128 
BRITISH FERNS. 
rica, the United States, and the mountains of Portugal, 
Italy, Switzerland, and Greece. 
When successfully treated, it forms an ornamental ad- 
dition to the rocky fernery ; but no fern is more difficult 
to naturalize. The half-starved-looking plants which 
are generally pointed out with so much pride in the 
fernery, scarcely bear a resemblance to the free-growing 
crowns of glossy fronds which the same fern bears in the 
Swiss Alps. Mr. W. Peeve grew it successfully in a 
coal-house, where it was shaded and kept moist ; it was 
planted in a compost of loam, peat, and sharp sand. 
Mr. Johnson recommends a shaded situation, good 
drainage, and some moisture ; but he says, it should 
be covered with a glass for some time after it is planted, 
and care must be taken to plant it very firmly. 
10. Aspidium acHleatum, var. lobattma. Marrow 
Prickly SMeld-fern, 
Caudex short, stout, upright, knotted, densely scaly. Stem 
very short. Fronds rigid, tough, narrow, lanceolate, bipinnate. 
Pinnae pointed, alternate, spiny, glossy. Leaflets large, sharply 
serrated, enlarged at the base, so as to form an ear. Sori in 
two rows near the mid- vein. 
Many botanists consider these ferns three distinct 
species, and many regard them as three varieties of the 
same. Mr. Moore makes two species of them. Sir W. 
Hooker has specimens of every intermediate grade be- 
tween the three in his herbarium, so pronounces them 
mere varieties. 
This fern, be it a species or only a variety, has some 
strong distinctions. The caudex is large and tufted; 
the stems beset with scales half an inch long ; the fronds 
