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those natural conditions under which they thrive in their 

 native habitats. Thus the Sea Spleenwort (Asplenium 

 marinum), which lines the caves and dots the cliffs with 

 its bright green foliage on many of our rocky coasts, 

 especially in the west, will not stand inland outdoor 

 culture. Deprived of salt-laden air it languishes, and 

 despite its tough leathery foliage, a very few degrees of 

 frost suffice to kill it. It is, in point of fact, better 

 adapted to subtropical conditions, and when grown in a 

 warm greenhouse assumes a size and luxuriance of growth 

 such as it never attains here under natural conditions, the 

 fronds reaching a height of two feet and the plant forming 

 a stout bush as much through. The delicate Maidenhair 

 Fern (Adiantum capillus Veneris) is also a coastal fern, but 

 of more limited extension ; this, too, is tender, and is 

 confined to our warm western counties. A few of the 

 other Spleen worts (Asplenia), A. fontamim, A. septentrisnale, 

 A. germanicum, and A. vivide, may, under very favourable 

 conditions of climate, be induced to survive in rocky chinks 

 and crevices, but cannot be recommended as popular 

 plants. The Adder's Tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatuni) and 

 the Moon wort (Botvychium lunavia) belong to the same 

 category requiring special conditions, while in no way 

 appealing to taste as regards their beauty. Outside these 

 exceptions, however, there are many of the remaining 

 species which are popularly ignored, but which are well 

 worthy of a place in those rockeries which are devoted to 

 the hardy Ferns already cited. The Buckler Fern or 

 Lastrea group, for instance, popularly represented by the 

 Male Fern (Lastvea filix-mas), and the Broad Buckler Fern 

 (L. dilatata) embraces two other species of quite equal or 

 greater merit, viz. the Lemon-scented Fern (L. montana 

 or oveopteris), and the Hay-scented Fern (L. cemula). The 

 former is an erect growing Fern, with pale green fronds 

 arranged shuttlecock fashion around a central caudex. 

 These fronds are covered with glands, and when gently 



