FERNS. 
[ Aspidium . 
28 
distinct from each other nearly to the point of the pinna:, although 
sometimes so crowded as to overlap each other. Rachis clothed 
with pinnae to its base and very scaly. Sori distinct, brown, small. 
Cover orbicular, fixed by its centre, soon withering. 
This plant varies much in the sharper or blunter shape of the lobes of the 
leaves, for which reason it is sometimes extremely difficult to decide if a frond 
be of this species or the former. Luxuriant plants assume much the appear- 
ance of Lobatum, as the large pinnules become slightly decurrent : but in this 
State they become somewhat deeply cut, or even compound, while in the last 
species they are truly entire, losing their serratures instead of becoming more 
cleft by culture. 
(x ( lonchitidoides )* pinnules combined, forming nearly a pinnate frond. 
Filix Lonchitidi affinis, Ray. Aculeatum fi, Smith in E. FI. Lobatum, 
Hook in Br. FI. — Fig. — Plate 2, f. 4, Plak. Phyt. t. 180, /. 3. (good). 
y ( angulare ) Pinnules blunt, distinctly auricled, Rachis very chaffy. 
Aspidium angulare, Smith in E. FI., Hook, Mack,Willd. Aculeatum ft. 
Smith in FI. Br. — Fig. — Plate 2, f. 5 a. E. B. Supp. 2776. 
i (linearis) Pinnules linear and very sharp pointed. — Fig. — PI. 2, f. 5 /3. 
These are well marked varieties, yet not sufficiently distinct either in habit 
or character to constitute separate species. The var. (I is not very scaly, and 
in form and size exactly intermediate between our present species and Aspid. 
Lonchitis. The var. y has, when luxuriant, its lower and larger piniue com- 
pound when it becomes of course subtripinnate, and larger, (but not compa- 
ratively more robust,) thereby differing from the first or normal state of the 
plant, which alone approaches the last species in occasionally decurrent and 
convex pinnules. 
Sit. — Common in hedge rows, damp banks, &c. chiefly in the south; neither 
the plant nor any variety of it except Lonchitidoides is recorded as growing in 
Scotland, while the former species is almost exclusively confined to that 
country and a similar range in Ireland. 
H ab. — N ear Gurnet Bay, Isle of White, Prof. Henslow. Kingsteignton, 
Devon, Mr. Anderson. Sussex, Rev. G. E. Smith. Peasebridge, Durham, 
Dr. Johnston. Ulverscroft Priory, Charnwood Forest, Rev. A. Bloxam. Near 
Hastings, Mr. W. C. Trevelyan. Near Richmond, Yorks., Mr. J. Tatham. 
Warwickshire, Rev. W. T. Bree. Derbyshire, Dr. Howitt. Somerset, Mr. A. 
Southby. Little Worley Common, Essex, Mr. R. Castles. Isle of Man, Mr. 
Forbes. Near Wrexham, Denbiglis., Mr . J. E. Bowman. Burton Wood, near 
Warrington, Lane., and in Cheshire, Mr. Rylands. About Tonbridge Wells 
and elsewhere, Kent (abundant), and near Bramshot, Hants, Mr, W. Pamplin. 
Osterley Park, Lampton Lane, and Sion Lane, near Brentford, Middlesex, 
Mr. J. Beevis. Cicklc, near Beaumaris, Anglesea, Mr, W. Leighton. Near 
Bangor and Caernarvon, Mr. W. Wilson. Colin Glen, Belfast, Mr. Mackay. 
Hedgebanks, near Carrickfergus, Mr. F. Whitla. — (l Glen Fee, Clova Moun- 
tains, Mr. W. Wilson. Braid Woods, near Edinburgh, Mr. H. Cooper. — 
y Intermixed with and even more common in the extreme south of the king- 
dom than the first state of the plant. — 5 Near Clonmell, Mr. G. S. Gough. — 
Geo. — Europe generally, Arabia, Cape of Good Hope, North Africa, on 
the Green Mountains, Vermont, and other places in North America. 
* This is a variety of Aculeatum rather than of Lobatum, because when the pinna' break 
t«to lobes, as the larger and lower generally do, the lobes are invariably ami very distinctly 
petioled 
