384 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
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 de¬ 
velopment, 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 as much as five 
feet. Being as hardy as it is elegant, it is ad¬ 
mirably 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 loam, peat, and 
leaf-mould. But although it is especially adapted 
for the garden rockery, it 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. 
