te variety it is more difficult to separate it, as that also has
indusiate glands. The collector needs to study authentic specimens and
have in mind the type, with its rather long, narrow blade as an aid to the
verbal description, and even then he will often find it an interesting
puzzle. Shaded swamps throughout our area.

[Illustration: _Aspidium Boottii_]

(6) SPINULOSE SHIELD FERN

_Aspidium spinulosum. THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA

Dryopteris spinulosa. Nephrodium spinulosum_

Stipes with a few pale brown deciduous scales. Fronds one to two and
one-half feet long, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate. Pinnae oblique to
the rachis, the lower ones broadly triangular, the upper ones elongated.
Pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnae often elongated, especially the
lower pair, the pinnule nearest the rachis being usually the longest, at
least in the lowest pinnae. Pinnules variously cut into spinulose-toothed
segments. Indusium smooth, without marginal glands.

The common European type, but in this country far less common than its
varieties. They all prefer rich, damp woods, and because of their
graceful outline and spiny-toothed lobes are very attractive. They can be
transplanted without great difficulty, and the fern garden depends upon
them for its most effective lacework.

Var. _intermedium_ has the scales of the stipe brown with darker center.
Fronds ovate-oblong, often tripinnate. Pinnae spreading, oblong-lanceolate.
Pinnules pinnately cleft, the oblong lobes spinulose-toothed at the apex.
Margin of the indusium denticulate and beset with minute, stalked glands.
In woods nearly everywhere--our most common form. Millions of fronds of
this variety are gathered in our northern woods, placed in cold storage and
sent to florists to be used in decorations.[A] As long as the roots are not
disturbed the crop is renewed from year to year, and no great harm seems to
result. Canada to Kentucky and westward.

[Footnote A: _Horticulture_ reports that twenty-eight million fern leaves
have been shipped from Bennington, Vt., in a single season; and that nearly
$100,000 were paid out in wages.]

[Illustration: Spinulose Shield Fern. _Aspidium spinulosum_ (Maine, 1877,
Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)]

[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. _intermedium_]

[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. AMERICANUM]

A tripinnate form of this variety discovered at Concord, Mass., by Henry
Purdie, has been named var. CONCORDIANU