396 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
shade. Ordinarily it grows to a height of a little 
more than a foot, but occasionally it grows to 
more than double this height. The fronds are of 
two kinds—barren and fruitful, the fertile ones 
being taller than the others. The stem of the 
barren frond is long, thin, green in colour, and 
exceedingly fragile. The leafy portion is lance - 
shaped. The rachis is thin, green, and fragile like 
the stipes, and on each side of it at intervals,— 
sometimes opposite in pairs, and sometimes placed 
irregularly—are the branches, narrow and lance¬ 
shaped, but usually somewhat blunt-pointed. 
These branches are again divided—not quite down 
to their mid-stems, but almost so—into oblong 
blunt-pointed lobes or leaflets. The divisions 
between the lobes are very regular and symmetri¬ 
cal, and go down so deeply between the lobes as to 
leave only a narrow leafy wing or expansion along 
the upper and under parts of the mid-stems. 
About the entire aspect of the Marsh Buckler 
Fern there is something exceedingly delicate and 
fragile, and the colour is a most exquisite light 
shade of green. We shall not easily forget our 
first adventure in search of the Marsh Fern. We 
