26 . 
THE MALE FERN. 
Ladrea fi l ix-ma s . 
Plate 3, Fig. 2, Page 199. 
The British Buckler Ferns, to which genus the Male Fern 
belongs, include the finest and most robust group of oiu- 
native Ferns. They were formerly included by botanists 
under the genus Aspidium, which, as we have already seen, 
has been since split up into several smaller groups. They 
comprise those Ferns whose clusters of spore cases, borne on 
the under sides of the fronds, are furnished with roundish and 
notched, or kidney-shaped indusia, which are attached to the 
frond — completely covering the sporangia — by their notched, 
or indented side. The generic name adopted for the Buckler 
Fern group is not descriptive, but commemorative of M. 
Delastre, a French botanist. The specific botanical name 
of the present species is merely equivalent to the English 
designation of ‘ Male Fern,’ a designation which has been 
given to the present species on account of its remarkably 
erect and robust habit of growth. The Male Fern, or 
Common Buckler Fern, is found growing in almost every kind 
of position in which Ferns in general delight, not only on the 
moist hedge-banks of shady lanes, on the undulating surfaces 
of sheltered woods, and by the margins of running streams, 
but in more open and sunny places, upon open hedge-tops, 
on the little knolls of open heaths and downs, and amongst 
clustered rocks or fragments of stone unsheltered by any 
