THE BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTHED 
BUCKLER FERN. 
Lastrea dilatata . — Presl. 
The Broad Prickly-Toothed Buckler is one of the 
most compound and handsome, as well as one of the 
most common, of our native Ferns, growing in broad 
arched fronds, from a large tufted stem, to, when most 
luxuriant, even the height of five feet, always more 
or less drooping or curved. It is a species very diffi- 
cult to understand, on account of its many varieties, 
— some of which pass almost into L. sjpinulosa on the 
one side, and others into L. cemula on the other. The 
distinguishing characteristics, however, of L. dilatata 
in the group of Crested Shield Ferns, of which it forms 
a very large proportion, are its lance-shaped dark- 
centred scales and its gland-fringed indusia. The 
following description applies to the more usual or 
typical form of dilatata . 
Fronds ovate, lance-shaped in general outline, on a 
stipes of moderate length much thickened at the base 
and densely clothed with entire lance-shaped pointed 
scales very dark brown in their centres but nearly 
transparent at their margins ; bipinnate, with elongate- 
triangular, or tapering, pinnae, placed nearly opposite, 
G 
