PRICKLY BUCKLER-FERN. 71 



when the pinna? expand in advance of the rachis and spread 

 out flat on either side, as if embracing the coiled portion. 



The Crested Buckler is a rare fern in this country, its range 

 being restricted to the English counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, 

 Huntingdon, Nottingham, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, and of 

 Renfrewshire in Scotland. Its wider distribution includes 

 Europe, Western Siberia, and North America. 



There is a well-marked variety uliginosa which has some- 

 times been described as a distinct species. It has the pinnules 

 divided to a greater extent than in the type, so as to become 

 pinnate, and the teeth approach more to those of N. spinulosum 

 in having hair-like points. In addition to the distinct barren 

 and fertile fronds, there are others produced later in summer 

 which have blunt pinnules, and may be either barren or fertile. 

 This form is exactly intermediate between N. cristatum and 

 N. spin ulosum, but as it is found growing with typical specimens 

 of the former, and both are true bog ferns, they are classed 

 together. 



The Latin name, cristatum, means plume-like or feathery, but 

 it has no fitness special to this species, more than to many 

 other ferns. The English name, Crested, is simply one of the 

 equivalents of cristatum, and is a book-name. 



Prickly Buckler-fern (Nephrodium spinulosuin). 



An inhabitant of moist woods where there is a good depth 

 of leaf-mould, and a fair amount of shelter from wind and sun, 

 the Prickly Buckler-fern is one of our most graceful ferns. Its 

 favourite position is on or around the small stumps of trees that 

 have been felled in the thinning of the wood. There the dead 

 leaves get heaped up by the winter winds, and decay into light 

 leaf-mould which is soon covered by feather-mosses. There 

 the spores of Prickly Buckler-fern find a suitable nidus, and in 

 time the stump is surrounded perhaps surmounted by this 



