THE RIGID BUCKLER PERN.
LASTREA RIGIDA.
L. fronds clonguto triangular or lanooolato, bipinnate, glandular ;
piunæ tapering ; pinnules oblong, blunt, lobed, tho segments broad
rounded, tv’o- to five-toothod, the tooth not spinulose ; indusium
conA’cx, persistent, fringed with glands. [Plate XXXIX.]
L.vstkea R tG ID A , Prcsl, Tent. Pterid. 77. Deakin, Florigr. B r it. iy . 99, fig.
1607. Bahingtooi, Man. B rii. Bot. 4 ed, 422. Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns,
2 ed. 191. Mooi'e, Handh. Brit. Ferns, 3 ed. 1 1 4 ;' Id ., Ferns o f Gt. Brit.
Nature Printed, t . 18. Bowerhy, Ferns o f Gt. BrU. 22, t. 11.
PoLYPomrM Rio.oeuîi, Hoffmann, Deutschl. FI. ii. 6.
POLYPOIIICM FRAGRANS, Yillars, Hist, des PI. Dauph. iii. 843 ; n o t o f Lm næ iis
or iliid s o n .
P olypodium V il l a r .s i i , Bellardi, App. FI. Pedem. 49.
1‘olypodium H eliopterls, Biirkhaitsm, M m . Archiv. Bot. i. 19 ; according to
Weber and Mohr.
P olypodium odoeatum, Poiret, Enaje. Bot. v. 541 (excl. sy n . Lin. et hah.
Sibir.)
A s p id ium e ig id um , Swartz, Schrad. Journ. Bot. 1800, ii. 37 ; Id ., Syn. Fil. 53.
Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew. 40, t. 38. Hooker, Supp. Eng. Bot. t. 2724. Hooker
<5 Amo tt, Bril. FI. 7 ed. 585. Bentham, Handh. Brit. PI. 630. Lowe,
Nat. Hist. Ferns, vi. t. 21. Prü s, Sum. Veg. 82, Flora Danica, t. 2187.
Willdenow, Sp. P lant, v. 265. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. iv. 106. Sturm,
Deutschl. FI. (Farm.) t. 2. Tenore, Alt. Accad. del Ji. Inst. Sc. Nat. Nap.
V. (reprint 20, t. 2, fig. 4). Fe'e, Gen. Fil. 291. Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Bot.
Lips. 93.
A s p id ium f r a g r a n s , Gray, Nat. A r r . B rit. PI. 9 ; n o t of Swartz.
A sp id ium pa l l id um , L in k , F il. Sp. EoH. Berol. 107. Fée, Gen. F il. 291, {A
variety, /8.)
A s p id ium NEVADF.XSE, " B o i s s i e r K u n z e , In d . Fil. in Linncea, x x iii. 229,
{A variety, /3.)
A sp id ium a r g u t u m , Kaulfuss, Enum. Fil. 242. (A variety, y.)
A s p id iu m a f f i n e , “ Mb.” ; Visiani, PI. Dalm. i. 39.
N eph r o d ium e ig id u m , Desvaux, A n n . Soc. L in n , de Paris, 261.
P olystichum e ig id um , De Gandolle, FI. Franç. 3 ed. ii. 660. Koch, Synops.
2 ed. 979. Ledebour, FI. Boss. iv. 516,
P o l y s t i c h u m s te ig o s um , M th , FI. Germ. iii. 86.
L oph o dium e ig id u m , Newman, Phytol. 1851, App. xxi. ; I d ., Hist B r it
Perns, 3 ed. 175.
Caudex thick, scaly, tufted, decumbent, formed of tho bases of the
decayed fronds closely surrounding a woody axis. Scales lanceolate
attenuate, and linear-lanoeolate, or subulate. Fibres long and wiry>
branched, dark-coloured.
Vernation oircinato.
Stipes short, about one-third of tho length of the entire frond,
sometimes more ; lateral and adherent to tho caudox ; thickened at
the base, glandular ; densely clothed with long subulate or lineai-
lanocolate narrow-pointed momhranaooous scales intermixed with
broader ones, all of which arc of a reddish-brown colour ; these
scales become smaller and less abundant uiAvards. Bachis furnished
with scattered hair-like scales; both primary and secondary
raohides bearing numerous short-stalked translucent glands.
Fronds from ono to two feet high, firm, dull groen, paler beneath,
the surface sprinkled over while young with numerous minute
spherical short-stalked almost sessile glands, which give it then a
glaucous hue, not conspicuous in the dried plants, and at the same
time impart a slight but peculiar and agreeable fragrance ; they are
spreading or erectish, bipinnate, usually elongately triangular, the
lower pinnæ being somewbat the longest, and the rest gradually
shortening to the apox ; sometimes, however, the outline is lanceolate.
Pinnæ alternate, the lower ones subopposito, distinotiy triangular,
the middle ones more or less oblong with a tapering point, the
uppermost tapering from their base towards thoir point. Pinnules
oblong or ovato-ohlong, truncate at the base, obtuse at the apox, the
lower ones shortly stalked, the upper adnate, deeply pinnatifid ; the
lobes are oblong notched, the upper with about two, the lower with
about five teeth, which aro short, and acute hut not spinulose.^
Venation of the pinnules consisting of a sinuous costa or midvein,
branching alternately, so as to send out a vein into each lobe ; these
veins branch so as to produce a venule for each marginal tooth,
towards which it extends, hut does not reach the margin ; the lower
anterior venule is fertile.
Fructification ou tho hack of the frond, occupying about the upper
half. Sori rather large, round, numerous and occupying the whole
length of the pinnules, indusiate, medial on the basal anterwr
venules, forming a line on each side of and near to the midvem,
becoming crowded and often confluent over the whole oontral portion
of the pinnules. Indusium lead-coloured, firm, membranaceous.