486 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



"Crested Shield Fem," or "Crested Buckler Fern," and in America it is 

 known as the " Crested Wood Fern." According to Eaton, it is found growing 

 in swampy woods and wet thickets, sometimes in wet meadows or open bogs, 

 from Newfoundland and New Brunswick to the Slave River and Lake Winnipeg' 

 and extending southward to West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas. The 

 same authority adds that in the United States it is less abundant than 

 N. marginale and N. Thelypteris, but commoner than N. Goldieanum. As 

 a Fern indigenous to Great Britain it is very local. 



N. cristatum is a singular and beautiful species, of upright habit. Its 

 narrow-oblong, spear-shaped fronds, usually 1ft. to IJft. long, Sin. to 5in. ' 



Fig. 118. Frond of Mephrodium cristatum 

 {,1 nat. size). 



broad, and borne on tufted stalks Gin. or more long, sparingly clothed with 

 egg-shaped, light -coloured scales, are rendered very attractive through the 

 bold character of their fructification, which is almost black soon after the 

 indusium (covering) has been shed. They are produced from a rootstock 

 creeping just below the surface of the ground, oin. to 6in. long, chaffy with 

 large, thin, light brown, ovate' scales, which also cover the stalks and are 

 more or less persistent on the lower part of the stalks. The leaflets, of a soft, 

 papery texture, are broadly triangular near the base, being more elongated 

 near the centre of the frond (Fig. 118) ; they are cut down nearly, or quite, 

 to the base below into broad, blunt, oblong, slightly -cleft pinnules (leafits), 



