J-F.A'XS. 271 



Scotland, but is very rare in Ireland. It will always be acceptable when 

 sent to Britain, and is of very easy culture, throwing out in every 

 direction its slender, creeping, scaly, root-stocks, which bear a profusion 

 of lovely yellowish-green fronds. It requires plenty of moisture and 

 shade, but will grow readily in ])ots in the conservatory or in the open 

 air. The frond is distinctly divided into three divisions, from which it 

 is sometimes called the Ternate Polypody. This trifoliate character of 

 the frond is distinctly seen in the young fronds before they unroll, when 

 the three divisions appear as three little balls on slender stems at the 

 summit of the stipe. This distinguishes it easily from the 



Li.MEsrONK Poi.YPODN' Plicgoptcrls cah-a/ra, (Fee.) 



This is an exceedingly rare species in Canada, having been found 

 only once by Prof Macoun, on the islands of Anticosti in 1883, and by 

 Messrs. I^ell and Dawson at the Lake of the A\'oods. It is a much 

 less rare fern in England than here. 



Mar.sh Fern — Aspidium Thclypta-is, (Swz.) 



It may seem strange to Canadians that this fern should be included 

 in the list of desirable species to be sent to Europe ; because, being 

 found there at all, it might naturally be supposed that its rapid growth 

 and hardiness, which make it so abundant everywhere here in low 

 swampy ground, would also have the same effect in (ireat Britain. 

 This, however, is not the case ; and although pretty generally distributed 

 over England, it is by no means common, while in AVales and Ireland 

 it is rare, and in Scotland very rare, only one county so far having pro- 

 duced it. It can be grown with the greatest ease in pots, which may 

 even stand in water. It is a most graceful object in cultivation, the 

 lovely, delicate, almost semi-transparent sterile fronds being produced 

 in the greatest profusion. In this, as in some others of our wild ferns, 

 when cultivated in the conservatory, the fertile fronds are seldom 

 produced. 



Crested Shield Fern — Aspidium cristaiii/ii, {"iwz.) 



■ This [)lant, although appearing on the British lists of ferns, is 

 exceedingly rare, and should by all means be included in all collections 

 of Canadian terns sent to Europe, not only because of its relative rarity 

 there, and abundance in this country, but because our fern bears only a 

 very slight resemblance to the British fern which goes under the same 

 name. Our plant has long, narrow fronds, of a thick, leathery, almost 

 coriaceous texture, while the British plant bears a closer resemblance to 

 some of the forms of A. spiiiulosuiii, and, strange as it may appear to us 

 here, where these two species have aspects so dissimilar, in England 



