21 8 THE FERN PARADISE. 



the plant, and instead of being ordinarily lance- 

 shaped, the general form of the branches may be 

 called either bluntish lance-shaped, or egg-shaped. 

 In the same way the leaflets on the branches are 

 also somewhat egg-shaped ; but they are much 

 more deeply cleft or serrated than is the case with 

 the leaflets in Fragilis ; so deeply cleft, indeed, 

 sometimes, that the leaflets are divided into lobes 

 or divisions. 



The Alpine Bladder Fern is an exquisitely 

 beautiful little plant. It will grow under culti- 

 vation as readily as Cystopteris fragilis, and may 

 be planted either in the open air, on the fern 

 rockery in a cool shady spot, in pots in the house, 

 or under the protection of a covering of glass. For 

 soil the lightest composition must be made. Peat, 

 silver-sand, light friable loam, and leaf-mould, 

 in equal proportions. If planted in a pot there 

 should be in the bottom of the pot a thick stratum 

 of broken flower-pot or soft broken bricks, together 

 with some pieces of charcoal, the charcoal being 

 introduced to keep stagnation from the roots of 

 the plant by the filtration of the water through the 



