Plate 12. 
ASPIDIUM (Polystichum) aculeatum, L . 
Prickly Shield-Fern. 
Far. 7. ANGULARE. 
Aspidium (Polystichum) aculeatum; caudex short, erect, stout, knotted, densely 
paleacous with rusty-coloured ferruginous scales often half an inch and 
more long, ovate, with finely acuminated points, and these extend up the 
stipes for some way, and gradually on the rachises and under sides of the 
costae become smaller and subulate ; stipites short, stout; fronds one to 
two feet and more long, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, bipinnate, rigid cori¬ 
aceous ; primary pinnae approximate from a broadish subpetiolated base, 
very acuminate, subfalcate; pinnules close, ovate, spinulose-acuminate, free 
and subpetiolulate or more or less decurrent and united to the adjacent 
ones, the margins sharply and strongly spinulosely or setosely serrated, the 
superior basal ones generally larger than the rest, and more or less auricled ; 
veinlets once or twice forked ; sori in two rows, nearer the costa than the 
margin. 
Var. y. angulare; more membranaceous, and stipes and rachises more chaffy, pin¬ 
nules small, orbicular-rhomboid, mostly auriculate, the deep serratures se- 
tiferous rather than spinulose. (Our Plate 12.) 
Aspidium angulare. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5 . p. 257. Smith, Engl. PL v. 4.j». 278. 
Png. Pot. Suppl. t. 276. Hook, and Am. Brit. PL ed. S.p. 583. 
Aspidium aculeatum, (3. Sm. PL Brit. p. 1122. 
Polystichum angulare. Presl, Tent. Pter id. p. 83. Moore , Brit. Ferns, Nat. 
Print, tf. 11 and 12. 
Aspidium aculeatum, b. angulare. Braun. Mett. Pit. Hort. Lips. p. 88 ; Aspid. 
p. 48. 
Hab. {Var. y. angulare.) Common in the south and middle of England, on shady 
banks and in moist woods, said to be more rare in the north and in Scot¬ 
land and Ireland. But it has been so often looked upon as a form of 
aculeatum, that it has probably been passed by as such. 
Although Aspidium angidare was published as a Hungarian 
plant by Willdenow more than half a century ago, it was not 
till the appearance of the last volume of the ‘ English Flora,’ in 
1828, that it was recognized as a British plant. It was then 
that Sir James Smith judged, from Willdenow’s description, that 
his own A. aculeatum /3 of FI. Brit. p. 1122, must be the same. 
This has been generally assented to, and it has kept its place 
as a distinct species in our Flora almost ever since. Sir James 
Smith’s remarks on the plant are most excellent: —“ It is 
