30 . 
THE CRESTED BUCKLER FERN. 
Lastrea cristata. 
Plate 10, Fig. 2, Page 325. 
The Crested Buckler Fern is an inhabitant of bogs and tlie 
marshy hollows of damp woods, and, as a wild plant, is 
extremely rare in the British Islands. Though fond of boggy 
situations, Lastrea cristata, like almost all Ferns, prefers to 
grow on little knolls or elevations above the hog levels. 
In boggy localities there is often more or less of unevenness 
in the ground. Sometimes little knolls are formed by the 
accretion of decayed vegetable substances. Successive 
growths of grass or moss, or other wild plants will, as they 
decay, gradually raise the level of the mass formed by their 
roots and leafy parts. Occasionally the process is aided by 
tree stumps, around which moss, for instance, will densely 
grow, its development being greatly helped by the atmo- 
sphere saturated with moisture which continually surrounds 
it — an atmosphere produced by the reeking substance of the 
marsh or bog. It is upon such elevations as these that the 
Crested Buckler Fern grows. The term cristata, which is 
simply the rendering of the specific common name of this 
Fern, refers to the fringed or indented margins of the frond. 
There are many Ferns which could equally, or some perhaps 
with more reason, claim this designation. But the object of 
botanists — an object which, it must be confessed, is not 
always effected by botanical names, — is to give to Ferns such 
