softer and more delicate in texture, as well as more shaggy, than 
A. aculeatum. The leaflets are smaller, more numerous, blunter, 
and rounded at the extremity, though with a soft ” (and long , he 
omight have added) “ bristly point, and each of them, even the 
smallest, has a broad conspicuous lobe at the base of the upper 
margin; the lowest of all at the upper edge of each main leaf, 
is half as long again as its next neighbour, more strongly ser¬ 
rated, and in its lower part generally pinnatifid. All the lobes 
and serratures end in long bristly points. Stalk and principal 
rib densely covered with scales, which are narrower in propor¬ 
tion as they are higher up, those on the partial ribs or on the 
leaflets being almost capillary. The outline of the whole frond 
is rather broader than A. aculeatum , and the more copious, dis¬ 
tinct, rounded, auricled leaflets give the whole a rich and elegant 
aspect.” 
The above description, excellent as it is, is but one of the 
seventeen forms described by Moore. Mr. Moore’s var . proli- 
ferum (Brit. Ferns, Nature-printed, t. 13 C.) could not be re¬ 
cognized by it. It has the pinnules quite narrow and elongated, 
and so deeply pinnatifid that the frond might almost be said to 
be tripinnate. The plant we have figured here, which may be 
looked upon as the normal state of angulare , does so gradually 
pass into our var. intermedium , that no clear line of distinction 
can possibly be drawn. 
Plate 12. Pig. 1, 2. Prond of Aspidium (Polystichum) aculeatum, var. y, 
angulare ,— nat. size. 3. Pertile pinnule, seen from beneath,— magnified. 4. Single 
sorus :—more magnified. 
