polystichum

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of dryopteroid polypodiaceous ferns well marked by their erect habit, dryish texture, and chaffy vascular parts, and by having the ultimate divisions of the frond mainly auriculate and spinulose. It is distinguished from Dryopteris by its centrally peltate indusia. There are about 75 species, mainly boreal in distribution, many of them well known. See holly-fern, Christmas fern (under Christmas), and Aspidium, 1.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. small to medium-sized terrestrial ferns especially holly ferns; in some classification systems placed in Polypodiaceae