THE BROAD BUCKLER FERN. 103 



covered by a kidney-shaped indusium attached by its 

 notched side, but falling off when the spores are ripe. 



HABITATS. Woods, glades, commons, heaths, 

 streamsides, hillsides, rocks, walls, cliffs, banks and 

 mounds, and green lanes growing in almost every 

 imaginable position. The ground under trees in woods; 

 sloping ground of open parts of woods or forests ; rocky 

 embankments ; the ground under forest undergrowth ; 

 the sides of waterfalls ; hedgetops ; hedgesides ; ditches 

 where there is motion in the water. This species some- 

 times grows in the shade, often in the full sunshine a 

 pigmy when found on walls or other " stony places " 

 where there is no depth of earth a giant (amongst its 

 kind) when in shadow in a vapour-laden atmosphere 

 and in congenial soil. It grows, in short, almost every- 

 where. 



WHERE FOUND. In England, Wales, Scotland, Ire- 

 land, and all the British Isles, large or small, this 

 abundant fern is found. No soil on which fern-life is at 

 all possible is likely to be foreign to Lastrea filix-mas. 

 From the sea-level at various altitudes up to two 

 thousand five hundred feet above it, the Male Fern is 

 abundantly distributed. 



XXXI. THE BROAD BUCKLER FERN. 



Lastrea dilatata. 

 (Plate II., page 51.) 



LENGTH OF FROND. One to six feet. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. Roots abundant, fibrous, 

 wiry. Rootstock, a large, tufted cormus, its crown raised 

 a little above the surface of the soil. Fronds deciduous, 

 produced around the crown, dark green, arching, nume- 



