ASPIDIUM, § POLYSTICHUM.

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Hook, and Am. Brit. FI. ed. 8. p. 582. Polypodium aculeatum, Huds. Angl.P- 459. Polystichurn aculeatum, Roth, Fit. Germ. iii. p. 79. Moore , Br. Ferns,Hat. Print, t. 10. Aspid. aculeatum, 3 intermedium, Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 11.Aspic ). Braunii, in Spen. Fit. Frieb. (Braun in Herb. Nostr.). 2. Aspid. lobatum,Sto. in Schrad. Journ. 1800, ii. p. 37, and Syn. Fit. p. 53 (frond more rigid,subcoriaceous; pinnules sessile, decurrent, and more or less confluent at the base,superior basal pinnule the largest, and that pinnule chiefly auricled). Schk.Fit. t. 40. Sm. Fit. Brit. p. 1123. mild. Sp. PI. v. p. 260. Engl . Bot. 1. 1503.Hook, and Am. Brit. Ft. ed. 8. p. 582. Polystichurn aculeatum, in part, Moore,Brit. Ferns. Nat. Print, t. 10. A. aculeatum, var. lobatum, Hook. Brit. Ferns,A 10. 3. Aspid. angulare, Willd. Sp. PI. v. p. 257. Sm. Engl . Fit. iv. p. 278.Engl . Bot. Suppl. t. 27, 6 (fronds more membranaceous, more chaffy; pinnulessmall orbicular-rhomboid, mostly auriculate: the deep serratures setiferous ratherthan spinulose). Hook, and Am. Brit, Flora, ed. 8. p. 583. Aspid. aculeatum, 0,Sm. Fit. Brit. p. 1122. Var. b. angulare, Braun in Mett. Fit. Ilort. Lips. p. 88.Aspid. p. 48. Var. angulare, Hook. Brit. Ferns, t. 12. Polystichurn angulare,Presl, Tent . Pterid. p. 83. Moore, Brit. Ferns, Nat. Print, tt. 12, 13. Of theseare so many intermediate passages from the one kind to the other, that no one, Ithink, can study them with an unprejudiced mind, without seeing the propriety°f looking upon them as one species; and the three several forms are by no meansconfined to the countries now under consideration. Our tvpic'al form is commonthroughout Britain and the temperate and even the warmer parts of Europe , inSpain and Portugal , Greece , Heldreich, Morea ( flypopellis tqbulata, Bory), Calabria (Asp. hastulatum, Tenore, Pavilion in Herb. Nostr.)

2. North America . United States , apparently rare : (not in Chapm. Fil. ofS-U. St.) Mountains of New Hampshire , Yermon t, probably nowhere south of NewYork. Not found in Canada : hut it appears in N. W. America , near the sources°f the Columbia, Drummond. Sitka (Aspid. vestituin, Bongard, Veg. of Sitka,P- 57, and in Herb. Nostr.) ; Nutka, Heenke.

3. Africa and adjacent islands. North Africa : Madeira, abundant (mostlyangulare form); Teneriffe , Webb, Bourgeau (Aspid. angulare, Webb) ; Azores ,abundant, Seubert (A. angulare, Seub.) ; Mount Silke, Abyssinia, Schimper, It.Abyss, n. 680 (typical form) ; Fernando Po , on the Peak, elev. 9000 feet, G. Mann,fhe common European form. South Africa : Cape Colony , frequent, Cape toNatal (Aspid. pungeus,* Kaulf. Schlecht. Adumbr. p. 21. t. 10); generally largerand broader than theEuropean form, with a tendency to he tripinnate.and with moredistant pinnae and pinnules; the latter more elongated and more falcate. Aspid.luctuosum, Kze., and Pappe and Raiosrn, is quite our European and typical form.Pappe andRawson (Syn. Fil. Afr. Austr.) bring into the Cape Flora “ Aspid. angu-lare, Kit.;" and my specimen of A. luctuosum , from Sir George Grey , would, Ilhink.be referred to that bysome botanists: and Mr.Moore remarks,in Herb.Nostr.,mv Natal specimen of angulare is quite a normal English form. From the Cape ,Milne, and from Natal ( Captain Garden), 1 possess specimens quite accordingwith the Aspid. stramineum, Kaulf. , of Mauritius . Bouillon, Carmichael, and

* Possibly I may he wrong in referring the Aspid. pungens, Kaulf. , to the presentspecies, especiallyif, as Schlechtendal says, the caudexis really “ horizontalis pro-repens," which 1 have no means of confirming. One of my specimens, indeed, fromEckion (under n.4610) is so extremely unlike the figure of Schlechtendal (Tab. X.),that I had long considered it totally distinct from punyens or aculeatum, in its greatsize (between 4—5 feet long, including the densely paleaceous stipes), its very com-pound, though narrow-lanceolate and acuminated pinnules, deeply pinnatifid andeven again pinnatifid, quite tripiunate ; hut 1 find intermediate forms which itmust be confessed too much resemble aculeatum to induce me, in the presentstate of my knowledge, to keep them separate.