ASPLENIUM. 



543 



rockwork it should occupy a low, boggy situation at the base of the rock, 

 being planted amongst turfy soil, kept thoroughly moistened, either naturally 

 or artificially. It is far less beautiful if planted in dry, exposed situations. 

 Few hardy plants which can be introduced among rockwork are so thoroughly 

 lovely as a vigorous Lady Fern, placed just within the mouth of a cavernous 

 recess large enough to admit of its development and just open enough that 

 the light of day may gleam across the dark background sufficient to reveal 

 the drooping, feathery fronds ; and, what is more, it will delight to grow 

 in such a situation if freely supplied with moisture to its roots. In wood- 

 land walks, or on the shady margin of ornamental water, no Fern can be 

 more appropriately introduced. When grown in a pot, it requires one of 

 rather a larger size, and should be planted in turfy soil intermixed with 

 fragments of charcoal, sandstone, and potsherds. To attain anything like 

 a fair degree of its ladylike gracefulness, this Fern must under all circum- 

 stances be well supplied with water." 



The fronds, 1ft. to oft. long and 6in. to 12in. broad, are borne on firm, 

 erect, straw-coloured or brownish stipes (stalks) scaly below and 6 in. to 12in. 

 long ; they are remarkably light in form, plume-like and graceful, and are 

 disposed in a crown situated at the summit of a rootstock which in old plants 

 is often very large and stem-like, but which, even then, remains lying upon 

 the surface of the ground. The leafy portion of the fronds is oblong-spear- 

 shaped, with numerous pinnaa (leaflets), the lower ones of which are 

 spreading, spear-shaped, Sin. to 6in. long and lin. to ljin. broad, cut down 

 to a compressed, winged rachis (stalk) into leafits which in their turn are 

 again deeply incised. The texture is soft and papery. The sori (spore 

 masses) are usually linear -oblong, though the lower ones are often curved. — 

 Hooker, Species Filicum, hi., p. 217. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, 

 i., p. 130. Loiue, Our Native Ferns, ii., p. 4. 



No Fern native of the British Islands is so variable in its forms and in 

 its dimensions as this one, for its varieties, though they all pass into one 

 another by various gradations, are innumerable ; so much so that we have 

 it on the authority of B. S. Williams that " when gathering examples of 

 this Fern on the Yorkshire hills, where it is prevalent, it is almost an 

 impossibility to find the normal state," but that " any quantities of fantastic 

 shapes can be found." Several hundred more or less striking varieties, very 



