FERNS 177 



stitution, and which, though British, can be more 

 successfully grown under special conditions. This 

 little table may be found useful, because ferns are 

 now commonly spoken of by their Latin rather 

 than by their English names, and, a good many 

 changes in these having taken place, it is just 

 as well to be acquainted with the latest edition. 



British aspidiums are represented by the prickly 

 and soft shield ferns (A. aculeatum and A. angu- 

 lar e), which are very generally to be found wher- 

 ever ferns naturally grow. These have sported 

 into a vast number of beautiful variations, and 

 have become favourite pot plants, some of which are 

 proliferous, producing tiny plants from bulbils on 

 the fronds, by which they can readily be increased. 

 Shield ferns are often spreading rather than up- 

 right in habit, and, with their brown chaffy scales 

 and crested and feathery fronds, are exceedingly 

 handsome in some of the best forms. Being quite 

 hardy and strong-growing as well as evergreen, 

 they are amongst the best for outdoor ferneries. 

 By the unlearned, shield ferns may be distinguished 

 from buckler ferns, of which the common male 

 fern, which they somewhat resemble, is the most 

 familiar example, by the way in which the young 

 fronds turn back and unfold their points from 

 without, whereas the male fern uncurls the tips 

 of its growing fronds from the inner surface. The 

 holly fern (A. lonchitis) belongs also to the shield 

 ferns, and is always a favourite, though not so easy 

 to establish as some of the others. 



Spleenworts (Asplenium) include the lady fern, 

 of which there are more than a hundred variations, 

 M 



