FERNS. 
43 
Aspidiurn. ] 
y {abbreviata). Dwarf, sub-pinnate, segments small and confluent; sori usually 
only on the anterior venule of each segment. 
Sit. — H edge-hanks, &c., and in shady lanes throughout the kingdom. 
Hab. — I have received numerous habitats from most of the English and 
Scottish counties, from the extreme south to the Orkney Islands, and yet in some 
places this plant is rare. Inchnedamff, in Sutherland, is one of these. — (3. This form 
seems equally common with the type. — y. Teesdale, Durham, Mr. J. Backhouse. 
Ingleboro’, Forks., and in Cumberland, Rev. G. Pinder. Coniston, Lancashire, 
Miss Beever. Near Llyn Ogwen, Caernarvonsh., Mr. S. O. Gray. 
Geo. — N orth America, throughout Europe, and in Africa. 
7. — ASPIDIUM CRISTATUM. 
CRESTED SHIELD-FERN. 
(Plate III, fig. 4.) 
Cha. — Leaf linear-lanceolate, pinnate. Pinnae opposite, cordate, 
attenuated, deeply pinnatisect, but scarcely pinnate. Segments 
ovate, decurrent, crenate, and with crenations serrate, and with 
bristled teeth. 
Syn. — Aspidiurn cristatum, Swz., Willd., Smith, Hook., Spreng., Gal])., Mack., 
Schk., Pursh. — Polypodium cristatum, Linn., Afzel in Stochh. Trans, for 
1787. — (Not. of Bolt., With., or Ifuds.) Polysticlium cristatum, Roth., 
Decan., Hoffm. — Polypodium Callipteris, Ehrh., Ilofftn . — Lastnea cristata, 
Presl, Newm. — Lophodium Callipteris, Newm. 1854. 
Fig. — Hook, in Flo. Lon. new ser. 113. — E. B. 2125 (not 1949). — Newm. 
page 89 (1854). — Moore (1853), p. 166, 117. 
Des. — Rootstock tufted. Leaves erect, rigid, yellowish-green, 
pinnate, oblong, blunt. Pinnae opposite, eight to fourteen pairs, 
very distant from each other, short, ovate, oblong, obtuse, very deeply 
pinnatisect or rather pinnate at their lower part. Segments ovate, 
crenate, each crenature furnished with two or three small sharp 
points, or bristles, the principal vein in each segment slightly 
crooked, but the midrib of the whole pinna straight. Leaf-stalk 
slightly scaly only towards the lower part, where for about one 
third of its height it is otherwise naked. Sori large, very distinct, 
black at first, afterwards brown. Indusium white when young, very 
thick, circular, with a lateral notch, and fixed by the centre. 
Few plants have occasioned more discussion than this. The difficulty has 
arisen chiefly because sufficient stress has not been laid upon the simply pinnate 
character of the leaf; had this been regarded more, Aspidiurn spinulosum 
would not so often have been confounded with it. The cristatum, besides being 
less divided, has a more obtuse, more linear leaf, and contracts very much, 
below. The sori of cristatum are comparatively much larger and less numerous 
and their indusia persistent, not hidden by the capsules. It very nearly resembles 
the American Aspidiurn Goldianum. 
