
THE BROAD PRICKLY-TOOTHED BUCKLER FERN. 243 
dwarf plant, it is conspicuously more divided than any other British 
Lastrea. Its chief peculiarities consist in the fronds being quadri- 
pinnate, the pinnules small and distinct, and the stipites and rachides 
everywhere densely lepidote-scaly. The fronds are about a foot 
and a half high, very broadly ovate: indeed the lamina is almost as 
broad as long, quadripinnate on the posterior side of the lowest 
pinne. The pinne are very unequal throughout the frond, the 
posterior ones being much the largest. The primary pinnules are 
distant on the rachides of the pinne, elongate ovate in outline, 
everywhere pinnately divided, the lowest posterior basal ones also 
unequal-sided. The secondary pinnules or pinnulets are distant, 
short ovate, and bluntish, with a tapered stalk-like base; below 
they are divided into broad pinnule-like lobes (which become tertiary 
pinnules on the basal posterior pinnule of the lowest pinnæ), and at 
their apex they are cut into coarsish mucronate incurved teeth, the 
lobes themselves being also similarly toothed. These ultimate 
divisions are comparatively small. The main stipites and rachides are 
densely clothed with large brownish entire lanceolate or ovate scales, 
which become smaller and shorter (not narrowed and hair-like) 
upwards; and both the secondary and tertiary rachides are con- 
spicuously clothed with these smaller shorter scales, so that the 
appearance is rather lepidote than setiferous; the scales are often 
contorted. In our plants, cultivated under glass, a peculiarity of 
development is manifested, the evolution of the frond being indefinite, 
so that the basal pinnules of a pinna become fully grown with mature 
ripened or scattered sori, before the point of the same pinna is un- 
rolled. The central part of the frond has consequently shed all its 
spores, while its apex, and the apices of the pinne are still growing 
on. We have had no opportunity to observe if this habit is 
maintained in out-door culture. The plant was first noticed in the 
collection of Mr. Tait, of Edinburgh, who had obtained it from Mr. 
Stark, a nurseryman of that city, with the information that it had 
been procured from Yorkshire. No further light on its history can 
be obtained from this source, and it is to be hoped that our very 
characteristic plate will enable some one to certify its British origin. 
We know of no exotic fern at all like it. [Plate L.] 
18. decurrens (M.). This is an abnormal dwarf form, of very 
R 2 

