250 
THE FERN PARADISE . 
covered mound, holding on, as we did so, to the 
trees ; otherwise, we should have been precipitated 
into the bog and should have sunk we know not 
where. Wading into this wooded morass we 
at length came to a spot where the substance of 
the bog was more than usually liquid. Here we 
found Thelyptcris growing in great abundance, 
the creeping rhizomes immersed in the black bog 
water, above which the delicate light-green fronds 
were beautifully waving. The scene at this spot 
was singularly wild and beautiful. Above us, the 
leafy canopy of the wood ; beneath, the dark bog, 
its surface exquisitely diversified by the delightful 
fronds of Thelyptcris ; around, on mossy clumps, 
grand masses of sedge-grass, charmingly green in 
colour, and picturesquely dotted about. From out 
the mossy mounds peeped pretty specimens of 
Blechnum spicant ; and scattered here and there 
some plants of the rarer Lastrea spinulosa. 
The Marsh Buckler Fern has a thin, but exten- 
sively creeping rhizome, from all parts of which 
spring the fronds. The rhizomes rejoice in the 
almost liquid peaty soil of the bog, the soft pulpy 
