Willdenow’s plant, I cannot be certain that we mean the
same thing,” but from the description it is clear that if
Willdenow’s be not exactly the same, it is only a slight
variety. The specimen selected for a figure is one from
Pease-bridge Dean in Berwickshire, and was kindly communicated
by the author of that elegant work the Flora
o f Berwick-upon-Tweed. It should appear that neither it
nor the A. aculeatum grows further north, while the A. lo-
batum* is not rare in Scotland. A. angulare also grows
in Devonshire and various other parts of England, and in
Ireland. Dr. Johnston has received it from Ennis in the
county of Clare. We regret that the figures of the two
analogous species in the English Botany, t. 1562 & 1563,
are not more characteristic; in both of them the leaflets are
too short, except in the magnified figures.
The following description is given from the British Flora;
it agrees perfectly with the specimens before us, and cannot
be improved. A. angulare “ is softer and more delicate in
texture as well as more shaggy than” A. aculeatum. “ The
leaflets are smaller, more numerous, blunter and rounded
at the extremity, though tipped with a soft bristly point,
and each of them, even to the smallest, has a broad conspicuous
lobe at the base of the upper margin; the lowest of all,
at the upper edge of each main leaf is half as long again as
its next neighbour, more strongly serrated, and in its lower
part generally pinnatifid. All the lobes and serratures end
in soft bristly points. Stalk and principal rib densely covered
with scales, which are narrower in proportion as
they are higher up, those on the partial ribs or on the
leaflets occasionally being almost capillary. Masses (of
capsules) numerous and crowded. Cover orbicular, for the
most part entire, with a central depression. The outline of
the whole frond is rather broader than A. (iculeatum, and
the more copious, distinct, rounded, au'ricled leaflets give
the whole a rich and elegant aspect.”—-J. D. C. S.
Fig. 1. represents a pinnule of the typical form; fig. 2. a
pinnule of the variety with the lower pinnules again pinnated.
* This species (named by Hudson from the large auricles or lobes at the
bases of the pinna:, not of the pinnules,) is distinguished by the decurrent
bases of the leaflets, or pinnules, and their elliptic form.