488 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



It is well adapted for damp, shady places, the shaded part of a rockery 

 included, where it will grow well in a compost of loam and peat with a little 

 grit (fine stones or small crocks) mixed with it. It may be increased by 

 sowing the ripe fructification, which will be in a fit state by the end of the 

 summer. All plants in pots should be plunged, or other means taken to keep 

 the roots constantly cool and moist." 



Little variation, besides that resulting from the various habitats in which 

 it is found growing spontaneously, is observable among the many plants of 

 Crested Buckler Fern which have come under our notice, and the following 

 are the only two accepted as distinct varieties : 



N. C. Clintonianum— Clin-ton-i-a'-num (Clinton's), Eaton. 



This variety, of much larger dimensions than the typical species, is, 

 according to Eaton, of essentially North American origin, "being found in 

 Canada, New England, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wisconsin, but 

 not occurring in Europe." Its robust fronds, S^ft. to 4ft. long, have their 

 leaflets oblong- spear- shaped ; these are broadest at the base, where they are 

 4in. to Gin. long and lin. to 2in. broad ; their divisions, more numerous than 

 in the typical plant, and either crowded or somewhat distant, are narrow- 

 oblong, blunt, and finely toothed ; the basal leaflets are sometimes pinnately 

 lobed. The sori (spore masses), situated near the mid vein, are covered with 

 a roundish or kidney-shaped, naked, smooth indusium. According to the 

 same authority, this variety has, in America, often been mistaken for 

 N. Goldieanum, from which it palpably diff'ers in having fertile and barren 

 fronds unlike, also in the narrow outline of the fertile fronds, and especially 

 in having all the leaflets broadest at the base instead of in the middle. — 

 Eaton, Ferns of North America, ii., p. 156. 



N. C. uliginosum — u-li-gin-o'-sum (marsh-loving), Newman. 



This variety, which is of a much more uj^right habit than the species, 

 is also of a more robust, or at least more enduring, constitution ; for, although 

 constantly found growing in company with the species, it flourishes in the 

 open Fernery in situations which would prove fatal to N. cristatum. It also 

 difl'ers from the species through its fructification ripening earlier in the 

 summer — towards the middle of June instead of the end of July — and its 



