
THE ALPINE SHIELD FERN. 
THE ALPINE SHIELD FERN, or HOLLY FERN. 
POLYSTICHUM LONCHITIS. 
P. fronds pinnate, narrow linear-lanceolate, rigid; pinne falcately 
lanceolate, acute, spinosely ciliate-serrate, auricled at the base on the 
upper side, obliquely wedge-shaped or rounded on the lower, the 
lowest ones often having both an anterior and posterior auricle. 
[Plate XV.] 
PoLysricHum Loncutris, Roth, Fl. Germ. iii. 71. Deakin, Florigr. Brit. iv. 
89, fig. 1602. Babington, Man. Brit. Bot. 4 ed. 423. Sowerby, Ferns of 
Gt. Brit. 30, t. 15. Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 103. Moore, Handb. 
Brit. Ferns. 8 ed. 78; Id., Ferns of Gt. Brit., Nature Printed, t. 9. 
Schott, Gen. Fil. (t. 9.) Presl, Tent. Pter. 82, t. 2, fig. 7. Fee, Gen. Fil. 278. 
PoLyPoDIUM LONOHITIS, Linnaeus, Sp. Plant. 1548. Bolton, Fil. Brit. 34, t. 19. 
Smith, Eng. Bot. xii. t. 797. Flora Danica, t. 497. Sturm, Deutschl. Fl. 
(Farrn.) i. t. 4. 
Aspipium LONCHITIS, Swartz, Schrad. Journ. Bot. 1800, ii. 80; Id., Syn. Fil. 43. 
Smith, Fl. Brit. 1118 ; Id., Eng. Fl. 2ed. iv. 271. Hooker de Arnott, Brit. 
Fl. 7 ed. 583. Mackay, Fl. Hib. 338. Bentham, Handb. Brit. Fl. 628. 
Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew. 99, t. 29. Willdenow, Sp. Pl. v. 224. Sprengel, 
Syst. Veg. iv. 97.  Ledebowr, Fl. Ross. iv. 512. Koch, Synops. 2 ed. 976. 
A. Gray, Bot. North. U. States, 2 ed. 599. Fries, Sum. Veg. 82. Nyman, 
Syll. Fl. Europ. 431. Lowe, Nat. Hist. Ferns, vi. t. 22. 
ASPIDIUM ASPERUM, Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. Pl. ii. 6. 

Caudex thick, slowly elongating, erect or decumbent, consisting 
of the densely packed bases of decayed fronds surrounding a central 
woody axis, and clothed in the upper part with the numerous scales 
which remain about the bases of the stipes. Fibres stout, rigid, 
branched, dark brown. 
Vernation eircinate. 
Stipes usually short, from half an inch to two inches, or some- 
times three inches in length, rarely more, clothed with large 
ovate or broadly-lanceolate reddish-brown pointed chaffy scales; 
terminal and adherent to the caudex. Rachis densely scaly, with 
narrower lanceolate and subulate pallid scales. 
Fronds from six to eighteen, rarely twenty-four inches in length, 
deep green, paler beneath, of rigid leathery texture, erect or 

