THE SOFT PRICKLY SHIELD FERN 
2 77 
Description.— There is so much general similarity between 
this Fern and Aculeatum that it will be especially necessary to 
indicate the points of difference which will enable the one to be 
distinguished from the other. Like Aculeatum the fronds of 
Angulare grow from a short, tufted rootstock. They are lance- 
shaped, tapering to the apex, and tapering also somewhat 
towards the base, although not quite to the same extent as 
in Aculeatum. The stipes is also short, being about one- 
fourth of the length of the leafy portion, though it is 
occasionally much longer, not unfrequently being equal in 
length to the leafy portion. Like Aculeatum the pinna* are 
long, narrow, and placed alternately on each side of the 
racliis, tapering to a point ; but, unlike it, the basal pinnules 
are mostly equal in size, and neither of them is larger than 
the rest. Neither are the pinnules rounded from the base 
upwards on the outer side, and attached by their bases to 
the mid-stems of Hie pinnae. They are distinctly stalked, 
or attached to the mid-stems of the pinnae by short stems. 
They are angular in shape — hence the name of this species 
— or perhaps they may be described more accurately as 
being wing-shaped or ear-shaped, — and joined to the stems by 
the convex side — towards the main racliis — of their broadest 
part. The pinnules which are attached to the pinnae alter- 
nately on each side of their mid-stems, decrease in size 
towards the apices of the pinnae, being at the extreme points 
of the latter decurrent, or run together. Their margins, 
except at their bases, are serrated and spinulose, or set oft' 
with soft bristles. The venation consists of the mid-veins 
of the pinnules, from which there are alternately branching- 
venules, bearing the sori, or round clusters of spore cases, 
which when ripe are of a rich brown colour, each cluster 
covered by its round indusium attached at the centre on its 
under side by a round stalk. The sori are ranged in closely- 
set lines on each side of the mid-veins of the pinnules, and 
