183 



SHIELD FERN. ASPIDIUM. 



MALE FERN. Aspidium Filix mas. 



'Plate 14, jig. 14. 



A large robust plant, and therefore called the Male Fern, 

 growing with a number of fronds around the crown of the root, 

 and when these are young they form a beautiful ball of rolled- 

 up leaves these expand by degrees, unrolling themselves till 

 the whole resembles a large shuttlecock, with the fronds two 

 or three feet high, with hairy stems, and divided first into a 

 great number of leaflets or pinnee, as they are called, and these 

 deeply cut into lobes. The lobes on the upper part of the 

 frond have each from two to six round spots of seed, defended 

 by a round cover over them, and like all the rest of the Fern 

 tribe they may be found all the Summer. This species dies 

 down to the ground every Autumn and puts out fresh fronds 

 every Spring. 



Miss Twamley in The Romance of Nature alludes to it thus. 

 Her remarks are pretty, and will apply to some other species. 



44 The green and graceful Fern, 



How beautiful it is, 

 There's not a leaf in all the land, 

 So wonderful I wis. 



" Have ye ere watched it budding, 



With each stem and leaf wrapped small, 

 Coiled up within each other, 

 Like a round and hairy ball. 



" Have ye watched that ball unfolding, 



Each closely nestling curl, 

 And its fair and feathery leaflets, 

 Their spreading forms unfurl. 



" Oh then most gracefully they wave, 



In the hedges like a sea. 

 And dear as they are beautiful. 

 Are those Fern-leaves to me." 



O. S. Rough Alpine Shield-fern, Close-leaved Shield-fern, Common 

 Prickly Shield-fern, Marsh Shield-fern, Heath Shield-fern, Crested Shield- 

 fern, Rigid Shield-fern, and Great Shield-fern, the last not uncommon. 



SPLEENWORT. ASPLENIUM. 

 WALL SPLEENWORT. Asplenium Trichomanes. 



Plate 14, fig. 15. 

 Frond pinnate. Leaflets opposite, round, scolloped. Stem 



black. 

 A little, stiff, curious plant, now and then found on walls,, 



