ao6 THE FERN PARADISE. 



even in common garden soil ; but it will thrive 

 best in true fern soil a peaty, loamy, sandy 

 mixture. 



2. THE SOFT PRICKLY SHIELD FERN. 

 Polystichum angulare. 



NOTHING puzzled us more in our earlier fern- 

 hunting excursions than the distinction between 

 the Hard and Soft Prickly Shield Ferns. The 

 two ferns are usually considered as distinct 

 species, although some botanists rank them 

 both as one species Polystichum aculcatum re- 

 garding Angulare merely as a variety. We have 

 chosen to consider them as distinct species, 

 and shall now indicate the points of diffe- 

 rence which we have noted, showing at the 

 same time up to what point the two ferns are 

 like each other. In being generally distributed 

 throughout the United Kingdom the one resem- 

 bles the other. Both ordinarily grow in the 

 same situations, and the fronds of Angulare, like 

 those of Aculeatum, are lance-shaped, and grow 



