4 . 
THE HAKE FERN. 
Bleclmum Spicant. 
Plate 2, Figs. 4 and 5, Page 185. 
Loving to grow in just such situations as those in which 
Athyrium filix-fuemina delights, the Hard Fern will often be 
found in company with the latter, affording with it, however, 
a contrast so marked as to he striking. Upon embankments 
soddened by trickling water from some higher ground above ; 
on the water- soaked bed of a wood ; upon a wet and sheltered 
stream bank ; among stones at the foot of a fountain, this 
Fern is mostly found, sometimes however occupying a drier 
situation. We have seen it for miles, for instance, crowding 
the lower sides of hedge-banks skirting the high roads. But 
it is always grandest in form and development when its roots 
are soaked in moisture, and its glossy fronds are made yet 
more glossy by being bathed in an atmosphere of moisture. 
Description. — From the generic name of this handsome 
Fern we derive little which is descriptive. Bleclmum is from 
the Greek Blechnon, which only means ‘ a Fern.’ The word 
spicant, ‘spiked,’ however, at once gives us the idea of the 
true character of the Hard Fern. ‘ The hard, spiked Fern’ 
it might appropriately be called. It has in general a some- 
what thin though tough rootstock, with an abundance of wiry 
rootlets. From its crown grow two kinds of fronds — barren 
and fruitful, the latter being always longer and sometimes 
double as long as the former. The sterile fronds according 
o 
