THE BUCKLER FERNS. 
237 
this arrangement gives a singularly graceful and 
beautiful appearance to the fronds. The whole 
plant, too, has a broad, arching, drooping habit, 
and when it has reached its highest state of 
development, there is something singularly and 
strikingly elegant in its appearance. 
The Broad Buckler Fern is not, perhaps, quite 
so plentiful as the more erect and robust-looking 
Male Fern ; but it is very abundant, and is pretty 
widely distributed throughout Great Britain. It 
grows in woods, shady lanes, and sheltered hedge- 
banks, and also on the banks of streams and rivers, 
sometimes to a height of so much as five feet. 
Being as hardy as it is elegant, it is admirably 
adapted for the open rockery, if kept in a cool 
and shady corner. It should have plenty of room 
to display the graceful, arching, spreading habit 
of its fronds. For soil, sandy peat and leaf-mould. 
But although it is especially adapted for the 
garden rockery, in will grow readily indoors, either 
in the green-house or in pots. Abundant moisture 
and shade, however, are essential to its successful 
growth wherever it may be grown. 
