 
spinulose. Rachis nearly smooth, white. 
Syn. — Aspidium spinulosum, Willd. — Polypodium spinulosum, Swz., Retz . — 
Polypodium cristatum, Hoffm., Schreb . — Polypodium spinosum, Schr . — ■ 
Polypodium dentatum, Moench. 
Fig. — E. B. 1460. — Flo. Dan. 707. — Plulc. Phyt. 181, f. 2, {a young plant,) 
Schk.fil. 48. 
Des. — Frond ovate or oblong, always erect and flat. Pinnae very 
nearly opposite, smooth, and distinct, as are also the lobes, which 
are rarely convex. Segments oblong, pointed, doubly serrate, and 
spinulose. Rachis nearly smooth, swelled at its ramifications, of 
a whitish color, and generally covered with black dots. Sori 
scattered, small. Indusium small, brown, soon shrivelling up. 
This plant goes by various names among British botanists. It is repeatedly 
considered and sent as Aspidium cristatum, (which see, page 39,) and is such 
of some authors, but not of Smith, Hooker, or Mackay. It is also confounded 
with the much rarer Aspidium rigidum, the diagnostics of which are very distinct ; 
and with the next species, Aspidium dilatatum, it is often considered identical, 
though sufficiently different, both wild and cultivated, in habit, texture, and color. 
Our present plant is narrower than the dilatatum, of a less number of pinnae, flat, 
erect, rigid in habit, of a very light green color, the midrib of the lobes more 
zigzag and prominent, the lower pinnae rarely twice pinnate, the indusium 
glandulous, and the whole plant much more delicate. 
It should be observed, that the above remarks are not intended to apply to that 
plant which Sir J. E. Smith’s herbarium contains, and which Sir W. J. Hooker 
describes as a variety of dilatatum, under the above name. The spinulosum of 
northern botanists, of Sir J. E. Smith, and of the Liverpool Botanic Garden, is, 
in reality, but a variety of the next, and closely approaches to the recurvum of 
Bree, and dumetorum of Smith, if not identical with them. The plant here 
intended to be described is altogether different, and in cultivation retains precisely 
the character of the wild plant, never approaching in the most remote degree the 
G 
