144 
BRITISH TERNS. 
There are two varieties of this fern described by Mr. 
Lowe, — interruptum, with the pinnae dwarfed and short- 
ened as if their development had been interrupted, and 
fur cans, where the pinnae are more or less generally 
forked. 
This fern is more prized for its rarity than for its 
elegance. Its form of unbending straightness robs the 
fully developed cluster of the grace so essentially charac- 
teristic of the fern family ; but when we see the Crested. 
Buckler-fern in the growing season we have no room for 
dissatisfaction. The peculiar beauty of the opening 
fronds atones for the want of grace in the fully deve- 
loped ones. While the young frond is still curled in its 
shepherd’s-crook form, the pinnae are not curled too, 
but laid together quite flat, like a child’s hands at its 
prayers ; this peculiarity gives a great prominence to 
the tender green outspread leaflets, which being distant 
one pair from another, are seen at all angles. When, 
therefore, you come in sight of a good quantity of the 
fern, a few of the fronds in each cluster having attained 
their full and erect stature, while others bend around 
them in every graceful curve, you are reminded of the 
charming contrast of form produced in groups of trees 
where the poplar towers over the luxuriant lime and 
drooping birch. 
This is a rare fern, only favouring the boggy heaths 
of Cheshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, and Nottinghamshire. It 
is well worthy a place in the fernery, requiring but the 
usual care in drainage, moisture, shade, and compost. 
18 . Mepkrodiiim spiniilosixm. Prickly Buckler- 
fern. Yar. bipiimatum. 
Caudex short, stout, suberect, scaly. Stem tufted, scaly. 
