250 THE FERN PARADISE. 



covered mound, holding on, as we did so, to the 

 trees ; otherwise, we should have been precipitated 

 into the bog and should have sunk we know not 

 where. Wading into this wooded morass we 

 at length came to a spot where the substance of 

 the bog was more than usually liquid. Here we 

 found Thelypteris growing in great abundance, 

 the creeping rhizomes immersed in the black bog 

 water, above which the delicate light-green fronds 

 were beautifully waving. The scene at this spot 

 was singularly wild and beautiful. Above us, the 

 leafy canopy of the wood ; beneath, the dark bog, 

 its surface exquisitely diversified by the delightful 

 fronds of Thelypteris ; around, on mossy clumps, 

 grand masses of sedge-grass, charmingly green in 

 colour, and picturesquely dotted about. From out 

 the mossy mounds peeped pretty specimens of 

 Blechnum spicant ; and scattered here and there 

 some plants of the rarer Lastrea spinulosa. 



The Marsh Buckler Fern has a thin, but exten- 

 sively creeping rhizome, from all parts of which 

 spring the fronds. The rhizomes rejoice in the 

 almost liquid n^aHr coil of th" Vr the soft pr10y 



