178 GARDENS PAST AND PRESENT 



some of the plumose sports being amongst the 

 most elegant of hardy ferns, but they are not 

 ever green. The " French fern " of the florists, 

 and the pretty little maidenhair spleenwort, which 

 grows in spreading rosettes on moist walls and 

 banks in Devon and Cornwall and elsewhere, are 

 also aspleniums, which will show how varied may 

 be the species belonging to the self-same genus. 



Hard fern (Lomaria spicant) is found on damp 

 peaty soil in woods and moors, and has shining 

 brown stalks and leathery, toothed fronds, unlike 

 other British ferns. The spore-bearing fronds, 

 which are long and feather-like, rise up in the 

 centre of the tuft and give it an air of distinction. 



Buckler ferns, as said above, are best known in 

 the common male fern (Nephrodium felix mas) 

 which though not so delicately graceful as the 

 lady fern is as beautiful in its own way, and, 

 being evergreen, is almost more useful indeed, 

 it is everybody's fern. Of this, too, there are 

 many garden forms. The broad buckler fern (AT. 

 dilitatum) is another well-known and elegant wild 

 fern, most worthy of cultivation; but this species 

 dies down in winter. 



The royal fern (Osmunda regalis) is familiar to 

 most people, and is found in boggy places in 

 various parts of Great Britain. It is often called 

 the flowering fern, because the spores are not borne 

 on the back of the fruiting frond in the usual 

 way, but on separate stems, which have some re- 

 semblance to spikes of flowers in bud. There are 

 a few crested and forked varieties, but none are 

 finer than the stately normal form. 



