POLYSTICHUM. 
91 
grow up in a circle, about tlie month of April, and take a 
somewhat erect position. Their form is lanceolate,—in the 
most perfect state of the species broadly lanceolate, but in a 
variety presently to be referred to, very narrowly lanceolate. 
The texture is harsh and rigid, the upper surface dark 
green, and shining, and the short stipes densely enveloped 
in rust-coloured membranous pointed scales. The fronds 
are bipinnate, with alternate pinnae, these pinnae being 
again more or less perfectly divided into a series of pin¬ 
nules, which are either decurrent,—that is, insensibly 
merging in the substance of the rachis which supports 
them,—or else, are tapered to a wedge-shaped base, and 
attached to the rachis by the point of the wedge. The 
general form of these pinnules is somewhat elongately 
crescent-shaped, the upper base being extended into a 
small auricle, or enlarged lobe, and the lower base, as it 
were, sloped away; while the apex is tapered off to an 
acute point, and the margin is serrated with spiny teeth. 
The veins are alternately branched, and do not join toge¬ 
ther or anastomose, but extend free to the margin ; and 
the fructification, which is generally abundant, and often 
crowded, is ranged in a line on each side the midrib of the 
pinnules, and also on the larger pinnules on each side 
