THE BUCKLER FERNS. 
233 
The stem, or stipes, is perhaps about one quarter 
the length of the leafy portion of the frond, and is 
covered thickly with chaffy scales. These scales 
are also carried along the rachis or mid-stem of 
the frond. The leaflets arranged in alternation 
on each side of the rachis — longest in the middle 
of the rachis, shorter at the base, and shortest at 
the top — are narrow and tapering, and are sym- 
metrically divided into oblong blunt-pointed lobes; 
some of them — the largest ones, and those nearest 
the rachis in the lower part of the frond — being 
quite separate from each other, — that is to say, 
divided quite down to the mid-stem of the leaflets ; 
the others being attached to those next to them 
by a leafy wing, and those nearest the tips of the 
leaflets being nearly cleft between. The lobes are 
broadest at the base, with rounded blunt points. 
There is a smooth, shiny, rigid, leathery appearance 
about the fronts of the lobes, whilst their backs 
have a duller, rougher surface. The spores are 
produced on the backs of the leaflets, usually in 
the upper portion of the frond; and each leaflet 
is thickly studded with the little kidney-shaped 
