The Prickley Buckler Fern 



covering of soft hairs. This fern, however, may be 

 most easily recognised by the lowest pair of pinnae 

 pointing in an opposite direction from the others 

 that is, away from the tip of the frond. 



The popular name of this fern is a translation of 

 Phegtpttris, though the fern has really no association 

 whatever with the beech-tree, nor does it resemble one 

 in the slightest degree. 



Not far from the home of the Beech Fern, and in a 

 similar soil, we meet with a fern which we at once 

 recognise, from the kidney-shaped indusia of the sori, 

 which in this fern are confined mainly to the upper half 

 of the frond, as a Nephrodium, or Buckler Fern. We 

 notice that the rootstock is more erect than is usual in 

 British ferns, and that the fronds spring from the top 

 in tufts. The strong, pale-coloured leafstalks and the 

 leafy parts of the fronds are each about I foot in 

 length, the former bearing a few scales. The fern 

 frond proper is oblong, or oftener lanceolate, in outline, 

 and is twice pinnate, the lower pinnae measuring on an 

 average about 3 inches in length, and being themselves 

 cut into pinnules i inch long, strongly pinnatifid, and 

 furnished with teeth of a spinous character. But it is 

 extremely difficult to give an exact' description of this 

 fern, as it is a very variable one, the forms which it 

 assumes often causing much perplexity even to the 

 skilled botanist. 



Its botanical name is Nephrodium spinulosum. Spinu- 

 losum, meaning " provided with little thorns or spines," 



B.F. 41 6 



