88 TYPES OF BRITISH PLANTS 
Besides these typical ferns there are three English 
species which are deserving, for their peculiarities, of 
special notice. The first is the Royal Fern, which 
foreshadows the peculiarities of the 
flowering plants by reserving sepa- 
rate parts of the plant for the special 
duty of spore reproduction, just as 
the higher plants reserve seed pro- 
mab duction for the special parts we 
\ know as the flower. The Royal 
_ Fern is by far the largest of the 
aa /  Enelish ferns, for it has been 
a i ’, found eight or ten feet high, and 
“i \ > grows a small trunk, similar on 
; ES a lesser scale to the tree-ferns 
Aw -</ of the tropics. From the crown 
A’ of the trunk spring the fronds, 
and on the tip of some of these, 
instead of more leaf-like frondlets, 
the spore-cases are produced in 
masses, the whole of the upper part 
of the fronds being reserved for 
spores only. In Ireland it is fairly plentiful, and it 
may be found in England, but the only time I have been 
fortunate enough to find it wild it was growing in a 
Welsh bog. 
On a very small scale, for it is usually only four or 
five inches high, the Moonwort resembles the foregoing. 
In this the frond splits into two parts. One puts out the 
ordinary frondlets, set rather closely on the main-rib, 
each spreading into a semicircular shape. The other 
branch is upright, and bears spore-cases only, looking like 
a cluster of very small berries. Peaty pastures are the 
ROYAL FERN. 
