Plate 17. 
NEPHRODIUM (Lastkea) cristatum, Mich. 
Crested Buckler-Fern. 
Nephrodium (Lastrea) cristatum; caudex short, stout, erect or oblique, densely 
paleaceous; stipites tufted, stramineous, rather stout, paleaceous with ovate 
acuminate scales; fronds erect, glabrous, oblong-lanceolate, one to one and 
a half foot high, pinnate; pinnae shortly petiolate, from the almost truncated 
base, oblong, obtusely acuminate, deeply pinnatifid, the lowermost ones dis¬ 
tant, deltoideo-acuminate, rarely again pinnate; pinnules or segments of the 
pinnae ovate or oblongo-ovate, subspinuloso-serrate; sori chiefly on the 
upper half of the frond, copious, in two rows upon each segment; invo¬ 
lucres slightly convex, the margins entire. 
Nephrodium cristatum. Mich . FI. Bor. Am. v. 2. p. 269. Desv. Mem. Soc. 
Linn. v. 6. p. 260. 
Polypodium cristatum. Linn. Bp. PI. p. 1551. 
Aspidium cristatum. Sw.in Schrad. Journ. 1803, v. 2 . p. 276. Syn. Fit.p. 52. 
Willd. Bp. PI. v. 5 .p. 253. • Bchk. Fit.p. 39. t. 37 {good). Engl. Bot. t. 
2125 {very indifferent ), not t. 1949, which is probably Nephrod. E.-mas), 
Hootc. in Plora Londinensis, ed. 2. t. 113 {very accurate). Metten. Fit. 
Hort. Lips. p. 93. Aspid. p. 56. Hook, and Am. Brit. FI. ed. §. p. 585. 
{excl. /3 and y ). Asa Gray, Manual of Bot. Illustr. p. 598. 
Lastrea cristata. Brest , Tent. Pterid.p. 77. Moore, Brit. Ferns, Nat. Print, 
pi. 19 {scarcely pi. 20, and not the right hand figure there). Newm. Brit. 
Ferns, p. 203. 
Aspidium lancastriense. Sw. 
Lophodium Callipteris. Newm. Brit. Ferns, ed. 3. p. 169 {with very accurate 
reduced figure) and 170. 
Polystichum cristatum. Both, Tent. v. 3. t. 84. Koch, Byn. FI. Germ. p. 978. 
Hab. Pare in England, in boggy heaths, chiefly in Norfolk, Holt, Lynn, near 
Burnley Hall, A. O. Black ; near Norwich; all places whence we possess spe¬ 
cimens, as well as from Eritton and Westleton; said also to be found near 
Ipswich; at Hoxton bogs and Hulwell marshes, Notts; Madely and New- 
castle-under-Lyne, Staffordshire ; and Wybunbury bog, Cheshire. 
I have long been familiar with this plant in its native bogs in 
Norfolk, and long considered it a truly distinct and well marked 
species, continental European specimens and specimens from 
North America quite corresponding with it. Of late years, how¬ 
ever, doubts have been expressed as to its distinctness from some 
forms of the spinulosum- group, especially that form which has 
been called Lastrea uliginosa , and at length a still more com- 
