TO 
 KNOW 
 PHE FEN 
 
V. <\/v^X*xe^-ArSfcA-> 
 
 The Gift of Beatrix Farrand 
 
 to the General Library 
 University of California, Berkeley 
 
 Ex 
 
 Libris 
 BEATRIX 
 FARRAND 
 
 tANDSCAPE 
 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 REEF POINT GARDENS 
 LIBRARY 
 
The cheerful community of the polypody." 
 
How to Know the Ferns 
 
 A GUIDE 
 
 TO THE NAMES, HAUNTS, AND HABITS OF 
 OUR COMMON FERNS 
 
 By 
 
 Frances Theodora ^Parsons 
 
 Author of "How to Know the Wild Flowers* 
 "According to Season," etc. 
 
 Illustrated by 
 Marion Satterlee and Alice Josephine Smith 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 1915 
 
Copyright, 1899, by 
 Charles Scribner's Sons 
 
 Add to Lib. 
 tANDSCAPH 
 
 ARCHITECTURE 
 
 Farrand Gift? 
 
QK51.5 
 
 LANDSCAPE 
 
 ARCH. 
 LIBRARY 
 
 J. R. 
 
 502 
 
"If it were required to know the position of tie 
 aots Of ti>e character of the indusium, nothing could ht 
 easier than to ascertain it ; hut if n is required that you 
 he affected hy ferns, that they amount to anything, signify 
 anything to you, that the?) he another sacred scripture and 
 revelation to you, helping to redeem your life, this end 
 
 not so easily accomplished? 
 
 THOREAO 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Since the publication, six years ago, of " How to 
 Know the Wild Flowers," I have received such con- 
 vincing testimony of the eagerness of nature-lovers 
 of all ages and conditions to familiarize themselves 
 with the inhabitants of our woods and fields, and so 
 many assurances of the joy which such a familiarity 
 affords, that I have prepared this companion volume 
 on " How to Know the Ferns," It has been my ex- 
 perience that the world of delight which opens 
 before us when we are admitted into some sort of 
 intimacy with our companions other than human is 
 enlarged with each new society into which we win 
 our way. 
 
 It seems strange that the abundance of ferns 
 everywhere has not aroused more curiosity as to 
 their names, haunts, and habits. Add to this abun- 
 dance the incentive to their study afforded by the 
 fact that owing to the comparatively small number 
 of species we can familiarize ourselves with a large 
 
PREFACE 
 
 proportion of our native ferns during a single sum- 
 mer, and it is still more surprising that so few efforts 
 have been made to bring them within easy reach of 
 the public. 
 
 I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the 
 many books on our native ferns which I have con- 
 sulted, but more especially to Gray's " Manual," to 
 Eaton's " Ferns of North America," to the " Illus- 
 trated Flora" of Messrs. Britton and Brown, to Mr. 
 Underwood's " Our Native Ferns," to Mr. William- 
 son's " Ferns of Kentucky," to Mr. Dodge's "Ferns 
 and Fern Allies of New England," and to that excel- 
 lent little quarterly, which I recommend heartily to 
 all fern-lovers, the " Fern Bulletin," edited by Mr. 
 Willard Clute, of Binghamton, N. Y. 
 
 To the State Botanist, Dr. Charles H. Peck, who 
 has kindly read the proof-sheets of this book, I am 
 indebted for many suggestions ; also to Mr. Arthur 
 G. Clement, of the University of the State of New 
 York. 
 
 To Miss Marion Satterlee thanks are due not only 
 for many suggestions, but also for the descriptions 
 of the Woodwardias. 
 
 The pen-and-ink illustrations are all from original 
 drawings by Miss Satterlee and Miss Alice Jose- 
 
 vi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 phine Smith. The photographs have been furnished 
 by Miss Murray Ledyard, Miss Madeline Smith, and 
 Mr. Augustus Pruyn. 
 
 In almost all cases I have followed the nomencla- 
 ture of Gray's " Manual " as being the one which 
 would be familiar to the majority of my readers, 
 giving in parentheses that used in the " Illustrated 
 Flora " of Messrs. Britton and Brown. 
 
 FRANCES THEODORA PARSONS 
 ALBANY, March 6, 1899 
 
 rl: 
 
* Tbe more tbou learnest to know and to enjoy, tbe mori 
 full and complete will be for tbee the delight of living." 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Pags 
 
 Preface . . ~. vii 
 
 Ferns as a Hobby ...... i 
 
 When and Where to Find Ferns . . .75 
 Explanation of Terms ( 28 
 
 Fertilisation, Development, and Ft notification 
 of Ferns 52 
 
 Notable Fern Families 36 
 
 How to Use the Book 38 
 
 Guide 40 
 
 Fern Descriptions: 
 
 Group I. 54 
 
 Group II. . . 67 
 
 Group III. 87 
 
 Group IV. 105 
 
 Group V. 120 
 
 Group VI. 
 
 ir 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Index to Latin Names 2 // 
 
 Index to English Names 2 /^ 
 
 Index to Technical Terms . . . .2/5 
 
LIST OF PLATES 
 
 *** The actual sizes of ferns are net given in the illustrations. For this 
 information see the corresponding description. 
 
 FLATE 
 
 I. SENSITIVE FERN, . . . 
 
 II. OSTRICH FERN, . . . 
 
 III. CINNAMON FERN, . . 
 
 IV. CURLY GRASS, .... 
 V. ROYAL FERN, .... 
 
 VI. INTERRUPTED FERN, 
 VII. ADDER'S TONGUE, . . 
 VIII. TERNATE GRAPE 
 
 FERN 
 
 IX. MOONWORT, .... 
 LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE 
 
 FERN, 
 
 X. PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE, . 
 
 XI. NARROW -LEAVED 
 
 SPLEEN WORT, . . . 
 
 XII. N E T - v E i N E D CHAIN 
 
 FERN, 
 
 XIII. HAIRY LIP FERN, . . 
 XIV. HAY-SCENTED FERN, 
 
 XV. LADY FERN 
 
 XVI. SILVERY SPLEENWORT, . 
 
 XVII. RUE SPLEENWORT, . . 
 
 XVIII. MOUNTAIN SPLEE.N- 
 
 WORT, 
 
 XIX. EBONY SPLEENWORT, . 
 XXI. SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT, . 
 XX. GREEN SPLEENWORT, 
 XXII. PINNATIFID SPLEEN- 
 WORT 
 
 XXIII. BRADLEY'S SPLEEN- 
 WORT, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Onoclea sensibilis^ ... 57 
 
 Onoclea Struthiopteris, . . 59 
 
 Osmunda cinnamomea, . . 61 
 Schiz&a pusilla, .... 65 
 Osmunda regalis, ... 69 
 
 Osmunda Claytoniana, . . 73 
 
 Ophioglossum vulgatum, . 79 
 
 Botrychium terttatum, . 83 
 Botrychium Lunaria, ... 85 
 
 Botrychium lanceolatttm, . 85 
 Pellcza atropurpurea, . 91 
 
 Asplenium angnstifolntm, . 99 
 
 Woodwardia angustifoha, . 103 
 
 Cheilanthes vestita, . . .113 
 
 Dicksonia pilosiusctila, . .115 
 
 Asplenium Filix-fcemina, . 121 
 
 Asplenium thelyptcroides, . 125 
 
 Asplenium Ruta-muraria . 127 
 
 Asplenium montanum, . .131 
 
 Asplenium ebeneum, . . .135 
 
 Asplenium ebenoides^ . . .141 
 
 Asplenium viride, . .139 
 
 Asplenium pinnatifidum, . 143 
 
 Asplenium Bradleyi, . . 145 
 
LIST OF PLATES 
 
 PLATE 
 
 XXIV. VIRGINIA CHAIN FERN, 
 
 XXV. NEW YORK FERN, . 
 
 XXVI. MARSH FERN, . . . 
 
 XXVII. SPINULOSE WOOD 
 
 FERN, 
 
 XXVIII. BOOTT'S SHIELD FERN, 
 XXIX. C RESTED S H IELD 
 
 FERN, 
 
 XXX. CLINTON'S WOOD 
 FERN, 
 
 XXXI. GOLDIE'S FERN, . . 
 
 XXXII. EVERGREEN WOOD 
 
 FERN 
 
 XXXIII. FRAGRANT SHIELD 
 
 FERN, . . . * . 
 
 XXXIV. BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN, 
 
 XXXV. BROAD BEECH FERN, 
 XXXVI. OAK FERN, .... 
 XXXVII. BULBLET BLADDER 
 FERN, . . . .' . 
 XXXVIII. FRAGILE BLADDER 
 FERN, ..... 
 XXXIX. RUSTY WOODSIA, . . 
 XL. BLUNT-LOBED WOOD- 
 SIA, . . . . . '. . 
 XLI. NORTHERN WOODSIA, 
 XLII. SMOOTH WOODSIA, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Woodivardia Virginica, . .157 
 Aspidium Noveboracense, . 161 
 Aspidium Thelypteris, . . 163 
 
 Aspidium spinulosum, var. 
 
 intermedium, . . . .165 
 Aspidium Boottii, . . . .167 
 
 Aspidium cristatum, 
 
 . 169 
 
 Aspidium cristatum, var. 
 
 Clintonianum, . . -171 
 Aspidium Goldianum, . .173 
 
 Aspidium marginale, 
 
 175 
 179 
 
 Aspidium fragrans, . 
 Aspidium aculeatum, var. 
 
 Braunii, 183 
 
 Phegopteris hexagonoptera, . 189 
 Phegopteris Dryopteris, . .191 
 
 Cystopteris bulbifera, . . .195 
 
 Cystopteris fragilis, . . .197 
 Woodsia Ilvensis, . . . .199 
 
 Woodsia obtusa, . . . .201 
 Woodsia hyperborea, . . .205 
 Woodsia glabeila, . . 207 
 
 xii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 ' ' The cheerful community of the polypody " . Frontispiece 
 
 From a photograph by Miss Madeline Smith. 
 
 Page 
 
 New York Fern . . . , . v , .*... xvi 
 
 " The greatest charm the ferns possess is that of their 
 surroundings" . . . .12 
 
 From a photograph by Mr. Augustus Pruyn. 
 
 Fiddleheads ., . . . 18 
 
 Fragile Bladder Fern . . , . . 79 
 
 Crested Shield Fern 20 
 
 Purple Cliff Brake . . . . . .... .22 
 
 Ternate Grape Fern 24 
 
 Evergreen Wood Fern . . . , . . . 27 
 
 Sensitive Fern 55 
 
 Cinnamon Fern . .60 
 
 Royal Fern . 68 
 
 Interrupted Fern 74 
 
 Climbing Fern 75 
 
 Rattlesnake Fern - 80 
 
 Slender Cliff Brake . . . . . . . 8$ 
 
 " Tbe unpromising wall of rock which rose beside us" , c* 
 
 From a photograph by Miss Ledyard! 
 xiii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Page 
 More compound frond of Purple Cliff Brake . . 95 
 
 Christmas Fern . . gj 
 
 Narrow-leaved Spleenwort 98 
 
 Brake . . . 106 
 
 Maidenhair f .no 
 
 Mountain Spleenwort 130 
 
 Mountain Spleenwort 7^2 
 
 " In the shaded crevices of a cliff" . , '. .732 
 
 From a photograph by Miss Madeline Smith. 
 
 Maidenhair Spleenwort . . . . , - 1 37 
 
 Walking Leaf . 746 
 
 " We fairly gloated over the quaint little plants " .148 
 
 From a photograph by Miss Ledyard. 
 
 Hart's Tongue . . . . ... .751 
 
 Marsh Fern . . 162 
 
 " Like the plumes of departing Summer " . . . 178 
 
 From a photograph by Miss Madeline Smith. 
 
 Common Polypody . . . . . . . 184 
 
 Long Beech Fern 187 
 
 Oak Fern ...... . . .797 
 
 Bulblet Bladder Fern . . . . . .1 
 
 XIV 
 
How to Know the Ferns 
 
New York Fern 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 I THINK it is Charles Lamb who says that every 
 man should have a hobby, if it be nothing better 
 than collecting strings. A man with a hobby turns 
 to account the spare moments. A holiday is a de- 
 light instead of a bore to a man with a hobby. 
 Thrown out of his usual occupations on a holiday, 
 the average man is at a loss for employment. Pro- 
 vided his neighbors are in the same fix, he can play 
 cards. But there are hobbies and hobbies. As an 
 occasional relaxation, for example, nothing can be 
 said against card-playing. But as a hobby it is not 
 much better than " collecting strings." It is neither 
 broadening mentally nor invigorating physically, and 
 it closes the door upon other interests which are both. 
 I remember that once, on a long sea-voyage, I envied 
 certain of my fellow-passengers who found amuse- 
 ment in cards when the conditions were such as to 
 make almost any other occupation out of the ques- 
 tion. But when finally the ship's course lay along a 
 strange coast, winding among unfamiliar islands, 
 by shores luxuriant with tropical vegetation and 
 sprinkled with strange settlements, all affording de- 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 light to the eye and interest to the mind, these 
 players who had come abroad solely for instruction 
 and pleasure could not be enticed from their tables, 
 and I thanked my stars that I had not fallen under 
 the stultifying sway of cards. Much the same grati- 
 tude is aroused when I see men and women spending 
 precious summer days indoors over the card-table 
 when they might be breathing the fragrant, life- 
 giving air, and rejoicing in the beauty and interest 
 of the woods and fields. 
 
 All things considered, a hobby that takes us out 
 of doors is the best. The different open-air sports 
 may be classed under this head. The chief lack in 
 the artificial sports, such as polo, golf, baseball, etc., 
 as opposed to the natural sports, hunting and fish- 
 ing, is that while they are invaluable as a means of 
 health and relaxation, they do not lead to other and 
 broader interests, while many a boy-hunter has de- 
 veloped into a naturalist as a result of long days in 
 the woods. Hunting and fishing would seem almost 
 perfect recreations were it not for the life-taking 
 element, which may become brutalizing. I wish 
 that every mother who believes in the value of 
 natural sport for her young boys would set her 
 face sternly against any taking of life that cannot be 
 justified on the ground of man's needs, either in the 
 way of protection or support. 
 
 The ideal hobby, it seems to me, is one that keeps 
 us in the open air among inspiring surroundings, 
 with the knowledge of natural objects as the end in 
 view. The study of plants, of animals, of the earth 
 
TERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 itself, botany, zoology, or geology, any one of these 
 will answer the varied requirements of an ideal 
 hobby. Potentially they possess all the elements of 
 sport. Often they require not only perseverance 
 and skill but courage and daring. They are a 
 means of health, a relaxation to the mind from ordi- 
 nary cares, and an absorbing interest. Any one of 
 them may be used as a doorway to the others. 
 
 If parents realized the value to their childrens* 
 minds and bodies of a love for plants and animals, 
 of any such hobby as birds or butterflies or trees or 
 flowers, I am sure they would take more pains to 
 encourage the interest which instinctively a child 
 feels in these things. It must be because such real- 
 ization is lacking that we see parents apparently 
 either too indolent or too ignorant to share the 
 enthusiasm and to satisfy the curiosity awakened 
 in the child's active mind by natural objects. 
 
 Of course it is possible that owing to the strange 
 reticence of many children, parents may be uncon- 
 scious of the existence of any enthusiasm or curiosity 
 of this sort. As a little child I was so eager to know 
 the names of the wild flowers that I went through 
 my grandfather's library, examining book after book 
 on flowers in the vain hope of acquiring the desired 
 information. Always after more or less tedious 
 reading, for I was too young to master tables of 
 contents and introductions, I would discover that 
 the volume under examination was devoted to 
 garden flowers. But I do not remember that it oc- 
 curred to me to tell anyone what 1 wanted or to ask 
 
 1 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 for help. Finally I learned that a book on the sub- 
 ject, written " for young people," was in existence, 
 and I asked my mother to buy it for me. The re- 
 quest was gratified promptly and I plodded through 
 the preliminary matter of " How Plants Grow " to 
 find that I was quite unable to master the key, and 
 that any knowledge of the flowers that could appeal 
 to my child-mind was locked away from me as hope- 
 lessly as before. Even though my one expressed 
 wish had been so gladly met, I did not confide to 
 others my perplexity, but surrendered sadly a cher- 
 ished dream. Owing largely, I believe, to the re- 
 action from this disappointment, it was many years 
 before I attempted again to wrestle with a botan- 
 ical key, or to learn the names of the flowers. 
 
 How much was lost by yielding too easily to dis- 
 couragement I not only realize now, but I realized 
 it partially during the long period when the plants 
 were nameless. Among the flowers whose faces 
 were familiar though their names were unknown, I 
 felt that I was not making the most of my oppor- 
 tunities. And when I met plants which were both 
 new and nameless, I was a stranger indeed. In the 
 English woods and along the lovely English rivers, 
 by the rushing torrents and in the Alpine meadows 
 of Switzerland, on the mountains of Brazil, I should 
 have felt myself less an alien had I been able then 
 as now to detect the kinship between foreign and 
 North American plants, and to call the strangers by 
 names that were at least partially familiar. 
 
 To the man or woman who is somewhat at home 
 
 4 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 in the plant-world, travel is quite a different thing 
 from what it is to one who does not know a mint 
 from a mustard. The shortest journey to a new 
 locality is full of interest to the traveller who is striv- 
 ing to lengthen his list of plant acquaintances. The 
 tedious waits around the railway station are wel- 
 comed as opportunities for fresh discoveries. The 
 slow local train receives blessings instead of anath- 
 emas because of the superiority of its windows as 
 posts of observation. The long stage ride is too 
 short to satisfy the plant-lover who is keeping count 
 of the different species by the roadside. 
 
 While crossing the continent on the Canadian 
 Pacific Railway a few years ago, the days spent in 
 traversing the vast plains east of the Rockies were 
 days of keen enjoyment on account of the new 
 plants seen from my window and gathered breath- 
 lessly for identification during the brief stops. But 
 to most of my fellow-passengers they were days of 
 unmitigated boredom. They could not comprehend 
 the reluctance with which I met each nightfall as 
 an interruption to my watch. 
 
 When, finally, one cold June morning we climbed 
 the glorious Canadian Rockies and were driven to 
 the hotel at Banff, where we were to rest for 
 twenty-four hours, the enjoyment of the previous 
 week was crowned by seeing the dining-room tables 
 decorated with a flower which I had never suc- 
 ceeded in finding in the woods at home. It was the 
 lovely little orchid, Calypso borealis, a shy, wild 
 creature which had been brought to me from the 
 
 5 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 mountains of Vermont. It seemed almost desecra- 
 tion to force this little aristocrat to consort with the 
 pepper-pots and pickles of a hotel dining-room. In 
 my eagerness to see Calypso in her forest-home I 
 could scarcely wait to eat the breakfast for which a 
 few moments before I had been painfully hungry. 
 
 Unfortunately the waiters at Banff were proved 
 as ruthless as vandals in other parts of the world. 
 Among the pines that clothed the lower mountain- 
 sides I found many plants of Calypso, but only one 
 or two of the delicate blossoms had been left to 
 gladden the eyes of those who love to see a flower 
 in the wild beauty of its natural surroundings. 
 
 That same eventful day had in store for me an- 
 other delight as the result of my love for plants. 
 For a long time I had wished to know the shooting- 
 star, a flower with whose general appearance from 
 pictures or from descriptions I was familiar. I 
 knew that it grew in this part of the world, but dur- 
 ing a careful search of the woods and meadows and 
 of the banks of the rushing streams the only shoot- 
 ing-star I discovered was a faded blossom which 
 someone had picked and flung upon the mountain- 
 path. Late in the afternoon, having given up the 
 hope of any fresh find, I went for a swim in the 
 warm sulphur pool. While paddling about the clear 
 water, revelling in the beauty of the surroundings 
 and the sheer physical joy of the moment, my eyes 
 fell suddenly on a cluster of pink, cyclamen-like 
 blossoms springing from the opposite rocks. I 
 recognized at once the pretty shooting-star. 
 
 6 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 Two days later, at Glacier, I had another pleas- 
 ure from the same source in the discovery of great 
 beds of nodding golden lilies, the western species 
 of adder's tongue, growing close to white fields of 
 snow. 
 
 "Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 
 Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." 
 
 The enjoyment of the entire trip to the Pacific 
 coast, of the voyage among the islands and glaciers 
 of Alaska, and of the journey home through the 
 Yellowstone and across our Western prairies, was 
 increased indescribably by the new plants I learned 
 to know. 
 
 The pleasure we take in literature, as in travel, is 
 enhanced by a knowledge of nature. Not only are 
 we able better to appreciate writers on nature so 
 original and inspiring as Thoreau, or so charming as 
 John Burroughs, but such nature-loving poets as 
 Wordsworth, Lowell, Bryant, and countless others, 
 mean infinitely more to the man or woman who with 
 a love of poetry combines a knowledge of the plants 
 and birds mentioned in the poems. 
 
 Books of travel are usually far more interesting if 
 we have some knowledge of botany and zoology. 
 This is also true of biographies which deal with men 
 or women who find either their work or their recre- 
 ation and how many men and women who have 
 been powers for good may be counted in one class 
 or the other in some department of natural science. 
 
 One fascinating department of nature-study, that 
 
 7 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 of ferns, has received but little attention in this 
 country. Within the last few years we have been 
 supplied with excellent and inexpensive hand-books 
 to our birds, butterflies, trees, and flowers. But so 
 far as I know, with the exception of Mr. William- 
 son's little volume on the " Ferns of Kentucky," 
 we have no book with sufficient text and illustra- 
 tions within the reach of the brains and purse of the 
 average fern-lover. In England one finds books of 
 all sizes and prices on the English ferns, while our 
 beautiful American ferns are almost unknown, owing 
 probably to the lack of attractive and inexpensive 
 fern literature. Eaton's finely illustrated work on 
 the " Ferns of North America " is entirely out of the 
 question on account of its expense; and the " Illus- 
 trated Flora" of Britton & Brown is also beyond the 
 reach of the ordinary plant-lover. Miss Price's 
 "Fern Collectors' Hand-book" is helpful, but it is 
 without descriptive text. " Our Native Ferns and 
 their Allies," by Mr. Underwood, is exhaustive and 
 authoritative, but it is extremely technical and the 
 different species are not illustrated. Mr. Dodge's 
 pamphlet on the " Ferns and Fern Allies of New 
 England " is excellent so far as it goes, the descrip- 
 tions not being so technical as to confuse the be- 
 ginner. But this also is not illustrated, while Mr. 
 Knobel's pamphlet, " The Ferns and Evergreens of 
 New England," has clear black-and-white illustra- 
 tions of many species, but it has no text of impor- 
 tance. 
 
 In view of the singular grace and charm of the fern 
 
 8 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 tribe, patent to the most careless observer, this lack 
 of fern literature is surprising. It is possible that 
 Thoreau is right in claiming that " we all feel the 
 ferns to be farther from us essentially and sympathet- 
 ically than the phenogamous plants, the roses and 
 weeds for instance." This may be true in spite of 
 the fact that to some of us the charm of ferns is 
 as great, their beauty more subtle, than that of the 
 flowering plants, and to learn to know them by 
 name, to trace them to their homes, and to observe 
 their habits is attended with an interest as keen, 
 perhaps keener, than that which attends the study 
 of the names, haunts, and habits of the flowers. 
 
 That ferns possess a peculiar power of blinding 
 their votaries to the actual position they occupy 
 in the minds of people in general seems to me evi- 
 denced by the following quotations, taken respec- 
 tively from Mr. Underwood's and Mr. Williamson's 
 introductions. 
 
 So competent and coldly scientific an authority 
 as Mr. Underwood opens his book with these 
 words : 
 
 " In the entire vegetable world there are probably 
 no forms of growth that attract more general notice 
 than the Ferns." 
 
 The lack of fern literature, it seems to me, proves 
 the fallacy of this statement. If ferns had been 
 more generally noticed than other " forms of 
 growth " in the vegetable world, surely more would 
 have been written on the subject, and occasionally 
 someone besides a botanist would be found who could 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 name correctly more than three or four of our com- 
 mon wayside ferns. 
 
 In his introduction to the " Ferns of Kentucky," 
 Mr. Williamson asks: "Who would now think of 
 going to the country to spend a few days, or even 
 one day, without first inquiring whether ferns are 
 to be found in the locality?" 
 
 Though for some years I have been interested in 
 ferns and have made many all-day country expedi- 
 tions with various friends, I do not remember ever 
 to have heard this question asked. Yet that two 
 such writers as Mr. Underwood and Mr. William- 
 son could imagine the existence of a state of things 
 so contrary to fact, goes far to prove the fascination 
 of the study. 
 
 To the practical mind one of the great advantages 
 of ferns as a hobby lies in the fact that the number 
 of our native, that is, of our northeastern, ferns is so 
 comparatively small as to make it an easy matter to 
 learn to know by name and to see in their homes 
 perhaps two-thirds of them. 
 
 On an ordinary walk of an hour or two through 
 the fields and woods, the would-be fern student 
 can familiarize himself with anywhere from ten 
 to fifteen of the ferns described in this book. 
 During a summer holiday in an average locality 
 he should learn to know by sight and by name 
 from twenty-five to thirty ferns, while in a really 
 good neighborhood the enthusiast who is willing 
 to scour the surrounding country from the tops 
 of the highest mountains to the depths of the 
 
 10 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 wildest ravines may hope to extend his list into the 
 forties. 
 
 During the past year several lists of the ferns found 
 on a single walk or within a certain radius have 
 been published in the Fern Bulletin, leading to some 
 rivalry between fern students who claim precedence 
 for their pet localities. 
 
 Mr. Underwood has found twenty-seven species 
 within the immediate vicinity of Green Lake, Onon- 
 daga County, N. Y., and thirty-four species within 
 a circle whose diameter is not over three miles. 
 
 Mrs. E. H. Terry, on a two-hours' walk near 
 Dorset, Vt., did still better. She found thirty-three 
 species and four varieties, while Miss Margaret 
 Slosson has broken the record by finding thirty-nine 
 species and eight varieties, near Pittsford, Rutland 
 County, Vt., within a triangle formed by " the end 
 of a tamarack swamp, a field less than a mile away, 
 and some limestone cliffs three miles from both 
 the field and the end of the swamp." 
 
 Apart from the interest of extending one's list of 
 fern acquaintances is that of discovering new sta- 
 tions for the rarer species. It was my good fortune 
 last summer to make one of a party which found 
 a previously unknown station for the rare Hart's 
 Tongue, and I felt the thrill of excitement which 
 attends such an experience. The other day, in 
 looking over Torrey's " Flora of New York," I 
 noticed the absence of several ferns now known to 
 be natives of this State. When the fern student 
 realizes the possibility which is always before him 
 
 ii 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 of finding a new station for a rare fern, and thus 
 adding an item of value to the natural history of the 
 State, he should be stimulated to fresh zeal. 
 
 Other interesting possibilities are those of discover- 
 ing a new variety and of chancing upon those forked 
 or crested fronds which appear occasionally in many 
 species. These unusual forms not only possess the 
 charm of rarity and sometimes of intrinsic beauty, 
 but they are interesting because of the light it is be- 
 lieved they may throw on problems of fern ancestry. 
 To this department of fern study, the discovery and 
 development of abnormal forms, much attention is 
 paid in England. In Lowe's " British Ferns " I 
 find described between thirty and forty varieties of 
 Polypodium vulgare, while the varieties of Scolopen- 
 drium vulgare, our rare Hart's Tongue, extend into 
 the hundreds. 
 
 The majority of ferns mature late in the summer, 
 giving the student the advantage of several weeks 
 or months in which to observe their growth. Many 
 of our most interesting flowers bloom and perish be- 
 fore we realize that the spring is really over. There 
 are few flower lovers who have not had the sense of 
 being outwitted by the rush of the season. Every 
 year I make appointments with the different plants 
 to visit them at their flowering time, and nearly 
 every year I miss some such appointments through 
 failure to appreciate the short lives of these fragile 
 blossoms. 
 
 A few of the ferns share the early habits common 
 to so many flowers. But usually we can hope to 
 
 12 
 
The greatest charm the ferns possess is that of their surroundings.' 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 find them in their prime when most of the flowers 
 have disappeared. 
 
 To me the greatest charm the ferns possess is that 
 of their surroundings. No other plants know so 
 well how to choose their haunts. If you wish to 
 know the ferns you must follow them to Nature's 
 most sacred retreats. In remote, tangled swamps, 
 overhanging the swift, noiseless brook in the heart 
 of the forest, close to the rush of the foaming water- 
 fall, in the depths of some dark ravine, or perhaps 
 high up on mountain-ledges, where the air is purer 
 and the world wider and life more beautiful than we 
 had fancied, these wild, graceful things are most at 
 home. 
 
 You will never learn to know the ferns if you 
 expect to make their acquaintance from a carriage, 
 along the highway, or in the interval between two 
 meals. For their sakes you must renounce indolent 
 habits. You must be willing to tramp tirelessly 
 through woods and across fields, to climb mountains 
 and to scramble down gorges. You must be con- 
 tent with what luncheon you can carry in your 
 pocket. And let me tell you this. When at last 
 you fling yourself upon some bed of springing moss, 
 and add to your sandwich cresses fresh and drip- 
 ping from the neighboring brook, you will eat your 
 simple meal with a relish that never attends the 
 most elaborate luncheon within four walls. And 
 when later you surrender yourself to the delicious 
 sense of fatigue and drowsy relaxation which steals 
 over you, mind and body, listening half-uncon- 
 
 13 
 
FERNS AS A HOBBY 
 
 sciously to the plaintive, long-drawn notes of the 
 wood-birds and the sharp " tsing " of the locusts, 
 breathing the mingled fragrance of the mint at your 
 feet and the pines and hemlocks overhead, you will 
 wonder vaguely why on summer days you ever 
 drive along the dusty high-road or eat indoors or do 
 any of the flavorless conventional things that con- 
 sume so large a portion of our lives. 
 
 Of course what is true of other out-door studies is 
 true of the study of ferns. Constantly your curiosity 
 is aroused by some bird-note, some tree, some gor- 
 geously colored butterfly, and, in the case of ferns 
 especially, by some outcropping rock, which make 
 you eager to follow up other branches of nature- 
 study, and to know by name each tree and bird and 
 butterfly and rock you meet. 
 
 The immediate result of these long happy days is 
 that " golden doze of mind which follows upon much 
 ixercise in the open air," the " ecstatic stupor " 
 which Stevenson supposes to be the nearly chronic 
 condition of " open-air laborers." Surely there is 
 no such preventive of insomnia, no such cure for 
 nervousness or morbid introspection as an absorb- 
 ing out-door interest. Body and mind alike are 
 invigorated to a degree that cannot be appreciated 
 by one who has not experienced the life-giving 
 power of some such close and loving contact with 
 nature. 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
" It is no use to direct our steps to the woods if they do not 
 carry us thither. I am alarmed when it happens that I have 
 walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in 
 spirit." Thoreau 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 IT is in early spring that one likes to take up for 
 the first time an out-door study. But if you begin 
 your search for ferns in March, when the woods are 
 yielding a few timid blossoms, and the air, still 
 pungent with a suggestion of winter, vibrates to the 
 lisping notes of newly arrived birds, you will hardly 
 be rewarded by finding any but the evergreen spe- 
 cies, and even these are not likely to be especially 
 conspicuous at this season. 
 
 Usually it is the latter part of April before the 
 pioneers among the ferns, the great Osmundas, push 
 up the big, woolly croziers, or fiddleheads, which 
 will soon develop into the most luxuriant and trop- 
 ical-looking plants of our low wet woods and road- 
 sides. 
 
 At about the same time, down among last year's 
 Christmas Ferns, you find the rolled-up fronds of 
 this year, covered with brown or whitish scales. 
 And now every day for many weeks will appear 
 fresh batches of young ferns. Someone has said 
 that there is nothing more aggressively new-born 
 than a young fern, and this thought will recur 
 
 17 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 constantly as you chance upon the little wrinkied 
 crozier-like fronds, whether they are bundled up 
 in wrappings of soft wool or pro- 
 tected by a garment of overlap- 
 ping scales, or whether, like many 
 of the later arrivals, they come 
 into the world as naked and puny 
 as a human baby. 
 
 Once uncurled, the ferns lose 
 quickly this look of infancy, and 
 embody, quite as effectively, even 
 the hardiest and coarsest among 
 them, the slender grace of youth. 
 Early in May we find the Osmun- 
 das in this stage of their develop- 
 ment. The Royal Fern, smooth 
 and delicate, is now flushing the 
 wet meadows with its tender red. 
 In the open woods and along the 
 roadside the Interrupted and the 
 Cinnamon Ferns wear a green 
 equally delicate. These three 
 plants soon reach maturity and 
 are conspicuous by reason of their 
 unusual size and their flower- 
 like fruit-clusters. 
 
 On the rocky banks of the 
 brook, or perhaps among the 
 spreading roots of some forest- 
 tree, the Fragile Bladder Fern 
 unrolls its tremulous little 
 18 
 
 Fiddlchtads 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 fronds, on which the fruit-dots soon appear. Where 
 there is less moisture and more exposure we may 
 find the Rusty Woodsia, now belying its name by 
 its silvery aspect. At this same season in the bogs 
 and thickets we should look for the curious little 
 Adder's Tongue. 
 
 By the first of June many of the ferns are well 
 advanced. On the hill-sides and along 
 the wood-path the Brake spreads its 
 single umbrella-like frond, now pale 
 green and delicate, quite unlike the 
 umbrageous-looking plant of a 
 month later. Withdrawing into 
 the recesses formed by the past- 
 ure-rails the Lady Fern is in its 
 first freshness, without any sign 
 of the disfigurements it develops 
 so often by the close of the 
 summer. Great patches of 
 yellowish green in the wet 
 meadows draw atten- 
 tion to the Sensitive 
 Fern, which only at 
 this season seems to 
 have any claim to its 
 title. The Virginia Chairt Fern is another plant to 
 be looked for in the wet June meadows. It is one 
 of the few ferns which grows occasionally in deep 
 water. 
 
 The Maidenhair, though immature, is lovely in its 
 fragility. Thoreau met with it on June 1 3th and 
 
 19 
 
 Fragile Bladder Fern 
 
describes 
 it in his 
 diary for 
 that day: "The 
 delicate maid- 
 en-hair fern 
 a cup or dish, 
 very delicate and grace- 
 ful. Beautiful, too, its 
 glossy black stem and 
 its wave-edged, fruited 
 leaflets." 
 
 In the crevices of lot- 
 ty cliffs the Mountain 
 Spleenwort approaches 
 maturity. And now we 
 should search the moist, 
 mossy crannies of the 
 rocks for the Slender Cliff 
 Brake, for in some localities 
 this plant disappears early in 
 the summer. 
 
 We may hope to find most of 
 the ferns in full foliage, if not in 
 fruit, by the middle of July. Dark 
 green, tall and vigorous stand the 
 Brakes. The Crested Shield Fern is 
 fruiting in the swamps, and in the deep- 
 er woods Clinton's and Goldie's Ferns 
 are in full fruitage. Magnificent vase- 
 like clusters of the Ostrich Fern spread above our 
 
 20 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 heads in the thicket along the river-shore. The 
 Spinulose Shield Fern and the Evergreen Wood 
 Fern meet us at every turn of the shaded path 
 beside the brook, and on the rocky wooded hill- 
 side the Christmas Fern is almost as abundant. 
 Where the stream plunges from above, the Bulb- 
 let Bladder Fern drapes the steep banks with its 
 long feathery fronds. In the wet meadows and 
 thickets the New York Fern and the Marsh 
 Shield Fern are noticeable on account of their 
 light green color and delicate texture. On moun- 
 tain-ledges we look for the little Woodsias, and in 
 rocky places, often in the shadow of red cedars, for 
 the slim erect fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort. 
 
 Possibly it will be our good fortune to discover 
 the blue-green foliage of the Purple Cliff Brake 
 springing from the crevices of some dry limestone 
 cliff. Almost surely, if we search the moist, shaded 
 rocks and ravines in the neighborhood, we shall 
 greet with unfailing pleasure the lovely little 
 Maidenhair Spleenwort. 
 
 In somewhat southern localities the tapering, 
 yellow-green fronds of the Dicksonia or Hay-scent- 
 ed Fern are even more abundant and conspicuous 
 than the darker foliage of the Spinulose Shield Fern. 
 They abound along the roadsides and in partially 
 shaded or open pastures, the spores ripening not 
 earlier than August. 
 
 In the same month we find in full maturity three 
 interesting wood ferns, all belonging to the same 
 group. The first of these is the Long Beech Fern. 
 
 21 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 It is abundant in many of our northern woods and 
 on the rocky banks of streams. Its shape is notice- 
 ably triangular, the triangle being longer than 
 broad- Tts texture is rather soft and downy. The 
 lowest pair of pinnae stand 
 forward and are conspicu- 
 ously deflexed, giving an easy 
 clew to the plant's identity. 
 
 The most attractive mem- 
 ber of the group to my mind 
 is the Oak Fern. I find it 
 growing abundantly in the 
 cedar swamps and wet woods 
 of somewhat northern locali- 
 ties. Its delicate, spreading, 
 
 three - branched frond 
 suggests that of a 
 young Brake. This plant is pecul- 
 iarly dainty in the early summer, as fre- 
 quently later in the year it becomes 
 blotched and disfigured. 
 
 The Broad Beech Fern seeks drier neighbor- 
 hoods, and often a more southern locality than its 
 two kinsmen. Its triangular fronds, broader than 
 
 Purple Cliff 
 Brake 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 they are long, are conspicuous on account ot the 
 unusual size of the lowest pair of pinnae. 
 
 A common plant in the rich August woods is the 
 Virginia Grape Fern, with its spreading leaf and 
 branching fruit-cluster. The rather coarsely cut 
 fronds of the Silvery Spleenwort are also frequently 
 met with in the same neighborhood. Occasionally 
 in their companionship we find the delicate and 
 attractive Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. 
 
 August is the month that should be chosen for ex- 
 peditions in search of some of our rarest ferns. In 
 certain wild ravines of Central New York, at the 
 foot of shaded limestone cliffs, the glossy leaves of 
 the Hart's Tongue are actually weighed down by 
 the brown, velvety rows of sporangia which emboss 
 their lower surfaces. Over the rocks near-by, the 
 quaint, though less unusual, Walking Leaf runs riot. 
 Perhaps in the crevices of the overhanging cliff the 
 little Rue Spleenwort has secured a foothold for its 
 tiny fronds, their backs nearly covered with con- 
 fluent fruit-dots. 
 
 On the mountain-ledges of Northern New Eng- 
 land we should look for the Green Spleenwort, and 
 for the Fragrant Shield Fern. Along rocky moun- 
 tain-streams Braun's Holly Fern may be found. In 
 wet woods, usually near the coast, the Net-veined 
 Chain Fern is occasionally conspicuous. 
 
 More southern localities must be visited if we 
 wish to see in its home the Hairy Lip Fern, whose 
 most northern stations were on the Hudson River 
 (for I do not know if this plant can be found there at 
 
 33 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 present), and such rare 
 Spleenworts as the Pin- 
 natifid, Scott's and Brad- 
 ley's. 
 
 In September the 
 fruit-clusters of the lit- 
 tle Curly Grass ripen 
 in the low pine barrens 
 of New Jersey. Over 
 moist thickets, in rarely 
 favored retreats from 
 Massachusetts south- 
 ward, clamber the 
 slender strands of 
 the Climbing Fern. 
 Thoreau's di- 
 ary of Sep- 
 tember 26th 
 evidently re- 
 fers to this 
 plant: "The 
 tree-fern is in 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 fruit now, with its delicate, tendril-like fruit, climb- 
 ing three or four feet over the asters, golden-rod, 
 etc., on the edge of the swamp." 
 
 In moist places now we find the triangular much 
 dissected leaf and branching fruit-cluster of the 
 Ternate Grape Fern. 
 
 When October sets in, many of the ferns take 
 their color -note from the surroundings. Vying 
 with the maples along the roadside the Osmundas 
 wear deep orange. Many of the fronds of the Dick- 
 sonia are bleached almost white, while others look 
 fresh and green despite their delicate texture. On 
 October 4th Thoreau writes of this plant : 
 
 " How interesting now, by wall-sides and on open 
 springy hill-sides, the large straggling tufts of the 
 Dicksonia fern above the leaf-strewn green sward, 
 the cold, fall-green sward ! They are unusually pre- 
 served about the Corner Spring, considering the 
 earliness of this year. Long, handsome, lanceolate 
 green fronds pointing in every direction, recurved 
 and full of fruit, intermixed with yellowish and sere 
 brown and shrivelled ones, the whole clump per- 
 chance strewn with fallen and withered maple leaves, 
 and overtopped by now withered and unnoticed os- 
 mundas. Their lingering greenness is so much the 
 more noticeable now that the leaves generally have 
 changed. They affect us as if they were evergreen, 
 such persistent life and greenness in the midst of 
 decay. No matter how much they are strewn with 
 withered leaves, moist and green they spire above 
 them, not fearing the frosts, fragile as they are. 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 Their greenness is so much the more interesting, 
 because so many have already fallen, and we know 
 that the first severe frost will cut "off them too. In 
 the summer greenness is cheap, now it is a thing 
 comparatively rare, and is the emblem of life to us." 
 
 Oddly enough, with the first approach of winter 
 the vigorous-looking Brake turns brown and quickly 
 withers, usually without passing through any inter- 
 mediate gradations of yellow. 
 
 In November we notice chiefly the evergreen 
 ferns. The great round fruit-dots of the Polypody 
 show distinctly through the fronds as they stand 
 erect in the sunlight. A sober green, looking as 
 though it were warranted fast, is the winter dress 
 of the Evergreen Wood Fern. The Christmas Fern, 
 bright and glossy, reminds one that the holiday 
 season is not distant. These three plants are espe- 
 cially conspicuous in our late autumn woods. Their 
 brave and cheerful endurance is always a delight. 
 Later in the season the curled pinnae of the Poly- 
 pody seem to be making the best of cold weather. 
 The fronds of the Christmas Fern and the Evergreen 
 Wood Fern, still fresh and green, lie prostrate on 
 the ground, their weakened stems apparently unable 
 to support them erect, but undoubtedly in this posi- 
 tion they are the better protected from the storm 
 and stress of winter. 
 
 Many other ferns are more or less evergreen, but 
 perhaps none are so important to our fall rambles 
 as this sturdy group. Several of the Rock Spleen- 
 worts are evergreen, but their ordinarily diminutive 
 
 26 
 
WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 
 
 stature dwindles with the increasing cold, and we 
 seldom encounter them on our winter walks. The 
 sterile fronds of a number of the Shield Ferns endure 
 till spring. The Purple Cliff Brake and the Walk- 
 ing Leaf are also proof against ice and snow. Even 
 in the middle of January the keen-eyed fern hunter 
 may hope to make some discovery of interest re- 
 garding the haunts and habits of his favorites. 
 
Polypody 
 
 EXPLANATION OF TERMS 
 
 A FERN is a flowerless plant 
 growing from a rootstock (a), with 
 leaves or fronds usually raised on 
 a stalk, rolled up (b) in the bud,* 
 and bearing on their lower surfaces 
 (c) the spores y by means of which 
 the plant reproduces. 
 
 A rootstock is an underground, 
 rooting stem. Ferns are propa- 
 gated by the growth and budding 
 of the rootstock as well as by the 
 ordinary method of reproduction. 
 The fronds spring from the root- 
 stock in the manner peculiar to 
 the species to which they belong. The 
 Osmundas, the Evergreen Wood Fern, 
 and others grow in a crown or circle, 
 the younger fronds always inside. 
 The Mountain Spleenwort is one of 
 a class which has irregularly clus- 
 
 * Ophioglossum and the Botrychiums, not beine 
 true ferns, are exceptions. 
 
EXPLANATION OF TERMS 
 
 tered fronds. The fronds of the Brake are more 
 or less solitary, rising from distinct and somewhat 
 distant portions of the rootstock. The Botrychiums 
 usually give birth to a single frond each season, the 
 base of the stalk containing the bud for the suc- 
 ceeding year. 
 
 FIG. i 
 
 FIG. 3 
 
 A frond is simple when it consists of an undivided 
 leaf such as that of the Hart's Tongue or of the 
 Walking Leaf (Fig. i). 
 
 A frond is pinnatifid when cut so as to form 
 lobes extending half-way or more to the midvein 
 (Fig. 2). 
 
EXPLANATION OF TEKMS 
 
 FIG. 4 
 
 A frond is once-pinnate when the incisions extend 
 to the mid vein (Fig. 3). Under these conditions 
 
 the midvein is called 
 the rachis (a), and the 
 divisions are called the 
 pinnce (b). 
 
 A frond is twice-pin- 
 nate when the pinnse 
 are cut into divisions 
 which extend to their 
 midveins (Fig. 4). 
 These divisions of the 
 pinnae are called pin- 
 nules (a). 
 
 A frond that is only once-pinnate may seem at 
 fivst glance twice-pinnate, as its pinnas may be so 
 deeply lobed or pinnatifid as to require 
 a close examination to convince us that 
 the lobes come short of the midvein 
 of the pinnae. In a popular hand-book 
 it is not thought necessary to explain 
 further modifications. 
 
 The veins of a fern are free when, FlG - 5 
 branching from the midvein, they do not unite with 
 other veins (Fig. 5). 
 
 Ferns produce spores (Fig. 6) instead of 
 seeds. These spores are collected in spore- 
 cases or sporangia (Fig. 7). Usually the 
 sporangia are clustered in dots or lines on 
 the back of a frond or along its margins. 
 These patches of sporangia are called sort or fruit- 
 
 FIG. 6 
 
EXPLANATION OF TERMS 
 
 They take various shapes in the diffeient 
 species. They may be round or linear or oblong 
 or kidney-shaped or curved. At times they are 
 naked, but more frequently they are covered by a 
 minute outgrowth of the frond or 
 by its reflexed margin. This cov- 
 ering is called the indusium. In 
 systematic botanies the indusia 
 play an important part in deter- 
 mining genera. But as often they 
 are so minute as to be almost in- 
 visible to the naked eye, and, as 
 frequently they wither away early IG ' 7 
 
 in the season, I place little dependence upon them 
 as a means of popular identification. 
 
 A fertile frond is one which bears spores. 
 
 A sterile frond is one without spores. 
 
FERTILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND 
 FRUCTIFICATION OF FERNS 
 
 UNTIL very recently the development of ferns, 
 their methods of fertilization and fructification have 
 been shrouded in mystery. At one period it was 
 believed that "fern-seed," as the fern-spores were 
 called, possessed various miraculous powers. These 
 were touched upon frequently by the early poets. 
 In Shakespeare's " Henry IV " Gadshill exclaims: 
 
 "We have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible." 
 He is met with the rejoinder: 
 
 " Nay, I think rather you are more beholden to the night than to 
 fern-seed, for your walking invisible." 
 
 One of Ben Jonson's characters expresses the 
 same idea in much the same words: 
 
 " I had no medicine, sir, to walk invisible, 
 No fern-seed in my pocket." 
 
 In Butler's "Hudibras" reference is made to the 
 anxieties we needlessly create for ourselves : 
 
 " That spring like fern, that infant weed, 
 Equivocally without seed, 
 And have no possible foundation 
 But merely in th' imagination." 
 
FERTILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND FRUCTIFICATION 
 
 In view of the fact that many ferns bear their 
 spores or " fern-seed " somewhat conspicuously on 
 the lower surfaces of their fronds, it seems proba- 
 ble that the "fern" of early writers was our com- 
 mon Brake, the fructification of which is more than 
 usually obscure, its sporangia or " fern-seed " being 
 concealed till full maturity by the reflexed margin 
 of its frond. This plant is, perhaps, the most abun- 
 dant and conspicuous of English ferns. Miss Pratt 
 believes it to be the " fearn " of the Anglo-Saxons, 
 and says that to 
 its profusion in 
 their neighbor- 
 hood many towns 
 and hamlets, such 
 as Fearnborough 
 or Farnborough 
 Farningham, 
 Far n how, and 
 others owe their 
 titles. The plant 
 is a noticeable and 
 common one also 
 on the Continent. 
 
 In 1848 the de- 
 velopment of the fern was first satisfactorily ex- 
 plained. It was then shown that these plants pass 
 through what has been called, not altogether hap- 
 pily the modern botanist thinks, an " alternation of 
 generations." One " generation," the " sexual," con- 
 sists of a tiny, green, plate-like object, termed the 
 
 33 
 
 .-.-An 
 
 FIG. 8 
 
FERTILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND FRUCTIFICATION 
 
 prothallium (Fig. 8). This is connected with the soil 
 by hair-like roots. On its lower surface are borne 
 usually both the reproductive organs of the fern, 
 the antheridia, corresponding to the stamens or 
 fertilizing organs of the flower, and the archegonia, 
 performing the office of the flower's pistils, inas- 
 much as their germ-cells receive the fertilizing sub- 
 stance produced by the antheridia. But no seeds 
 are formed as the result of this fertilization. Instead 
 of this seed-formation which we note in the flower- 
 ing plant, the germ-cell .in the fern develops into a 
 fern-plant, which forms the " asexual " generation. 
 
 The first fronds of this little plant are very small 
 and simple, quite unlike the later ones. For a time 
 the plant is nourished by the prothallium, but as 
 soon as it is sufficiently developed and vigorous 
 enough to shift for itself, the prothallium dies away u 
 and the fern maintains an independent existence. 
 
 FIG. 9 FIG. 10 FIG. n 
 
 First fronds of Maidenhair 
 
 Eventually it produces fronds which bear on their 
 lower surfaces the sporangia containing the minute 
 spores from which spring the prothallia. 
 
 For our present purpose it is enough to say that 
 spores differ from seeds in that they are not the im- 
 mediate result of the interaction of reproductive 
 
 34 
 
FERTILIZATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND FRUCTIFICATION 
 
 organs. They resemble seeds in that they are ex- 
 pelled from the parent-plant on attaining maturity, 
 and germinate on contact with the moist earth. 
 
 Thus it is seen that the life-cycle of a fern consists 
 of two stages : 
 
 First, the prothallium, bearing the reproductive 
 organs ; second, the fern-plant proper, developing 
 the spores which produce the prothallium. 
 
 Along the moist, shaded banks of the wood road, 
 or on decaying stumps, keen eyes will discern fre- 
 quently the tiny green prothallia, although they are 
 somewhat difficult to find except in the green-house 
 where one can see them in abundance either in the 
 boxes used for growing the young plants, or on the 
 moist surfaces of flower-pots, where the spores have 
 fallen accidentally and have germinated. 
 
 As the fertilization of the germ-cell in the arche- 
 gonium cannot take place except under water, per- 
 haps the fact is accounted for that ferns are found 
 chiefly in moist places. This water may be only a 
 sufficient amount of rain or dew to permit the anthe- 
 rozoids or fertilizing cells of the antheridium to 
 swim to the archegonium, which they enter for the 
 purpose of fertilizing the germ-cell. 
 
 It is interesting to examine with a good magnify- 
 ing glass the sporangia borne on the lower surface 
 of a mature fertile frond. In many species each spo- 
 rangium or spore-case is surrounded with an elastic 
 ring, which at maturity contracts so suddenly as to 
 rupture the spore-case, and cause the expulsion of 
 the numberless spores (Fig. 7). 
 
 35 
 
NOTABLE FERN FAMILIES 
 
 OSMUNDA (Flowering Ferns) 
 
 Tall swamp ferns, growing in large crowns, with the fertile fronds 
 or portions conspicuously unlike the sterile ; sporangia opening by 
 a longitudinal cleft into two valves. 
 
 ONOCLEA 
 
 Coarse ferns, with the fertile fronds rolled up into necklace- 
 like or berry-like segments, and entirely unlike the broad, pin- 
 natifid sterile ones. Fertile fronds unrolling at maturity, allowing 
 the spores to escape, and remaining long after the sterile fronds 
 have perished ; sporangia stalked, ringed, bursting transversely. 
 
 WOODSIA 
 
 Small or medium-sized ferns, growing among rocks, with 1-2 
 pinnate or pinnatifid fronds and round fruit-dots ; indusium thin 
 and often evanescent, attached by its base under the sporangia, 
 either small and open, or else early bursting at the top into irregular 
 pieces or lobes ; sporangia stalked, ringed, bursting transversely. 
 
 CYSTOPTERIS (Bladder Ferns) 
 
 Delicate rock or wood ferns, with 2-3 pinnate fronds and round 
 fruit-dots ; indusium hood-like, attached by a broad base to the in- 
 ner side, soon thrown back or withering away ; sporangia as above. 
 
 ASPIDIUM (Shield Ferns) 
 
 FernS with 1-3 pinnate fronds and round fruit-dots; indusium 
 more or less flat, fixed by its depressed centre ; sporangia as above. 
 
 36 
 
NOTABLE FERN FAMILIES 
 
 PHEGOPTERIS (Beech Ferns) 
 
 Medium-sized or small ferns, with 2-3 pinnatifid or ternate 
 leaves, and small, round, uncovered fruit-dots ; sporangia as above. 
 
 WOODWARDIA (Chain Ferns) 
 
 Large and rather coarse ferns of swamps or wet woods, fronds 
 pinnate or nearly twice-pinnate ; fruit-dots oblong or linear, sunk 
 in cavities of the leaf and arranged in chain-like rows ; indusium 
 lid-like, somewhat leathery, fixed by its outer margin to a veinlet ; 
 veins more or less reticulated ; sporangia as above. 
 
 ASPLENIUM (Spleenworts) 
 
 Large or small ferns, with varying fronds and linear or oblong 
 fruit-dots ; indusium straight or curved ; sporangia as above. 
 
 PELL^EA (Cliff Brakes) 
 
 Small or medium-sized rock ferns, with pinnate fronds and 
 sporangia borne beneath the reflexed margins of the pinnae ; spor- 
 angia as above. 
 
 BOTRYCHIUM (Moonworts) 
 
 (Belonging to the Fern Allies) 
 
 Fleshy plants, with fronds (usually solitary) divided into a sterile 
 and a fertile portion, the bud for the succeeding year embedded in 
 the base of the stem. 
 
HOW TO USE THE BOOK 
 
 BEFORE attempting to identify the ferns by means 
 of the following Guide it would be well to turn to 
 the Explanation of Terms, and with as many species 
 as you can conveniently collect, on the table before 
 you, to master the few necessary technical terms, 
 that you may be able to distinguish a frond that is 
 pinnatifid from one that is pinnate, a pinna from a 
 pinnule, a fertile from a sterile frond. 
 
 You should bear in mind that in some species the 
 fertile fronds are so unleaf-like in appearance that 
 to the uninitiated they do not suggest fronds at all. 
 The fertile fronds of the Onocleas, for example, are 
 so contracted as to conceal any resemblance to the 
 sterile ones. They appear to be mere clusters of 
 fruit. The fertile fronds of the Cinnamon Fern are 
 equally unleaf-like, as are the fertile portions of the 
 other Osmundas and of several other species. 
 
 In your rambles through the fields and woods your 
 eyes will soon learn to detect hitherto unnoticed 
 species. In gathering specimens you will take heed 
 to break off the fern as near the ground as possible, 
 and you will not be satisfied till you have secn r M 
 
 3* 
 
HOW TO USE THE BOOK 
 
 both a fertile and a sterile frond. In carrying them 
 home you will remember the necessity of keeping 
 together the fronds which belong to the same plant. 
 
 When sorting your finds you will group them ac- 
 cording to the Guide. The broad-leaved Sensitive 
 Fern, with its separate, dark-green fruit cluster, 
 makes its way necessarily to Group I. To Group 
 II goes your pale-fronded Royal Fern, tipped with 
 brown sporangia. As a matter of course you lay 
 in Group III the leaf-like but dissimilar sterile and 
 fertile fronds of the Slender Cliff Brake. The 
 spreading Brake, its reflexed margin covering the 
 sporangia, identifies itself with Group IV. The ob- 
 long fruit-dots of the little Mountain Spleenwort 
 carry it to Group V, while the round ones, like pin- 
 heads, of the Evergreen Wood Fern announce it a 
 member of Group VI. 
 
 The different ferns sorted, it will be a simple mat- 
 ter to run quickly through the brief descriptions 
 under the different Groups till you are referred to 
 the descriptions in the body of the book of the 
 species under investigation. 
 
Gume 
 
 FOR the purpose of identification the ferns de- 
 scribed are arranged in six groups, according to their 
 manner of fruiting. 
 
 GROUP I 
 
 STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE ; FERTILE 
 FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 I. SENSITIVE FERN 
 
 Onoclea sensibilis 
 
 Sterile fronds usually large ; broadly triangular, deeply pinnatifid. 
 Fertile fronds much contracted, with berry-like pinnules. In wet 
 meadows. P. 54. 
 
 2. OSTRICH FERN 
 
 Onoclea Struthiopteris 
 
 Large. Sterile fronds once-pinnate, pinnae pinnatifid. Fertile 
 fronds contracted, with necklace-like pinnae. Along streams and 
 in moist woods. P. 56. 
 
 3. CINNAMON FERN 
 
 Osmunda cinnamomea 
 
 Large. Sterile fronds once-pinnate, pinnae pinnatifid. Fertile 
 fronds composed of cinnamon-brown fruit-clusters. In wet places. 
 P. 60. 
 
 4. CURLY GRASS 
 
 Schizcea pusilla 
 
 Very small. Sterile fronds linear, grass-like. Fertile fronds 
 taller, with a terminal fruit-cluster. In pine barrens of New 
 Jersey. P. 63. 
 
 40 
 
GUIDE 
 
 GROUP II 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, THE FERTILE PORTION 
 UNLIKE THE REST OF THE FROND 
 
 [The species coming under the genera Botrychium and Ophio- 
 glossum may appear to belong to Group I, as the fertile and the 
 sterile portions of their fronds may seem to the uninitiated like sep 
 arate fronds, but in reality they belong to the one frond.] 
 
 5. ROYAL FERN 
 
 Osmunda regalis 
 
 Large. Sterile fronds twice-pinnate, pinnules oblong. Fertile 
 fronds leaf-like below, sporangia in clusters at their summits. In 
 wet places. P. 67. 
 
 6. INTERRUPTED FERN 
 
 Osmunda Claytoniana 
 
 Large. Sterile fronds once-pinnate, pinnag pinnatifid. Fertile 
 fronds leaf-like above and below, contracted in the middle with 
 brown fruit-clusters. In wet places. P. 72. 
 
 7. CLIMBING FERN 
 
 Lygodium palmatum 
 
 Climbing, with lobed, palmate pinnae and terminal fruit-clusters- 
 Moist thickets and open woods. Rare. P. 75. 
 
 8. ADDER'S TONGUE 
 
 Ophioglossum vulgatum 
 
 Small. Sterile portion an ovate leaf. Fertile portion a slender 
 spike. In moist meadows. P. 77. 
 
 9. RATTLESNAKE FERN 
 
 Botrychium Virginianum 
 
 Rather large. Sterile portion a thin, spreading, ternately di- 
 vided leaf with three primary divisions ; 1-2 pinnate. Fertile por 
 tion a branching fruit-cluster. In rich woods. P. 80. 
 
 41 
 
GUIDE 
 
 10. TERNATE GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium ternatum or dissectum 
 
 Of varying size, very fleshy. Sterile portion a broadly triangular, 
 ternate, finely dissected leaf, long-stalked from near the base of the 
 stem. Fertile portion a branching fruit-cluster. In moist mead- 
 ows. P. 81. 
 
 II. LITTLE GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium simplex 
 
 A very small fleshy plant. Sterile portion an oblong leaf more 
 or less lobed. Fertile portion a simple or slightly branching spike. 
 In moist woods and in fields. P. 82. 
 
 12. MOONWORT 
 
 Botrychium Lunaria 
 
 Usually small, very fleshy. Sterile portion divided into several 
 fan-shaped lobes. Fertile portion a branching fruit-cluster. Mostly 
 in fields. P. 84. 
 
 13. MATRICARY GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium matricariafolitim 
 
 Small, more or less fleshy. Sterile portion ovate or oblong, 
 once or twice pinnatifid. Fertile portion a branching fruit-cluster. 
 In grassy woods and wet meadows. P. 86. 
 
 14. LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium lanceolatum 
 
 Small, scarcely fleshy. Sterile portion triangular, twice-pihnatifid. 
 Fertile portion a branching fruit-cluster. In woods and meadows. 
 P. 86. 
 
GUIDE 
 
 GROUP III 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE IN 
 
 APPEARANCE, YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM 
 
 STERILE FRONDS 
 
 15. SLENDER CLIFF BRAKE 
 
 Pellaa gracilis 
 
 A small fern, 1-3 pinnate. Very delicate. Fertile fronds taller, 
 more contracted and simpler than the sterile, sporangia bor- 
 dering the pinnae. Usually on sheltered rocks, preferring lime- 
 stone. P. 87. 
 
 16. PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE 
 
 Pellaea atropurpurea 
 
 Medium sized, 1-2 pinnate, leathery. Fertile fronds taller and 
 more contracted than the sterile, sporangia bordering the pinnae. 
 Usually on exposed rocks, preferring limestone. P. 90. 
 
 17. CHRISTMAS FERN 
 
 Aspidium acrostichoides 
 
 Rather large, smooth and glossy, once-pinnate. Fertile fronds 
 contracted at the summit where the fruit appears. In rocky woods. 
 P. 96. 
 
 18. NARROW-LEAVED SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium angustifoliwn 
 
 Tall and delicate, once-pinnate. ..Fertile fronds taller and narrower 
 than the sterile. In moist woods in late summer. P. 98. 
 
 19. NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN 
 
 Woodwardia angnstifolia 
 
 Large, fronds deeply pinnatifid, the fertile taller and more con- 
 tracted than the sterile. In wet woods near the coast. P. 102. 
 
 43 
 
GUIDE 
 
 GROUP IV 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED PORTION 
 
 OF THE MARGIN 
 
 [The first clause bars out P. gracilis and P. atropurpurea, 
 which otherwise would belong to Group IV as well as to Group 
 III.] 
 
 20. BRAKE 
 
 Pteris aquilina 
 
 Large and coarse, frond 3-branched, spreading, each branch 
 2-pinnate, sporangia in a continuous line beneath the reflexed mar- 
 gin of the frond. In dry, somewhat open places. P. 105. 
 
 21. MAIDENHAIR 
 
 Adiantum pedatum 
 
 Graceful and delicate, frond forked at the summit of the stem, 
 2-pinnate, the pinnae springing from the upper sides of the branches, 
 pinnules one-sided, their upper margins lobed, bearing on their 
 undersides the short fruit-dots. In rich woods. P. 108. 
 
 22. HAIRY LIP FERN 
 
 Cheilanthes vestita 
 
 Rather small, fronds 2-pinnate, hairy, fruit-dots "covered by 
 the infolded ends of the rounded or oblong lobes." On rocks. 
 
 P. 112. 
 
 23. HAY-SCENTED FERN 
 
 Dicksonia pilosiuscula 
 
 Rather large, pale, delicate and sweet-scented, fronds usually 
 2-pinnate, fruit-dots small, each on a recurved toothlet of the pin- 
 nule, borne on an elevated, globular receptacle. In moist thickets 
 and in upland pastures. P. 114. 
 
 44 
 
GUIDE 
 GROUP V 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT DOTS 
 
 24. LADY FERN 
 
 Asplenium Filix-famina 
 
 Rather large, fronds 2-pinnate, fruit-dots curved, often horse- 
 shoe shaped, finally confluent. In moist woods and along road- 
 sides. P. 120. 
 
 25. SILVERY SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium thelypteroides 
 
 Large, fronds once-pinnate, pinnae deeply pinnatifid, lobes ob- 
 long and obtuse, fruit-dots oblong, silvery when young. In rich 
 woods. P. 124. 
 
 26. RUE SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium Ruta-muraria 
 
 Very small, fronds loosely 2-3 pinnate at base, pinnatifid above, 
 fruit-dots linear-oblong, confluent when mature. On limestone 
 cliffs. Rare. P. 126. 
 
 27. MOUNTAIN SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium montanum 
 
 Small, fronds 1-2 pinnate, fruit-dots linear-oblong, often conflu- 
 ent. On rocks. P. 130. 
 
 28. EBONY SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium ebeneum 
 
 Fronds slender and erect, once-pinnate, pinnae eared on the up- 
 per or on both sides, stalk and rachis blackish and shining, fruit- 
 dots oblong. On rocks and hill-sides. P. 134. 
 
 45 
 
GUIDE 
 
 29. MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium Trichomanes 
 
 Small, fronds once-pinnate, pinnae roundish, stalk and rachis 
 purplish -brown and shining, fruit-dots short. In crevices of rocks. 
 P. 136. 
 
 30. GREEN SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium viride 
 
 Small, fronds linear, once-pinnate, brownish stalk passing into a 
 green rachis. On shaded cliffs northward. P. 138. 
 
 31. SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium ebenoidcs 
 
 Small, fronds pinnate below, pinnatifid above, apex slender and 
 prolonged, stalk and rachis blackish, fruit-dots straight or slightly 
 curved. On limestone. Very rare. P. 140. 
 
 32. PINNATIFID SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium pinnatifidum 
 
 Small, fronds pinnatifid, or the lower part pinnate, tapering above 
 into a slender prolongation, stalk blackish, passing into a green 
 rachis, fruit- dots straight or slightly curved. On rocks. Rare. 
 P. 142. 
 
 33. BRADLEY'S SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium Bradley i 
 
 Small, once-pinnate, pinnae lobed or toothed, stalk and rachis 
 chestnut-brown, fruit-dots short. On rocks, preferring limestone. 
 Very rare. P. 144. 
 
 34. WALKING FERN 
 
 Camptosorus rhizophyllus 
 
 Small, fronds undivided, heart-shaped at the base or sometimes 
 with prolonged basal ears, tapering above to a prolonged point 
 which roots, forming a new plant, fruit-dots oblong or linear, ir- 
 regularly scattered. On shaded rocks, preferring limestone. P. 146. 
 
 46 
 
GUIDE 
 
 35. HART'S TONGUE 
 
 Scolopendrium vulgare 
 
 Fronds a few inches to nearly two feet long, undivided, oblong- 
 lanceolate, heart-shaped at base, fruit-dots linear, elongated. Grow- 
 ing among the fragments of limestone cliffs. Very rare. P. 1 50. 
 
 36. VIRGINIA CHAIN FERN 
 
 Woodwardia Virginica 
 
 Large, fronds once-pinnate, pinnae pinnatifid, fruit-dots oblong, 
 in chain-like rows parallel and near to the midrib, confluent when 
 ripe. In swamps. P. 1 56. 
 
 GROUP VI 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND USUALLY 
 SIMILAR, FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 37. NEW YORK FERN 
 
 Aspidium NoveboraceHse 
 
 Usually rather tall, fronds once-pinnate, with deeply pinnatifid 
 pinnae, tapering both ways from the middle, margins of fertile 
 fronds not revolute. In woods and open meadows. P. 159. 
 
 38. MARSH FERN 
 
 Aspidium Thelypteris 
 
 Usually rather tall, fronds once-pinnate, with pinnae deeply pin- 
 natifid, scarcely narrower at the base than at the middle, veins 
 forked, fertile fronds noticeable from their strongly revolute mar- 
 gins. In wet woods and open swamps. P. 160. 
 
 39. MASSACHUSETTS FERN 
 
 Aspidium simulatum 
 
 Close to preceding species, rather tall, fronds once-pinnate, with 
 pinnatifid pinnas little or not at all narrowed at base, veins not 
 forked, margin of fertile frond slightly revolute. In wooded swamps. 
 P. 164. 
 
 47 
 
GUIDE 
 
 CHRISTMAS FERN 
 
 Aspidium acres tic 'hoides 
 [See No. 17] 
 
 40. SPINULOSE WOOD FERN 
 
 Aspidium spinulosum var. intermedium 
 
 Very common, usually but not always large, fronds oblong- 
 ovate, 2-3 pinnate, lowest pinnae unequally triangular-ovate, lobes 
 of pinnae thorny-toothed. In woods everywhere. P. 166. 
 
 41. BOOTT'S SHIELD FERN 
 Aspidium Boottii 
 
 From one and a half to more than three feet high. Sterile fronds 
 smaller and simpler than the fertile, nearly or quite twice-pinnate, 
 the lowest pinnae triangular-ovate, upper longer and narrower, pin- 
 nules oblong-ovate, sharply thorny-toothed. In moist woods. 
 P. 168. 
 
 42. CRESTED SHIELD FERN 
 
 Aspidium cristatum 
 
 Usually rather large, fronds linear-oblong or lanceolate, once pin- 
 nate with pinnatifid pinnae, linear-oblong, fruit-dots between mid- 
 vein and margin. In swamps. P- T 7o. 
 
 43. CLINTON'S WOOD FERN 
 
 Aspidium cristatum, var. Clintonianum 
 
 In every way larger than preceding species, fronds usually twice- 
 pinnate, pinnae broadest at base, fruit-dots near the midvein. In 
 swampy woods. P. 172. 
 
 44. GOLDIE'S FERN 
 
 Aspidium Goldianum 
 
 Large, fronds broadly ovate or the fertile ovate-oblong, once-pin* 
 nate with pinnatifid pinnae, pinnae broadest in the middle, fruit-dots 
 very near the midvein. In rich woods. P. 175. 
 
 48 
 
GUIDE 
 
 45. EVERGREEN WOOD FERN 
 
 Aspidium marginale 
 
 Very common, usually rather large, smooth, somewhat leathery, 
 fronds ovate oblong, 1-2 pinnate, fruit-dots large, distinct, close t 
 the margin. In rocky woods. P. 176. 
 
 46. FRAGRANT SHIELD FERN 
 
 Aspidium fragrans 
 
 Small, fragrant, fronds once-pinnate, with pinnatifid pinnae, stalk 
 and rachis chaffy, fruit-dots large. On rocks northward, especially 
 near waterfalls. P. 178. 
 
 47. BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN 
 
 Aspidium aculeatum var. Braunii 
 
 Rather large, fronds oblong-lanceolate, twice-pinnate, pinnules 
 sharply toothed, covered with long, soft hairs, fruit-dots small. In 
 deep, rocky woods. P. 182. 
 
 48. COMMON POLYPODY 
 
 Polypodium vulgarc 
 
 Usually small, fronds somewhat leathery, narrowly oblong, fruit- 
 dots large, round, uncovered, half-way between midvein and mar- 
 gin. On rocks. P. 184. 
 
 HAY-SCENTED FERN 
 
 Dicksonia pilosiuscula 
 [See No..-2 3 ] 
 
 49. LONG BEECH FERN 
 
 Phegopteris polypodioides 
 
 Medium-sized, fronds downy, triangular, longer than broad, once- 
 pinnate, pinnas pinnatifid ; lowest pair deflexed and standing for- 
 ward. In moist woods and on the banks of streams. P. 187. 
 
 49 
 
GUIDE 
 
 50. BROAD BEECH FERN 
 
 Phegopteris hexagonoptera 
 
 Larger than the preceding species, fronds triangular, as broad or 
 broader than long, once-pinnate, pinnae pinnatifid, lowest pair very 
 large, basal segments of pinnae forming a continuous, many-angled 
 wing along the rachis. In dry woods and on hill-sides. P. 188. 
 
 51. OAK FERN 
 
 Phegopteris Dryopteris 
 
 Medium-sized, fronds thin and delicate, broadly triangular, spread- 
 ing, ternate, the three divisions stalked, each division pinnate, pin' 
 nae pinnatifid. In moist woods. P. 190. 
 
 52. BULBLET BLADDER FERN 
 
 Cystopteris bulbifera 
 
 Fronds delicate, elongated, tapering above from a broad base, 2- 
 3 pinnate or pinnatifid, bearing fleshy bulblets beneath. On wet 
 rocks, preferring limestone. P. 194. 
 
 53. COMMON BLADDER FERN 
 
 Cystopteris fragilis 
 
 Medium-sized, fronds thin, oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 pinnate or 
 pinnatifid. On rocks and in moist woods. P. 198. 
 
 54. RUSTY WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia Ilvensis 
 
 Small, more or less covered with rusty hairs, fronds lanceolate, 
 once-pinnate, pinnae pinnatifid. On exposed rocks. P. 200. 
 
 55. BLUNT-LOBED WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia obtusa 
 
 Small, slightly downy, fronds broadly lanceolate, nearly twice-pin- 
 nate. On rocks. P. 202. 
 
GUIDE 
 
 56. NORTHERN WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia hyperborea 
 
 Very small, smooth or nearly so, fronds narrowly oblong-lai><;e 
 late, once-pinnate, pinnae cordate-ovate or triangular-ovate, 5-7 
 lobed. On moist rocks. P. 203. 
 
 57. SMOOTH WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia glabella 
 
 Very small, smooth throughout and delicate, fronds linear, once- 
 pinnate, pinnae roundish ovate, lobed. On moist rocks. P. 206. 
 
FERN DESCRIPTIONS 
 
 Nature made a fern for pure leaves." Thoreau 
 
GROUP I 
 
 STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE; FERTILE 
 FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 i. SENSITIVE FERN 
 
 Onoclea sensibilis 
 Newfoundland to Florida, in wet meadows. 
 
 Sterile fronds. One or two inches to three feet high, broadly 
 triangular, deeply cut into somewhat oblong, wavy-toothed divi- 
 sions, the lower ones almost reaching the midrib, the upper ones 
 less deeply cut ; stalk long. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Quite unlike the sterile fronds and shorter, 
 erect, rigid, contracted ; pinnules rolled up into dark-green, berry- 
 like bodies which hold the spore-cases ; appearing in June or July. 
 
 This is one of our commonest ferns, growing in 
 masses along the roadside and in wet meadows. 
 Perfectly formed sterile fronds are found of the 
 tiniest dimensions. Again the plant holds its own 
 among the largest and most effective ferns. From 
 Us creeping rootstock rise the scattered fronds 
 
 54 
 
which at times 
 wear very light 
 and delicate 
 shades of green. 
 There is 
 nothing, 
 however, 
 specially 
 fragile in 
 the plant's 
 ap pear- 
 ance, and 
 
 one is struck by the inappropri- 
 ateness of its title. It is probable 
 that this arose from its sensitive- 
 ness to early frosts. 
 
 Though one hesitates to 
 differ from Dr. Eaton, who 
 described the fer- 
 tile fronds as "near- 
 ly black in color" 
 and said that they 
 were "not very 
 common," and that 
 a young botanist 
 might "search in 
 vain for them for 
 a long time," my 
 own experience 
 has been that the 
 fresh ones are 
 
STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE; 
 GROUP I FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 very evidently green and neither scarce nor spe- 
 cially inconspicuous. 
 
 I have found these fertile fronds apparently full- 
 grown in June, though usually they are assigned to 
 a much later date. They remain standing, brown 
 and dry, long after they have sown their spores, 
 side by side with the fresh fronds of the following 
 summer. 
 
 Detail a in Plate I represents the so-called var. 
 obtusilobata. This is a form midway between the 
 fruiting and the non-fruiting fronds. It may be 
 looked for in situations where the fern has suffered 
 some injury or deprivation. 
 
 2. OSTRICH FERN 
 
 Onoclea Stru th iopteris 
 
 Nova Scotia to New Jersey, along streams and in moist woods. 
 Growing in a crown, two to ten feet high. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Broadly lance-shaped, once-pinnate ; pinna 
 divided into narrowly oblong segments which do not reach the 
 midvein ; stalk short, deeply channelled in front. 
 
 Fertile fronds .Quite unlike the sterile fronds, growing in the 
 centre of the crown formed by the sterile fronds, shorter, erect, 
 rigid, with green, necklace-like pinnae which hold the spore-cases ; 
 appearing in July. 
 
 I first found this plant at its best on the shore of 
 the Hoosick River in Rensselaer County, N. Y. 
 We had crossed a field dotted with fragrant heaps 
 of hay and blazing in the midsummer sun, and had 
 entered the cool shade of the trees which border the 
 river, when suddenly I saw before me a group of 
 ferns of tropical beauty and luxuriance. Great 
 
 56 
 
LATE 
 
 SENSITIVE FERN 
 a. Var. obtusilobata 
 
STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE; 
 oROUP I FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 plume-like fronds of a rich green arched above mj 
 head. From the midst of the circle which the) 
 formed sprang the shorter, dark, rigid fruit-clusters. 
 I was fairly startled by the unexpected beauty and 
 regal bearing of the Ostrich Fern. 
 
 This magnificent plant luxuriates especially in the 
 low, rich soil which is subject to an annual overflow 
 from our northern rivers. Its vase-like masses of 
 foliage somewhat suggest the Cinnamon Fern, but 
 the fertile fronds of the Ostrich Fern mature in 
 July, some weeks later than those of its rival. They 
 are dark-green, while those of the Cinnamon Fern 
 are golden-brown. Should there be no fruiting 
 fronds upon the plant, the Ostrich Fern can be dis- 
 tinguished by the free veins with simple veinlets 
 (Plate II, a) of its pinnae, the veins of the Cinnamon 
 Fern being free and its veinlets forking (PL III, a), 
 and by the absence of the tuft of rusty wool at the 
 base of the pinnae on the under side of the frond. 
 
 The Ostrich Fern does so well under cultivation 
 that there is danger lest it crowd out its less aggres- 
 sive 'neighbors. It propagates chiefly by means of 
 underground runners. Mr. Robinson describes a 
 specimen which he had planted in his out - door 
 fernery that crawled under a tight board fence and 
 reappeared in the garden of his neighbor, who was 
 greatly astonished and equally delighted so unex- 
 pectedly to become the owner of the superb plant. 
 
 The Ostrich Fern, like its kinsman the Sensitive 
 Fern, occasionally gives birth to fronds which are 
 midway between its fruiting and its non-fruiting 
 
PLATE I 
 
 OSTRICH FERN 
 
 a Portion of sterile frond b Fertile frond 
 
 c Detail, showing free veins with simple vemlets 
 
 59 
 
runup i STE R ILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE 
 
 UKUUf 1 FRTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCL 
 
 forms. This is specially liable to occur when some 
 injury has befallen the plant. 
 
 3. CINNAMON FERN 
 
 Osmunda cinnamomea 
 
 Nova Scotia to Florida, in swampy places. Growing in a crown, 
 one to five feet high. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Broadly lance-shaped, once-pinnate ; pinna cut 
 into broadly oblong divisions that do 
 U not reach the midvein, each pinna 
 1l^y?Sf with a tuft of rusty wool at its base 
 
 beneath. 
 
 Fertile fronds. 
 Quite unlike the ster- 
 ile fronds, growing 
 in the centre 
 of the crown 
 formed by the 
 sterile fronds 
 and usually 
 about the same 
 height , erect, with cinna- 
 mon-colored spore-cases. 
 
 In the form of 
 little croziers, pro- 
 tected from the cold 
 by wrappings of 
 rusty wool, the fer- 
 tile fronds of the Cinnamon Fern appear every- 
 where in our swamps and wet woods during the 
 month of May. These fertile fronds, first dark- 
 green, later cinnamon-brown, are quickly followed 
 and encircled by the sterile ones, which grow in 
 a tall, graceful crown. The fertile fronds soon 
 
 60 
 
PLATE III 
 
 CINNAMON FERN 
 a, Showing tuft of wool at base of pinna, also free veins with forking veinUt* 
 
 61 
 
_ Drkim STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE; 
 FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 wither, and, during the summer, may be found 
 either clinging to the stalks of the sterile fronds or 
 lying on the ground. 
 
 The Cinnamon Fern is often confused with the 
 Ostrich Fern. When either plant is in fruit there is 
 no excuse for this mistake, as the cinnamon-colored 
 spore-cases of the former appear in May, while the 
 dark-green fertile fronds of the latter do not ripen till 
 July. When the fruiting fronds are absent the forked 
 veinlets (Plate III, a) of the Cinnamon Fern contrast 
 with the simple veinlets of the other plant (Plate II, 
 a). Then, too, the pinnae of the Cinnamon Fern bear 
 tufts of rusty wool at the base beneath, the remnants 
 of the woolly garments worn by the young fronds. 
 
 The plant is a superb one when seen at its best. 
 Its tall sterile fronds curve gracefully outward, while 
 the slender fruit-clusters erect themselves in the 
 centre of the rich crown. In unfavorable conditions, 
 when growing in dry meadows, for instance, like all 
 theOsmundas,and indeed like most growing things, 
 it is quite a different plant. Its green fronds become 
 stiff and stunted, losing all their graceful curves, and 
 its fruit-clusters huddle among them as if anxious 
 to keep out of sight. 
 
 Var. frondosa is an occasional form in which some 
 of the fruiting fronds have green, leaf-like pinnae 
 below. These abnormal fronds are most abundant 
 on land which has been burned over. 
 
 The Cinnamon Fern is a member of the group of 
 Osmundas, or " flowering ferns," as they are some- 
 times called, not of course because they really flower, 
 
 62 
 
TROIIP I STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE; 
 FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 but because their fruiting fronds are somewhat 
 flower-like in appearance. There are three species of 
 Osmunda : the Cinnamon Fern, O. cinnamomea; the 
 Royal Fern, O. regalis; and the Interrupted Fern, O. 
 Claytoniana. All three are beautiful and striking 
 plants, producing their spores in May or June, and 
 conspicuous by reason of their luxuriant growth and 
 flower-like fruit clusters. 
 
 The Osmundas are easily cultivated, and group 
 themselves effectively in shaded corners of the 
 garden. They need plenty of water, and thrive best 
 in a mixture of swamp-muck and fine loam. 
 
 4. CURLY GRASS 
 
 Schizaa pus ilia 
 Pine barrens of New Jersey. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Hardly an inch long, linear, slender, flattened, 
 curly. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Taller than the sterile fronds (three or four 
 inches in height), slender, with from four to six pairs of fruit-bearing 
 pinnae in September. 
 
 Save in the herbarium I have never seen this very 
 local little plant, which is found in certain parts of 
 New Jersey. Gray assigns it to " low grounds, pine 
 barrens," while Dr. Eaton attributes it to the " drier 
 parts of sphagnous swamps among white cedars." 
 
 In my lack of personal knowledge of Schiz&a, I 
 venture to quote from that excellent little quarter- 
 ly, the Fern Bulletin^ the following passage from an 
 
*f?niJP I STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE ; 
 1 FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 article by Mr. C. F. Saunders on Schizaa pusilla at 
 home: 
 
 " S. pusilla was first collected early in this century 
 at Quaker Bridge, N. J., about thirty-five miles east 
 of Philadelphia. The spot is a desolate-looking 
 place in the wildest of the 'pine barrens/ where a 
 branch of the Atsion River flows through marshy 
 lowlands and cedar swamps. Here, amid sedge- 
 grasses, mosses, Lycopodiums, Droseras, and wild 
 cranberry vines, the little treasure has been col- 
 lected ; but, though I have hunted for it more than 
 once, my eyes have never been sharp enough to 
 detect its fronds in that locality. In October of 
 last year, however, a friend guided me to another 
 place in New Jersey where he knew it to be grow- 
 ing, and there we found it. It was a small open 
 spot in the pine barrens, low and damp. In the 
 white sand grew patches of low grasses, mosses, 
 Lycopodium Carolinianum, L. inundatum, and 
 Pyxidanthera barbulata, besides several smaller 
 ericaceous plants and some larger shrubs, such as 
 scrub-oaks, sumacs, etc. Close by was a little 
 stream, and just beyond that a bog. Although we 
 knew that the Schizaea grew within a few feet of 
 the path in which we stood, it required the closest 
 sort of a search, with eyes at the level of our knees, 
 before a specimen was detected. The sterile fronds 
 (curled like corkscrews) grew in little tufts, and 
 were more readily visible than the fertile spikes, 
 which were less numerous, and, together with the 
 slender stipes, were of a brown color, hardly dis- 
 
 64 
 
PLATE IV 
 
 OURLY GRASS 
 
TROIIP J STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTALLY UNLIKE, 
 FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 
 
 tinguishaWe from the capsules of the mosses, and 
 the maturing stems of the grasses which grew all 
 about. Lying flat on the earth, with face within a 
 few inches of the ground, was found the most satis- 
 factory plan of search. Down there all the indi- 
 vidual plants looked bigger, and a sidelong glance 
 brought the fertile clusters more prominently into 
 view. When the sight got accustomed to the minia- 
 ture jungle quite a number of specimens were found, 
 but the fern could hardly be said to be plentiful, 
 and all that we gathered were within a radius of a 
 couple of yards. This seems, indeed, to be one of 
 those plants whose whereabouts is oftenest revealed 
 by what we are wont to term a ' happy accident/ 
 as, for instance, when we are lying stretched on the 
 ground resting, or as we stoop at lunch to crack an 
 egg on the toe of our shoe. I know of one excel- 
 lent collector who spent a whole day looking for it 
 diligently in what he thought to be a likely spot, 
 but without success, when finally, just before the 
 time for return came, as he was half crouching on 
 the ground, scarcely thinking now of Schizaea, its 
 fronds suddenly flashed upon his sight, right at his 
 feet. The sterile fronds of Schizaea pusilla are ever- 
 green, so that the collector may, perhaps, most read- 
 ily detect it in winter, selecting days for his search 
 when the earth is pretty clear of snow. The sur- 
 rounding vegetation being at that time dead, the 
 little corkscrew-like tronds stand out more promi- 
 nently." 
 
GROUP II 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, THE FERTILE 
 PORTION UNLIKE THE REST OF THE FROND 
 
 5. ROYAL FERN. FLOWERING FERN 
 
 Osmunda regalis 
 
 New Brunswick to Florida, in swampy places. Two to five feet 
 high, occasionally taller. 
 
 Sterile, fronds. Twice-pinnate, pinna cut into oblong pinnules. 
 Fertile fronds. Leaf-like below, sporangia forming bright- 
 brown clusters at their summits. 
 
 Perhaps this Royal or Flowering Fern is the 
 most beautiful member of a singularly beautiful 
 group. When its smooth, pale - green sterile 
 fronds, grown to their full height, form a grace- 
 ful crown which encircles the fertile fronds, it is 
 truly a regal-looking plant. These fertile fronds 
 
 67 
 
are leaf- 
 like be- 
 low, and 
 are tipped 
 
 above with their flower-like 
 fruit-clusters. 
 
 Like its kinsmen, the Royal 
 Fern appears in May in our 
 wet woods and fields. The 
 delicate little croziers uncurl 
 with dainty grace, the plants 
 which grow in the open among 
 the yellow stars of the early 
 crow-foot, and the white clus- 
 ters of the spring cress 
 being so tinged with red 
 that they suffuse the 
 meadows with warm 
 color. 
 
 Though one of our 
 tallest ferns, with us it 
 never reaches the ten or 
 eleven feet with which it is 
 credited in Great Britain. 
 The tallest plants I have 
 found fall short of six feet. 
 Occasionally we see large 
 tracts of land covered with 
 mature plants that lack a 
 foot or more of the two feet 
 gi'ven as the minimum height. This tendency to 
 
 Royal Pern 
 
PLATE 
 
 ROYAL FERN 
 Pinnul* of Royal Fern b Showing veining 
 
 69 
 
PROIIP II FERT1LE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE KEST OF FROND 
 
 depauperization one notices especially in dry 
 marshes near the sea. 
 
 To the Royal Fern the old herbalists attributed 
 many valuable qualities. One old writer, who calls 
 it the " Water Fern," says : " This hath all the vir- 
 tues mentioned in other ferns, and is much more 
 effective than they both for inward and outward 
 griefs, and is accounted good for wounds, bruises, 
 and the like." 
 
 The title " flowering fern " sometimes misleads 
 those who are so unfamiliar with the habits of ferns 
 as to imagine that they ever flower. That it really 
 is descriptive was proved to me only a few weeks 
 ago when I received a pressed specimen of a 
 fertile frond accompanied by the request to in- 
 form the writer as to the name of the flower in- 
 closed, which seemed to him to belong to the 
 Sumach family. 
 
 The origin of the generic name Osmunda seems 
 somewhat obscure. It is said to be derived from 
 Osmunder, the Saxon Thor. In his Herbal Gerarde 
 tells us that Osmunda regalis was formerly called 
 " Osmund, the Waterman," in allusion, perhaps, to 
 its liking for a home in the marshes. One legend 
 claims that a certain Osmund, living at Loch Tyne, 
 saved his wife and child from the inimical Danes 
 by hiding them upon an island among masses 
 of flowering ferns, and that in after years the 
 child so shielded named the stately plants after her 
 father. 
 
FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 The following lines from Wordsworth point to 
 still another origin of the generic name : 
 
 " often, trifling with a privilege 
 Alike indulged to all, we paused, one now, 
 And now the other, to point out, perchance 
 To pluck, some flower, or water-weed, too fair 
 Either to be divided from the place 
 On which it grew, or to be left alone 
 To its own beauty. Many such there are, 
 Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall fern, 
 So stately, of the Queen Osmunda named ; 
 Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode 
 On Grasmere's beach, than Naiad by the side 
 Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere, 
 Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance." 
 
 The Royal Fern may be cultivated easily in deep 
 mounds of rich soil shielded somewhat from the 
 suru 
 
II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 11 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 6. INTERRUPTED FERN 
 
 Osmunda Claytoniana 
 
 Newfoundland to North Carolina, in swampy places. Two to 
 four feet high. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Oblong-lanceolate, once-pinnate, pinna cut into 
 oblong, obtuse divisions, without a tuft of wool at the base of each 
 pinna. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Taller than the sterile, leaf -like above and 
 !below, some of the middle pinnae fruit-bearing. 
 
 The Interrupted Fern makes its appearance in 
 the woods and meadows and along the roadsides in 
 May. It fruits as it unfolds. 
 
 At first the fruiting pinnae are almost black. Later 
 they become golden-green, and after the spores are 
 discharged they turn brown. They are noticeable 
 all summer, and serve to identify the plant at once. 
 
 In the absence of the fertile fronds it is often 
 difficult to distinguish between the Cinnamon Fern 
 and the Interrupted Fern. 
 
 The sterile fronds of the Interrupted Fern are 
 usually less erect, curving outward much more 
 noticeably than those of the Cinnamon Fern. Then, 
 too, its pinnae are cut into segments that are more ob- 
 tuse, and the whole effect of the frond is more stubby. 
 
 But the most distinguishing feature of all is the 
 tuft of rusty wool which clings to the base of each 
 pinna of the sterile fronds of the Cinnamon Fern. 
 These tufts we do not find in the Interrupted Fern, 
 though both plants come into the world warmly 
 wrapped in wool. 
 
 The Interrupted Fern is a peculiarly graceful plant. 
 
 72 
 
PLATE V) 
 
 INTERRUPTED FERN 
 Clusters of sporangia b Showing veining 
 
 73 
 
Its fertile 
 fronds, stand- 
 ing quite erect 
 below but curving 
 outward above the 
 fruiting pinnae, are 
 set in a somewhat 
 shallow vase formed 
 by the sterile fronds, 
 which fall away in 
 every direction. 
 
 In the fall the 
 fronds turn yel- 
 low, and 
 at times 
 are so 
 brilliant 
 that 
 they 
 flood the 
 woods 
 with gold* 
 en light. 
 
 Like the 
 other Os- 
 mundas, 
 the Inter- 
 r u p t e d 
 Fern is 
 easily cuL 
 tivated. 
 
 Interrupted Fern 
 74 
 
7. CLIMBING FERN. CREEPING 
 FERN. HARTFORD FERN 
 
 Lygodium palmatum 
 
 Massachusetts and southward, in moist 
 thickets and open woods. Stalks 
 slender and twining. 
 
 Fronds. Climbing and twining, one 
 to three feet long, divided into lobed, 
 rounded, heart - shaped, short - stalked 
 segments ; fruit - clusters, growing at 
 the summit of the frond, ripening in 
 September. 
 
 The Climbing Fern is still found 
 occasionally in moist thickets and 
 open woods from Massachusetts southward, 
 but at one time it was picked so reck- 
 lessly for decorative purposes that it was almost 
 exterminated. 
 
 In 1869 the legislature of Connecticut passed for 
 ,ts protection a special law which was embodied in 
 she revision of the statutes of 1875, "perhaps the 
 
 75 
 
II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 II FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 only instance in statute law," Dr. Eaton remarks, 
 " where a plant has received special legal protec- 
 tion solely on account of its beauty." 
 
 I have never seen the plant growing, but remem- 
 ber that when a child my home in New York was 
 abundantly decorated with the pressed fronds which 
 had been brought from Hart- 
 ford for the purpose. Even in 
 that lifeless condition their grace 
 and beauty made a deep impres- 
 sion on my mind. 
 
 Mr. Saunders has described it 
 as he found it growing in com- 
 oMertiie pinnui. pany with Schizcza, in the New 
 
 Jersey pine barrens : 
 
 " Lygodium palmatum ... is one of the love- 
 liest of American plants, with twining stem adorned 
 with palmate leaflets, bearing small resemblance to 
 the popular idea of a fern. It loves the shaded, 
 mossy banks of the quiet streams whose cool, clear, 
 amber waters, murmuring over beds of pure white 
 sand, are so characteristic of the pine country. 
 There the graceful fronds are to be found, some- 
 times clambering a yard high over the bushes and 
 cat-briers ; sometimes trailing down the bank until 
 their tips touch the surface of the water. 
 
 " The Lygodium is reckoned among the rare 
 plants of the region though often growing in good- 
 sized patches when found at all and is getting 
 rarer. Many of the localities which knew it once 
 
 now know it no more, both because of the depre- 
 
 76 
 
rROIIP II FE R TILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 dations of ruthless collectors, and, to some extent, 
 probably, the ravages of fire. The plant is "in its 
 prime in early fall, but may be looked for up to the 
 time of killing frosts." 
 
 8. ADDER'S TONGUE 
 
 Ophioglossum vulgatum 
 
 Canada to New Jersey and Kentucky, in moist meadows. Two 
 inches to one foot high. 
 
 Sterile portion. An ovate, fleshy leaf. 
 
 Fertile portion. A simple spike, usually long-stalked. 
 
 The unprofessional fern collector is likely to 
 agree with Gray in considering the Adder's 
 Tongue "not common/' Many botanists, however, 
 believe the plant to be " overlooked rather than 
 rare." In an article on O. vulgatum, which ap- 
 peared some years ago in the Fern Bulletin, Mr. A. 
 A. Eaton writes : 
 
 " Previous to 1895 Ophioglossum vulgatum was 
 unknown to me, and was considered very rare, only 
 two localities being known in Essex County, Mass. 
 Early in the year a friend gave me two specimens. 
 From these I got an idea of how the thing looked. 
 On the nth of last July, while collecting Habenaria 
 lacera in a ' bound-out ' mowing field, I was de- 
 lighted to notice a spike of fruit in the grass. A 
 search revealed about sixty, just right to collect, 
 with many unfruitful specimens. A few days later, 
 
 77 
 
II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 while raking in a similar locality, I found several, 
 within a stone's throw of the house, demonstrating 
 again the well-known fact that a thing once seen is 
 easily discovered again. On the 23d of last August, 
 while riding on my bicycle, I noticed a field that 
 appeared to be the right locality, and an investiga- 
 tion showed an abundance of them. I subsequently 
 found it in another place. This year, on May 28th, 
 I found it in another locality just as it was coming 
 up, and I have since found three others. I con- 
 sider it abundant here, only appearing rare because 
 growing hidden in fine grass in old mowing fields, 
 after the red top and timothy have died out, and the 
 finer species of Carex are coming in. A good in- 
 dex plant is the Habenaria quoted. I have never 
 found it except when associated with this plant, 
 on a cold, heavy soil. The leaf is usually hidden, 
 or, if not, is easily passed by for Maianthemum or 
 Pogonia." 
 
 In the " Grete Herbal " of Gerarde we read that 
 " the leaves of Adder's Tongue stamped in a stone 
 mortar, and boiled in oyle olive unto the consump- 
 tion of the juice, and until the herbs be dried and 
 parched and then strained, will yeelde mostexcellent 
 greene oyle or rather a balsame for greene wounds 
 comparable to oyle of St. John's-wort if it do not 
 farre surpasse it." 
 
 It is said that " Adder's Spear Ointment," made 
 from the fresh fronds of this plant is still used for 
 wounds in English villages. 
 
 The Adder's Tongue was believed formerly to 
 
 78 
 
PLATE V!i 
 
 ADDER'S TONGUE 
 79 
 
TRO1IP II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 Rattlesnake Fern 
 
 have poisonous qualities, which 
 not only injured the cattle that 
 fed upon it, but destroyed the 
 grass in which it grew. 
 
 9. RATTLESNAKE FERN. VIR- 
 GINIA GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium Virginianum 
 
 Nova Scotia to Florida, in rich woods. 
 One or two feet high, at times much 
 smaller, when it be- 
 comes B. gracile. 
 
 Sterile portion. 
 Usually broader than 
 long, spreading, with 
 three main divisions 
 which are cut into many 
 smaller segments, thin, 
 set close to the stem 
 about half way up. 
 
 Fertile portion. 
 Long-stalked, more than 
 once-pinnate. 
 
 On our rambles 
 through the woods 
 we are more likely 
 to encounter the 
 Rattlesnake Fern 
 than any other 
 member of the Bo- 
 trychium group. It 
 fruits in early sum- 
 So 
 
TRHIIP II FER TIL E FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 mer, but the withered fertile portion may be 
 found upon the plant much later in the year. 
 Its frequent companions are the Spinulose Shield 
 Fern, the Christmas Fern, the Silvery Spleenwort, 
 and the Maidenhair. 
 
 10. TERNATE GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium ternatum or dissectum 
 
 Nova Scotia to Florida, in moist meadows. A few inches to more 
 than a foot high. 
 
 Sterile portion. Broadly triangular, the three main divisions cut 
 again into many segments, on a separate stalk 
 from near the base of the plant, fleshy. 
 
 Fertile portion. Erect, usually considerably 
 taller than non-fruiting segment, more than once- 
 pinnate. 
 
 Of late some doubt has existed as 
 to whether B. ternatum has been act- 
 ually found in this country, although 
 the standard Floras give no evidence 
 of this uncertainty. Dr. Underwood 
 is convinced that the true B. ternatum sporangia of 
 
 . - Botrychium 
 
 is found only in Japan and China, 
 and that our species is really B. dissectum, a spe- 
 cies, not a variety. He says that this species is 
 very common in the vicinity of New York City, 
 and thence southward and westward ; that it is 
 also found in various parts of New England; 
 that it reaches its fullest development in moist, 
 
 81 
 
GROUP II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 shady woods ; that in 
 mossy meadows of 
 New England and 
 Central New York 
 the plant assumes a 
 more con- 
 tr acte d 
 habit. He 
 believes 
 
 its segments 
 are more apt 
 to be divided in shady 
 situations than in open, 
 sunny ground. 
 The Ternate Grape Fern fruits in the fall. 
 
 Part of sterile 
 
 portion of 
 B. dissectum 
 
 IX. LITTLE GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium simplex 
 
 Canada to Maryland, in moist woods and in fields. Two to four 
 inches high, rarely a little taller. 
 
 Sterile portion. Somewhat oblong, more or less lobed, occa- 
 sionally 3-7 divided, usually short-stalked from near the middle 
 of the plant, thick and fleshy. 
 
 Fertile portion. Either simple or once or twice-pinnate, taller 
 than the sterile portion. 
 
 This little plant is sufficiently rare to rejoice the 
 Heart of the fern hunter who *s so fortunate as to 
 
 8a 
 
TROIIP II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 stumble upon it by chance or to trace it to its 
 chosen haunts. 
 
 It is generally considered an inhabitant of moist 
 woods and meadows, though Mr. Pringle describes 
 it as " abundantly scattered over Vermont, its habi- 
 tat usually poor soil, especially knolls of hill pas- 
 tures," and Mr. Dodge assigns it to " dry fields." 
 It fruits in May or June. 
 
 12. MOONWORT 
 
 Botrychitim LunarL 
 
 Newfoundland to Connecticut and Central New York, in dry 
 pastures. Tr ee inches to nearly one foot high. A very fleshy 
 plant. 
 
 Sterile portion. Oblong, cut into several fan-shaped fleshy 
 divisions, growing close to the stem about the middle of the plant. 
 
 Fertile portion. Branching, long-stalked, usually the same 
 height as or taller than the sterile portion. 
 
 The Moonwort is another of our rare little plants. 
 It grows usually in dry pastures, fruiting in July. 
 
 Formerly it was accredited with various magic 
 powers. Gathered by moonlight, it was said to 
 " do wonders." The English poet Drayton refers 
 to the Moonwort as " Lunary " : 
 
 " Then sprinkled she the juice of rue 
 With nine drops of the midnight dew 
 From Lunary distilling." 
 
 Gerarde mentions its use by alchemists, who 
 called it Martagon. In the work of Coles, an early 
 writer on plants, we read : " It is said, yea, and 
 believed by many that Moonwort will open the 
 
 8 4 
 
.ATE IX 
 
 y- 
 
 MOONWORT 
 
 LANCE LEAVED GRAPE FERN 
 
CROUP II FE R TILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 
 FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 
 
 locks wherewith dwelling-houses are made fast, if 
 it be put into the keyhole ; as also that it will loosen 
 . . . shoes from those horses' feet that go on the 
 places where it grows." 
 
 It is to the Moonwort that Withers alludes in the 
 following lines : 
 
 " There is an herb, some say, whose vertue's such 
 It in the pasture, only with a touch 
 Unshoes the new-shod steed." 
 
 13. MATRICARY GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium matricaricefolium 
 
 Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and wet meadows. Two 
 inches to one foot high. 
 
 Sterile portion. Once or twice divided, sometimes very fleshy, 
 growing high up on the stem. 
 
 Fertile portion. With several branched pinnae. 
 
 This plant is found, often in the companionship of 
 B. Virginianum, in woods and wet meadows, not 
 farther south than New Jersey. It fruits in summer. 
 
 14. LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN 
 
 Botrychium lanceolatum 
 
 Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and meadows. Two to 
 nine inches high. 
 
 Sterile portion. Triangular, twice-pinnatifid, with somewhat 
 lance-shaped segments, hardly fleshy, set close to the top of the 
 common stalk. 
 
 Fertile portion. Branching. 
 
 Like the Matricary Grape Fern, this plant is 
 found in the woods and wet meadows from Nova 
 Scotia to New Jersey. It fruits also in summer. 
 
 86 
 
GROUP III 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE IN 
 
 APPEARANCE, YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM 
 
 STERILE FRONDS 
 
 15. SLENDER CLIFF BRAKE 
 
 Pcll<za gracilis (P. Stelleri) 
 
 Labrador to Pennsylvania, usually on sheltered rocks, preferring 
 limestone. Two to five inches long, with straw-colored or pale- 
 brown stalks, slightly chaffy below. 
 
 Fronds. Delicate, with few pinnag ; pinnce, the lower ones once 
 or twice parted into 3-5 divisions, those of the fertile frond 
 oblong or linear-oblong, sparingly incised, of the sterile frond ovate 
 or obovate, toothed or incised ; sporangia bordering the pinnae of 
 the fertile frond, covered by a broad and usually continuous gen- 
 eral indusium, formed by the reflexed margin of ti\z pinnule. 
 
 The first time I found the Slender Cliff Brake 
 was one July day in Central New York, under the 
 kind guidance of an enthusiastic fern collector. A 
 rather perilous climb along the sides of a thickly 
 wooded glen brought us to a spot where our only 
 security lay in clinging to the trees, which, like our- 
 
 87 
 
PROIIP Til F R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 selves, had obtained doubtful standing-room. In a 
 pocket in the limestone just above us I was shown 
 a very brown and withered little plant which only 
 the closest scrutiny in combination with a certain 
 amount of foreknowledge could identify as the 
 Slender Cliff Brake. The season had been a dry 
 one and the plant had perished, I fancy, for lack of 
 water, in spite of the stream which plunged from 
 the top of the cliffs close by, almost near enough, it 
 seemed to me, to moisten with its spray 
 our hot cheeks. 
 
 Later in the season I found more prom- 
 ising though not altogether satisfactory 
 specimens of this plant growing in other 
 rocky crevices of the same deep glen, 
 in the neighborhood of the Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort, the Walking Leaf, and the 
 Bulblet Bladder Fern. 
 
 My sister tells me that late in August 
 on the cliffs which border the St. Lawrence River, 
 refreshed by the myriad streams which leap or 
 trickle down their sides, under the hanging roots 
 of trees, close to clusters of quivering harebells 
 and pale tufts of the Brittle Bladder Fern, the 
 Slender Cliff Brake grows in profusion, its delicate 
 fronds rippling over one another so closely that at 
 times they give the effect of a long, luxuriant moss. 
 On most occasions, in these soft beds of foliage, 
 she found the fertile fronds, which are far more 
 slender and unusual looking than the sterile, largely 
 
 predominating, though at times a patch would be 
 
 88 
 
III 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 made up chiefly of the sterile fronds. These some- 
 what resemble the Brittle Bladder Fern in whose 
 company they are seen so often. 
 
rpnnp in FE R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 
 UKUUf 111 YT D , FFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 16. PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE 
 
 Pellcea atropurpurea 
 
 Canada to Georgia and westward, usually on limestone cliffs ; with 
 wiry purplish stalks. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Six to twenty inches high, leathery, bluish-green, 
 pale underneath, once, or below twice, pinnate ; pinnce, upper ones 
 long and narrow, lower ones usually with one to four pairs of 
 broadly linear pinnules ; sporangia bordering the pinnae, bright 
 brown at maturity ; indusium formed by the reflexed margin of the 
 frond. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Usually much smaller than the fertile and less 
 abundant ; pinna oblong, entire, or slightly toothed. 
 
 The Purple Cliff Brake is one of the plants that re- 
 joice in un-get-at-able and perilous situations. Al- 
 though its range is wider than that of many ferns, 
 this choice of inconvenient localities, joined to the 
 fact that it is not a common plant, renders it likely 
 "hat unless you pay it the compliment of a special 
 expedition in its honor you will never add it to the 
 list of your fern acquaintances. 
 
 But when all is said we are inestimably in debt to 
 the plants so rare or so exclusive as to entice us out 
 of our usual haunts into theirs. Not only do they 
 draw us away from our books, out of our houses, 
 but off the well-known road and the trodden path 
 into unfamiliar woods which stand ready to reveal 
 fresh treasures, across distant pastures where the 
 fragrant wind blows away the memory of small 
 anxieties, up into the hills from whose summits we 
 get new views. 
 
 Although the Purple Cliff Brake grows, I believe 
 
 90 
 
PLATE K 
 
 PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE 
 a Portion of fertile frond 
 
III *ER TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 within fifteen miles of my home in Albany, I never 
 saw the plant until this summer some hundred miles 
 nearer the centre of the State. During a morning 
 call I chanced to mention that I was anxious to find 
 two or three ferns which were said to grow in the 
 neighborhood. My hostess told me that twenty-five 
 years before, on some limestone cliffs about eight 
 miles away, she had found two unknown ferns which 
 had been classified and labelled by a botanical friend. 
 Excusing herself she left me and soon returned with 
 carefully pressed specimens of the Purple Cliff 
 Brake and the little Rue Spleenwort, the two ferns 
 I was most eager to find. Such moments as I ex- 
 perienced then of long-deferred but peculiar satis- 
 faction go far toward making one an apostle of 
 hobbies. My pleasure was increased by the kind 
 offer to guide me to the spot which had yielded the 
 specimens. > 
 
 One morning soon after we were set down at the 
 little railway station from which we purposed to 
 walk to the already-mentioned cliffs. We were not 
 without misgivings as we followed an indefinite path 
 across some limestone quarries, for a plant may 
 easily disappear from a given station in the course of 
 twenty-five years. In a few moments the so-called 
 path disappeared in a fringe of bushes which evi- 
 dently marked the beginning of a precipitous de- 
 scent. Cautiously clinging to whatever we could 
 lay hold of, bushes, roots of trees or imbedded rocks, 
 we climbed over the cliff's side, still following the 
 semblance of a path. On our left a stream plunged 
 
 9* 
 
... FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 nearly two hundred feet into the ravine below. For 
 some distance the eye could follow its silver course, 
 then it disappeared beneath the arching trees. On 
 our right, many miles beyond, through the blue haze 
 which hung over the distant valley, we could see the 
 lake to which the stream was hurrying. 
 
 We could not surrender ourselves with comfort 
 to the beauty of the outlook, as our surroundings 
 were not such as to put us altogether at ease. Over- 
 head hung great rocks, so cracked and seamed and 
 shattered as to threaten a complete downfall, while 
 beneath our feet the path which led along the face 
 of the cliff crumbled away, so that it was difficult 
 in places to obtain any foothold. Having passed 
 the more perilous spots, however, we became accus- 
 tomed to the situation and turned our attention to 
 the unpromising wall of rock which rose beside us. 
 From its crevices hung graceful festoons of Bulblet 
 Bladder Fern, and apparently nothing but Bulblet 
 Bladder Fern. But soon one of the party gave a 
 cry and pointed in triumph to a bluish-green cluster 
 of foliage which sprang from a shallow pocket over- 
 head. Even though one had not seen the plant 
 before, there was no mistaking the wiry purplish 
 stalks, the leathery, pinnately parted, blue-green 
 fronds, and, above all, the marginal rows of bright 
 brown sporangia peculiar to the Purple Cliff Brake. 
 Soon after we found several other plants, all of them 
 decidedly scraggly in appearance, with but few 
 green fronds and many leafless stalks. Occasion, 
 ally a small sterile frond, with broader, more oblong 
 
 93 
 
TROIIP III FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FKOM STEKILE FRONDS 
 
 pinnse, could be seen, but these were in the minority. 
 A number of very young plants, with little, heart- 
 shaped leaves altogether unlike the mature fronds, 
 were wedged in neighboring crannies. 
 
 As our eyes grew more accustomed to the con- 
 tour and coloring of the cliffs, the success of the 
 day was completed by the discovery of several 
 specimens of the little Rue Spleenwort with tiny 
 fronds flattened against the rock. 
 
 When next I saw the Purple Cliff Brake it 
 seemed to me quite a different fern from the rather 
 awkward plant, the mere sight of which I had wel- 
 comed so eagerly that any unfavorable criticism of 
 its appearance seems ungrateful. 
 
 Again it sprang from limestone cliffs, even more 
 remote and inaccessible though less dangerous than 
 those where I saw it first. These cliffs were so 
 shattered in places that the broken fragments lay in 
 heaps at their base and on the projecting ledges. 
 Here and there a great shaft of rock had broken 
 away and stood like the turret of a castle or the 
 bastion of a fort. Among the shattered fragments 
 high up on the cliff's side the Purple Cliff Brake 
 grew in a luxuriant profusion that was amazing in 
 view of the surroundings. The rigid, erect fronds 
 formed large tufts of greenish-gray foliage that, at 
 a little distance, so blended with their rocky back- 
 ground as to be almost indistinguishable. The 
 fronds usually were much more compound than 
 those I had seen a few weeks before. The separate 
 plants had a vigorous, bushy appearance that did 
 
 94 
 
TIT FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET D1FFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 not suggest the same species. Many of 
 the pinnae were so turned as to display 
 the ripe sporangia, which formed a bright- 
 brown border to the pale, slender divis- 
 ions. Here, too, the small sterile fronds 
 were very rare. 
 
 Growing from the broken rocks in 
 among the Purple Cliff Brake were thrif- 
 ty little tufts of the Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort. This tiny plant 
 seemed to have forgotten its shy- 
 ness and to have forsworn its love 
 for moist, shaded, mossy rocks, 
 fa ventured boldly out upon these 
 barren cliffs, exposing itself to 
 the fierce glare of the sun and to 
 every blast of wind, and holding 
 itself upright with a saucy self- 
 assurance that seemed strangely 
 at variance with its nature. 
 
 Near by a single patch of the 
 Walking Leaf climbed up the face 
 of the cliff while, perhaps strang- 
 est of all, from the decaying 
 trunk of a tree, which lay pros- 
 trate among the rocks, sprang a 
 single small but perfect plant of 
 the Ebony Spleenwort, a fern 
 which was a complete stranger 
 in this locality, so far as I could 
 learn. 
 
 95 
 
 More compound frond 
 of Purple Cl ; ff Brake 
 
 Sterile 
 
III 
 1 
 
 F R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YT DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STEKILE FRONDS 
 
 17. CHRISTMAS FERN 
 
 Aspidium acrostic hoides (Dryopteris acrostic hoides) 
 
 New Brunswick to Florida, in rocky woods. One to two and a 
 half feet high, with very chaffy stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-shaped, once-pinnate, fertile fronds contracted 
 toward the summit ; pinna narrowly lance-shaped, half halberd- 
 shaped at the slightly stalked base, bristly-toothed, the upper ones 
 on the fertile fronds contracted and smaller; fruit-dots round, 
 close, confluent with age, nearly covering the under surface of the 
 fertile pinnae ; indusium orbicular, fixed by the depressed centre. 
 
 Of our evergreen ferns this is the best fitted to 
 serve as a decoration in winter. No other fern has 
 
 such deep-green, highly pol- 
 ished fronds. They need 
 only a mixture of red ber- 
 ries to become a close rival 
 to the holly at Christmas- 
 time. 
 
 Wrapped in a garment 
 of brown scales, the young 
 fronds of the Christmas 
 Fern are sent into the world 
 early in the spring. When we go to the woods in 
 April to look for arbutus, or to listen to the first 
 songs of the robin and the bluebird, we notice that 
 last year's fronds are still fresh and green. Low 
 down among them, curled up like tawny caterpillars, 
 are the young fronds. The arbutus will have made 
 way for pink and blue and white hepaticas, for starry 
 bloodroot, and for tremulous anemones ; thrushes 
 and orioles will have joined the robins and the blue- 
 birds before these new-comers present much of an 
 
 96 
 
 Portion of fertile frond 
 
appearance. When 
 the tender, delicately 
 green fronds are first 
 unrolled they contrast 
 
 strongly with 
 their polished, 
 dark-green, 
 leathery com- 
 panions. 
 
 In this plant 
 the difference is quite 
 conspicuous between 
 the fertile and the sterile fronds. 
 The sterile ones are shorter and 
 apparently broader, while the fer- 
 tile are tall, slender, and notice- 
 ably contracted by the abundantly 
 fruiting pinnae near the apex. 
 
 Christmas Fr 
 
18. NARROW-LEAVED SPLEEN 
 WORT 
 
 Aspleniutn angustifoliunt 
 
 Canada to Kentucky, in moist woods. Two 
 to four feet high. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Thin, smooth, lance- 
 shaped, perishable, once-pinnate. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Taller, narrower, longer- 
 stalked ; pinna more narrowly lance-shaped 
 than on sterile fronds ; fruit-dots linear, a 
 row on each side the midvein ; indusium 
 slightly convex. 
 
 If we make an expedition to the 
 woods early in July we may, per- 
 haps, find some plants of the Nar- 
 row-leaved Spleenwort. At this 
 season they are specially attract- 
 ive, with smooth, delicate, pale-green fronds, so re- 
 cently unfolded as to be full of little undulations, 
 which they lose more or less at maturity, and 
 which are as indicative of youth as the curves and 
 dimples of a baby. 
 
 98 
 
NARROW-LEAVED SPLEENWORT 
 a Magnified pinna of fertile frond 
 
 99 
 
TROIIP III FE R TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 Late in August the plant has reached a stately 
 height, perhaps of three or four feet. The fronds 
 are still smooth and delicate to a degree unusual 
 even in ferns. But they wear a deeper green, and 
 their texture seems a trifle more substantial. Oc- 
 casionally, though rarely in the deeper woods, we 
 find a frond which is conspicuously longer-stalked, 
 taller, narrower than the others, with pinnae more 
 distant and more contracted. A glance at its lower 
 surface discovers double rows of brown, linear fruit- 
 dots. 
 
 Though one of the largest of its tribe, the Nar- 
 row-leaved Spleenwort suggests greater fragility, 
 a keener sensitiveness to uncongenial conditions, 
 than any other of our native ferns. A storm which 
 leaves the other inhabitants of the forest almost un- 
 touched beats down its fronds, tender and perish- 
 able even in maturity. 
 
 This very fragility, accompanied as it is with 
 beauty of form and color, in the midst of the some- 
 what coarse and hardy growth of the August woods, 
 lends the plant a peculiar charm. 
 
 I find it growing beneath great basswoods, lichen- 
 spotted beeches, and sugar maples with trunks branch- 
 less for fifty feet, soaring like huge shipmasts into 
 the blue above. 
 
 Almost the only flowers in its neighborhood, for 
 in midsummer wood-flowers are rare, are the tiny 
 pink blossoms of the herb Robert, that invincible 
 little plant which never wearies in well-doing, but 
 persists in flowering from June till October, the 
 
 100 
 
Til FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 violet-blue heads of the almost equally untiring self- 
 heal and the yellow pitchers of the pale touch-me- 
 not or jewel-weed. This plant, a close relative of 
 the more southern and better known spotted touch- 
 me-not, grows in great patches almost in the heart 
 of the woods. The lack of flowers is somewhat 
 atoned for by the coral clusters of the red baneberry 
 and the black-spotted, china-like fruit of the white 
 baneberry. 
 
 But ferns chiefly abound in these woods. Every- 
 where I notice the thin, spreading frond and with- 
 ered fruit-cluster of the Rattlesnake Fern, in my ex- 
 perience the most ubiquitous member of the Botry- 
 chium group. More or less frequent are graceful 
 crowns of the Spinulose Shield Fern, slender shining 
 fronds of Christmas Fern, dull-green groups of Sil- 
 very Spleenwort and stately plumes of Goldie's 
 Fern. As we draw near the wood's border, where 
 the yellow sunlit fields of grain shine between the tall 
 maple shafts, we push aside umbrella-like Brakes. 
 At the very limits of the woods, close against the 
 rails, grows the sweet-scented Dicksonia. 
 
 101 
 
GROUP III 
 
 FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET- DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 19. NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN 
 
 Woodvoardia angustifolia 
 Swampy places from Maine to Florida, in wet woods near the coast. 
 
 Sterile fronds. Twelve to eighteen inches high, pinnatifid with 
 minutely toothed divisions united by a broad wing. 
 
 Fertile fronds. Taller than the sterile, once-pinnate ; pinna 
 much contracted ; fruit-dots in a single row each side of the sec- 
 ondary midribs ; indusium fixed by its outer margin, opening on 
 the side next the midrib. 
 
 The Woodwardias are associated in my mind 
 with sea-air, pine-trees, and the flat, sandy country 
 near Buzzard's Bay, Mass. Both 
 species were met with in one walk 
 not far from the shore. 
 
 A little stream, scarcely 
 more than a ditch, divided 
 an open, sunny meadow 
 from a bit of evergreen 
 wood, and on the steep 
 banks of this runlet grew the bright fronds 
 of Woodwardia angustifolia, giving at first 
 glance somewhat the impression of Ono- 
 clea sensibilis. The fronds of both are de- 
 scribed as pinnatifid, and in this Wood- 
 wardia we find the divisions minutely 
 toothed (a), giving them a rough outline 
 which is wanting in Onoclea sensibilis. 
 These are the sterile fronds. Among them 
 and taller than they are the fertile fronds 
 with very narrow divisions, covered on the lower 
 side with the chains of fruit-dots (). 
 
 102 
 
PLATE Xl> 
 
 NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN 
 103 
 
TROIIP III FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 
 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 
 
 It is a handsome fern and very satisfactory to the 
 novice in fern hunting, because, taking fertile and 
 sterile fronds together, it cannot be confused with 
 any other species. 
 
 Crossing the tiny stream, a path dim with the 
 shade of low, dense evergreens and soft and elastic 
 underfoot from their fallen leaves, leads through 
 the woods. Here among the partridge-vine that 
 runs over the rocks, growing from the soft, spongy 
 soil, are groups of the sterile fronds only of this 
 Woodwardia, charming little clumps of fresh green 
 that invite one to dig them up and plant them in 
 boxes or baskets for decorative purposes. 
 
 104 
 
GROUP IV 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED PORTION 
 
 OF THE MARGIN 
 
 20. BRAKE. BRACKEN. EAGLE FERN 
 
 Pteris aquilina 
 
 Almost throughout North America, in dry, somewhat open 
 places. One to two feet high ordinarily, occasionally much higher. 
 
 Fronds. Solitary, one to two feet wide, cut into three primary 
 divisions which are twice-pinnate, widely spreading at the summit 
 cf an erect, stout stalk ; sporangia borne in a continuous line 
 along the lower margin of the frond ; indusium formed by the 
 reflexed edge of the frond. 
 
 Of all ferns the Brake is the most widely dis- 
 tributed. It occurs in one form or another in all 
 parts of the world. With us it grows commonly 
 from one to two feet high, occasionally higher. In 
 Oregon it attains a height of six or seven feet, in 
 the Andes of fourteen feet. 
 
 It is a vigorous and often a beautiful and striking 
 plant, growing abundantly on sunny hillsides and 
 in open woods. 
 
 105 
 
GROUP IV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 In the spring or early summer its solitary spread* 
 ing frond, light-green and delicate in color, might 
 almost be confused with the Oak Fern. Later its 
 green takes on a dark, dull shade, and its general 
 
 aspect becomes more 
 hardy than that of 
 any other fern. 
 
 The Brake is be- 
 
 lieved to be 
 
 " fearn " of the early J? 
 
 Saxons and to have given this pre- 
 fix to many English towns and vil- 
 lages, such as Fearnhow or Farn- 
 how, Farningham, etc. 
 
 It is one of the few ferns men- 
 tioned by name in general litera- 
 ture. In the " Lady of the Lake " 
 it is alluded to in the song of the heir of Armandave 
 
 " The heath this night must be my bed, 
 The Bracken curtain for my head." 
 106 
 
 Brake 
 
TROIIP IV FE R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 Pteris esculenta, a variety of our Brake, is said to 
 have been one of the chief articles of food in New 
 Zealand. It was called " fern-root," and in Dr. 
 Thompson's " Story of New Zealand " is spoken of 
 as follows : " This food is celebrated in song, and 
 the young women, in laying before travellers bas- 
 kets of cooked fern-root, chant : 
 ' What shall be our food? Shall 
 shellfish and fern-root? That is 
 the root of the earth ; that is the 
 food to satisfy a man ; the tongues 
 grow by reason of the licking, 
 as if it were the tongue of a 
 
 dog; ; 
 
 The titles Brake and Bracken 
 are not always confined to their 
 lawful owner. Frequently they 
 are applied to any large ferns, 
 such as the Osmundas, or even to 
 such superficially fern-like plants 
 as Myrica asplenifolia, the so-called 
 sweet fern. 
 
 There is a difference of opinion 
 as to the origin of the plant's sci- 
 
 . . r i . , . {* i Pinnule of Brake showing 
 
 entmc name, which signifies eagle refiexed ed ges 
 
 wing. Some suppose it to be derived from the 
 outline of the heraldic eagle which has been seen 
 by the imaginative in a cross-section of the young 
 stalk. It seems more likely that a resemblance has 
 been fancied between the spreading frond and the 
 
 plumage of an eagle. 
 
 107 
 
IV F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 The Brake turns brown in autumn, but does not 
 wither away till the following year. 
 
 21. MAIDENHAIR 
 
 Adiantum pedatum 
 
 Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south to Georgia and Arkansas, 
 in moist woods. Ten to eighteen inches high. 
 
 Fronds. Forked at the summit of the slender black and pol- 
 ished stalk, the recurved branches bearing on one side several 
 slender, spreading pinnate divisions ; pinnules obliquely triangular- 
 oblong ; sporangia in short fruit-dots on the under margin of a lobe 
 of the frond ; indusium formed by the reflexed lobe or tooth of the 
 frond. 
 
 For purposes of identification it would seem 
 almost superfluous to describe the Maidenhair, a 
 
 plant which probably is more 
 generally appreciated than 
 all the rest of the ferns to- 
 gether. Yet, strangely 
 enough, it is confused con- 
 stantly with other plants and 
 with plants which are not 
 ferns. 
 
 Perhaps the early meadow rue 
 is the plant most commonly mis- 
 taken for the Maidenhair. While 
 it does not suggest strikingly our 
 
 A pinna of Maidenhair , & J 
 
 eastern fern, its lobed and rounded 
 leaflets bear a likeness to certain species native to 
 other parts of the country, notably to A. Capillus- 
 
 Veneris, the Venus-hair Fern of the southern States. 
 
 1 08 
 
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED 
 
 r PHI IP TV 
 
 But it is not easy to convince a friend that he has 
 made a mistake in this regard. You chance to be 
 driving by a bank overgrown with the early mead- 
 ow rue when he calls your attention to the unusual 
 abundance of Maidenhair in the neighborhood. To 
 his rather indignant surprise you suggest that the 
 plant he saw was not Maidenhair, but the early 
 meadow rue. If he have the least reverence for 
 your botanical attainments he grudgingly admits 
 that possibly it was not the ordinary Maidenhair, 
 but maintains stoutly that it was a more uncom- 
 mon species which abounds in his especial neigh- 
 borhood. If truly diplomatic you hold your peace 
 and change the subject, but 
 if possessed by a torment- 
 ing love of truth which is 
 always getting you into 
 trouble, you state sadly but 
 firmly that our northeast- 
 
 ern States have but one spe- Jj A P innula of wid.nhair 
 cies of Maidenhair, and that 
 
 it is more than improbable that the favored neighbor- 
 hood of his home (for it is always an unusually rich 
 locality) offers another. The result of this discus- 
 sion is that mentally you are pronounced both con- 
 ceited and pig-headed. For a few weeks the plants 
 in question are passed without comment, but by an- 
 other summer the rich growth of Maidenhair is again 
 proudly exhibited. Only in one way can you save 
 your reputation and possibly convince your friend. 
 
 When correcting him, if you glibly remark that 
 
 109 
 
Adiantum pedatum, 
 our northeastern 
 Maidenhair, is the 
 
 only species which has been found in 
 this part of the country, that A. Capil- 
 lus-Veneris, the Maidenhair which some- 
 what resembles the early meadow rue, 
 can hardly be found north 
 of Virginia, while A. tenerum 
 is found only in Florida, and 
 A. emarginatum is confined 
 to the Pacific coast, you will 
 have redeemed yourself, not 
 
 Maidenhair 
 
PRO! IP IV F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR, 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 from the stigma of conceit, far from it, but from 
 that of error. The glib utterance of Latin names 
 is attended with a strange power of silencing your 
 opponent and filling him with a sort of grudging 
 belief in your scientific attainments. 
 
 The truth is that the average layman who takes 
 an interest in plants is as sensitive regarding the 
 Maidenhair as he is about his recognition of an 
 orchid. By way of warning what more need be 
 said ? 
 
 Though the Maidenhair has a wide range and 
 grows abundantly in many localities, it possesses a 
 quality of aloofness which adds to its charm. Even 
 in neighborhoods where it grows profusely, it rarely 
 crowds to the roadside or becomes the companion 
 of your daily walks. Its chosen haunts are dim, 
 moist hollows in the woods or shaded hill-sides 
 sloping to the river. In such retreats you find the 
 feathery fronds tremulous on their black, glistening 
 stalks, and in their neighborhood you find also the 
 very spirit of the woods. 
 
 Despite its apparent fragility, the Maidenhair is 
 not difficult to cultivate if provided with sufficient 
 shade and moisture. 
 
 in 
 
TV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 IV SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 22. HAIRY LIP FERN 
 
 Cheilanthes vestita (C. lanosa) 
 
 Growing on rocks, Southern New York to Georgia. Six to fifteen 
 inches high, with brown and shining stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-lance-shaped, rough with rusty hairs, twice- 
 pinnate ; pinncB rather distant, triangular-ovate, cut into oblong, 
 more or less incised pinnules; fruit-dots roundish; indusium 
 formed by the reflexed margins of the lobes which are pushed back 
 by the matured sporangia. 
 
 Till a few years ago the most northern station for 
 the Hairy Lip Fern was supposed to be within the 
 limits of New York City. The plant was discov- 
 ered, in 1866 or 1867, on Manhattan Island, near Fort 
 Tryon, growing on rocks with an eastern exposure. 
 If one should visit this station to-day he would find 
 himself at iQ6th Street, in the city of New York, 
 some two hundred and thirty-three yards west of 
 the Kingsbridge road, and I fear there would be no 
 trace of this to us rare fern. 
 
 Since then the plant has been discovered close to 
 the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie. 
 
 Its narrowly oblong, dull-green fronds, more or 
 less covered with red-brown hairs, which give it a 
 somewhat rusty appearance, spring from the clefts 
 and ledges of rocks. 
 
 us 
 
PLATE XII 
 
 HAIRY LIP FERN 
 A fruiting pinnule 
 
IV F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 IV SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 23. HAY-SCENTED FERN 
 
 Dicksonia pilosiuscula (D. punctilobula) 
 
 Two to three feet high ; hill-sides, meadows, and thickets from 
 Canada to Tennessee. 
 
 Fronds. Ovate-lance-shaped, long-tapering, pale-green, thin 
 and very delicate in texture, slightly glandular and hairy, usually 
 thrice-pinnatifid ; pinnce lance-shaped, pointed, repeating in minia- 
 ture outline of frond ; pinnules cut again into short and obtuse 
 lobes or segments ; fruit-dots each on an elevated globular recep- 
 tacle on a recurved toothlet; indusium cup-shaped, open at the 
 top. 
 
 In parts of the country, especially from Connecti- 
 cut southward, the Hay-scented Fern is one of the 
 abundant plants. Though not essentially a rock- 
 loving plant, it rejoices in such rocky, upland 
 pastures as crown many of our lower mountain 
 ranges, " great stretches of grayish or sage-green 
 fields in which every bowlder and outcrop of rock 
 is marked by masses of the bright-green fronds 
 of Dicksonia, over which the air moves lazily, heavy 
 with the peculiar fragrance of this interesting fern." 
 Its singularly delicate, tapering, pale-green fronds, 
 curving gracefully in every direction, rank it among 
 our most beautiful and noticeable ferns. Often 
 along the roadsides it forms great masses of feath- 
 ery foliage, tempting the weary pedestrian or bi- 
 cycler to fling himself upon a couch sufficiently 
 soft and luxurious in appearance to satisfy a syba- 
 rite. But I can testify that the Hay-scented Fern 
 does not make so good a bed as it promises. 
 
 Two years ago, during a memorably hot August, 
 
 114 
 
FLATE XIV 
 
 HAY-SCENTED FERN 
 Early stage of fruiting pinnule 
 
 "5 
 
IV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MAKG1N 
 
 an afternoon drive over an unused mountain road 
 brought us to a picturesque spot where *he clear 
 stream tumbled into a rock-paved basin, suggesting 
 so vividly the joy of 
 
 " the cool silver hock 
 
 Of the plunge in a pool's living water," 
 
 that then and there we resolved soon to pitch our 
 tent upon its banks. In all respects it was not a 
 suitable camp site. There were no balsams or ever- 
 greens of any kind available for bedding in the 
 neighborhood, so when, a few days later, we had 
 taken up our quarters just above the rock-paved 
 pool, we went into our temporary back-yard where 
 the Dicksonia grew abundantly with its usual soft 
 and seductive appearance, and gathered great arm- 
 fuls for the night's rest. I must frankly own that I 
 never slept on so hard a bed. Since then I have 
 been more than ever inclined to believe that ferns 
 inhabit the earth chiefly for decorative ends. In 
 the present age they do not lend themselves as once 
 they did to medicinal purposes. Usually they are 
 without culinary value. So far as I know animals 
 refuse to eat them on account of their acrid juices. 
 And experience proves that when used as a bed 
 they do not 
 
 " medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
 
 Which thou owedst yesterday." 
 
 The Hay-scented Fern is very sensitive, wither- 
 ing with the early frosts. Sometimes in the fall it 
 
 116 
 
TV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 bleaches almost white. Then its slender fronds 
 seem like beautiful wraiths of their former selves. 
 
 The Dicksonia, as he always calls it, is Thoreau's 
 favorite among the ferns. Its fronds are sweet- 
 scented when crushed or in drying, and to their 
 fragrance he was peculiarly sensitive : 
 
 " Going along this old Carlisle road . . . road 
 where all wild things and fruits abound, where 
 there are countless rocks to jar those who venture 
 in wagons ; road which leads to and through a great 
 but not famous garden, zoological and botanical, at 
 whose gate you never arrive as I was going along 
 there, I perceived the grateful scent of the Dick- 
 sonia fern now partly decayed. It reminds me of 
 all up country, with its springy mountain-sides and 
 unexhausted vigor. Is there any essence of Dick- 
 sonia fern, I wonder? Surely that giant, who my 
 neighbor expects is to bound up the Alleghenies, 
 will have his handkerchief scented with that. The 
 sweet fragrance of decay ! When I wade through 
 by narrow cow-paths, it is as if I had strayed into 
 an ancient and decayed herb garden. Nature per- 
 fumes her garments with this essence now espe- 
 cially. She gives it to those who go a-barberrying 
 and on dark autumnal walks. The very scent of it, 
 if you have a decayed frond in your chamber, will 
 take you far up country in a twinkling. You would 
 think you had gone after the cows theje, or were 
 lost on the mountains." 
 
 Again : 
 
 "Why can we not oftener refresh one another 
 
 117 
 
CROUP IV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 with original thoughts? If the fragrance of the 
 Dicksonia fern is so grateful and suggestive to us, 
 how much more refreshing and encouraging, recre- 
 ating, would be fresh and fragrant thoughts com- 
 municated to us from a man's experience ? I want 
 none of his pity nor sympathy in the common sense, 
 but that he should emit and communicate to me his 
 essential fragrance . . . going a-huckleberrying 
 in the fields of thought, and enriching all the world 
 with his vision and his joys." 
 
 In connection with this fern Thoreau indulges in 
 one of those whimsical, enchanting disquisitions 
 with the spirit of which you are in complete accord, 
 even though you may seem to contradict the letter : 
 
 " It is only when we forget all our learning that 
 we begin to know. I do not get nearer by a hair's- 
 breadth to any natural object, so long as I presume 
 that I have an introduction to it from some learned 
 man. To conceive of it with a total apprehension, 
 I must for the thousandth time approach it as some- 
 thing totally strange. If you would make acquaint- 
 ance with the ferns, you must forget your botany. 
 Not a single scientific term or distinction is the 
 least to the purpose. You would fain perceive 
 something, and you must approach the object to- 
 tally unprejudiced. You must be aware that noth- 
 ing is what you have taken it to be. In what book 
 is this w arid and its beauty described ? Who has 
 plotted the steps toward the discovery of beauty ? 
 You must be in a different state from common. 
 
 Your greatest success will be simply to perceive 
 
 1x8 
 
IV FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 
 
 that such things are, and you will have no com- 
 munication to make to the Royal Society. If it 
 were required to know the position of the fruit-dots 
 or the character of the indusium, nothing could be 
 easier than to ascertain it ; but if it is required that 
 you be affected by ferns, that they amount to any- 
 thing, signify anything to you, that they be another 
 sacred scripture and revelation to you, helping to 
 redeem your life, this end is not so easily accom- 
 plished." 
 
GROUP V 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 24. LADY FERN 
 
 Asplenium Filix-fcemina 
 
 A wood and roadside fern, growing in all parts of the country 
 and presenting many varying forms. One to three feet high, 
 with tufted, straw-colored, reddish, or brownish stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Broadly lance-shaped, tapering toward the apex, twice- 
 pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped ; pinnules oblong-lanceolate, toothed 
 or incised ; fruit-dots short, curved ; indusiutn delicate, curved, 
 sometimes shaped like a horseshoe. 
 
 The Lady Fern is found in all parts of the coun- 
 try. Sometimes it forms a part of the tangle of wild, 
 graceful things which grow close to the roadside 
 fence. Again, in company with the Silvery Spleen- 
 wort, the Evergreen Wood Fern and the Spinuiose 
 Shield Fern, forming perhaps a background for 
 the brilliant scarlet clusters of the wild bergamot, 
 it fringes the banks of some amber-colored brook 
 which surprises us with its swift, noiseless flow as 
 we stroll through the woods. 
 
 The earliest fronds uncurl in May. In June the 
 
PLA1E 
 
AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 plant is very graceful and pleasing. When growing 
 in shaded places it is often conspicuous by reason 
 of its bright pink or reddish stalks, which contrast 
 effectively with the delicate green of the foliage. 
 But in later summer, judging by my own experience, 
 the Lady Fern loses much of its delicacy. Many 
 of its fronds become disfigured and present a rather 
 blotched and coarse appearance. 
 
 This seems strange in view of the fact that the 
 plant is called by Lowe, a well-known English writer, 
 the " Queen of Ferns," and that it is one of the few 
 ferns to which we find reference in literature. Scott 
 pays it the compliment, rarely bestowed upon ferns, 
 of mentioning it by name : 
 
 " Where the copse wood is the greenest, 
 Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 
 Where the morning dew lies longest, 
 There the Lady Fern grows strongest." 
 
 In English works devoted to ferns I find at least 
 two poems, more remarkable for enthusiasm than 
 for poetic inspiration, in its honor. I quote a portion 
 of the one which occurs in Miss Pratt's " Ferns of 
 Great Britain and Their Allies " : 
 
 " But seek her not in early May, 
 
 For a Sibyl then she looks, 
 With wrinkled fronds that seem to say, 
 
 ' Shut up are my wizard books ! ' 
 Then search for her in the summer woods, 
 
 Where rills keep moist the ground, 
 Where Foxgloves from their spotted hoods. 
 
 Shake pilfering insects round ; 
 
 122 
 
PRO! IP V FE R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 When up and clambering all about, 
 
 The Traveller's Joy flings forth 
 Its snowy awns, that in and out 
 
 Like feathers strew the earth : 
 Fair are the tufts of meadow-sweet 
 
 That haply blossom nigh ; 
 Fair are the whirls of violet 
 
 Prunella shows hard by ; 
 But nor by burn in wood, or vale, 
 
 Grows anything so fair 
 As the plumy crest of emerald pale, 
 That waves in the wind, and soughs in the gale, 
 Of the Lady Fern, when the sunbeams turn 
 
 To gold her delicate hair." 
 
 The other, which I give in full, on account of its 
 quaintness, appeared in the Botanical Looker-out of 
 Edwin Lees: 
 
 " When in splendor and beauty all nature is crown 'd, 
 The Fern is seen curling half hid in the ground, 
 But of all the green brackens that rise by the burn, 
 Commend me alone to the sweet Lady Fern. 
 
 " Polypodium indented stands stiff on the rock, 
 With his sori exposed to the tempest's rough shock ; 
 On the wide, chilly heath Aquilina stands stern, 
 Not once to be named with the sweet Lady Fern. 
 
 41 Filix-mas in a circle lifts up his green fronds 
 And the Heath Fern delights by the bogs and the ponds ; 
 Through their shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn, 
 The palm must still rest with the fair Lady Fern. 
 
 " By the fountain I see her just spring into sight, 
 Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright ; 
 To the water she shrinks I can scarcely discern 
 In the deep humid shadows the soft Lady Fern. 
 123 
 
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR, 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 Where the water is pouring forever she sits, 
 And beside her the Ouzel, the Kingfisher flits ; 
 There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn, 
 In the shade of the rock stands the tall Lady Fern. 
 
 Noon burns up the mountain ; but here by the fall 
 The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall. 
 Hours speed as thoughts rise, without any concern, 
 And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern." 
 
 25. SILVERY SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium thelypteroides (A. acrostichoides) 
 
 Canada to Alabama and westward, in rich 
 woods. One to three feet high. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-shaped, tapering both 
 ways from the middle, once-pinnate ; pinna 
 linear-lanceolate, deeply cut into obtuse seg- 
 ments ; fruit-dots oblong ; indusium silvery 
 when young. 
 
 The Silvery Spleenwort grows 
 in company with its kinsman, the 
 Narrow-leaved Spleenwort, and 
 ' also with many of the Aspidiums, such 
 as the Spinulose Shield Fern, the Ever- 
 green Wood Fern, the Christmas and 
 Goldie's Fern. I find it growing in large 
 patches in the rich woods, often near 
 water, either in boggy ground or on the 
 frond ver y edge of the clear, brown brook. 
 Sometimes it is difficult to detect a single 
 fertile frond in a group of plants covering many 
 
 square feet of ground. This is probably owing 
 
 124 
 
PLATE XV! 
 
 a Upper part of fertile frond of Silvery Spleanwort 
 
 Portion of fruiting pinna c Portion of pinna showing double fruit-dot 
 
 125 
 
runup v FUTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 to the deeply shaded situations which it favors, as 
 in sunny exposures I have noticed an abundance of 
 fertile fronds. 
 
 Its color is a dull green, the silvery indusia on the 
 lower surfaces of the pinnae giving the plant its Eng- 
 lish title. Although usually its fronds are larger, 
 their outline, tapering as it does both ways from the 
 middle, somewhat suggests that of the New York 
 Fern. It is readily identified, as the oblong or linear 
 fruit-dots at once proclaim it a Spleenwort, and no 
 other member of this tribe has fronds of the same 
 shape. 
 
 Although it cannot be classed among the rare 
 ferns, it is absent from many promising localities, 
 and is associated in my mind with especially suc- 
 cessful expeditions. 
 
 26. RUE SPLEENWORT. WALL RUE 
 
 Asplenium Ruta-muraria 
 
 A small rock fern, growing on limestone, Vermont to Michigan 
 and southward. Four to seven inches long, with green, slender, 
 tufted stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Triangular-ovate, smooth, evergreen, twice or thrice- 
 pinnate below ; pinna cut into stalked pinnules ; fruit-dots con- 
 fluent at maturity, covering nearly the whole lower surface of pin- 
 nules ; indusium delicate. 
 
 My first acquaintance with the little Rue Spleen- 
 wort in its own home dates back to the memorable 
 day when we discovered the new station for the 
 
 Hart's Tongue. 
 
 126 
 
ROE SPLEF.NWOST 
 
AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR? 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 
 
 As I have already mentioned in my description ot 
 the Purple Cliff Brake, on a chance morning call I 
 learned that twenty -five years before the Rue Spleen- 
 wort and the Purple Cliff Brake had been found 
 on certain cliffs which overhung some neighboring 
 falls. 
 
 On these very cliffs a quarter of a century later 
 we found a few specimens of each plant. The tiny 
 fronds of the Rue Spleenwort grew from small fis- 
 sures in the cliffs, flattening themselves against their 
 rocky background. 
 
 About a month later we returned to the spot for 
 the purpose of securing photographs of the natural 
 gallery where the plants grew. The seamed, over- 
 hanging rocks, the neighboring stream plunging 
 nearly two hundred feet to the ravine below, the 
 bold opposite cliffs showing here and there through 
 their cloak of trees, and above and beyond the smil- 
 ing upland pastures, the wood-crowned hills, and the 
 haze-softened valley, had left a picture in the mind 
 that we hoped to reproduce, however inadequately, 
 by means of the camera. 
 
 This morning we had approached the cliffs from 
 an opposite direction. In climbing a gradual ascent 
 from the bed of the stream, we found a plant of the 
 Rue Spleenwort which was more vigorous and thrifty 
 than any we had previously seen. In the single tuft, 
 about as large as the palm of one's hand, we counted 
 forty-five green fronds. Their lower surfaces, in 
 many cases, were covered with confluent fruit-dots. 
 
 The plant had much the effect of a rather small spec 
 
 128 
 
PROIIP V FE R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 imen of the Mountain Spleenwort. The short, broad 
 fronds were somewhat leathery, with only a few pin- 
 nae. Considering its lack of size, the little cluster, 
 springing from the bare rock, made so definite and 
 interesting a picture that we tried to photograph it 
 as it grew. But after some time spent in striving to 
 secure a foothold for the tripod, and at the same 
 time for the photographer, we gave up the attempt 
 as hopeless. 
 
 In England the Rue Spleenwort is found growing 
 on old walls, specially on their northern sides, also 
 on church-towers, bridges, and ruins. It is said to 
 be difficult to cultivate. 
 
 Formerly this fern yielded a decoction which was 
 supposed to be beneficial in attacks of pleurisy and 
 of jaundice. 
 
27. MOUNTAIN 
 SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium montanum 
 
 Connecticut and New York 
 to Georgia. A small rock 
 fern from two to eight 
 inches long, with stalks 
 brown at base. 
 
 Fronds. Ovate-lanceolate in outline, 
 somewhat leathery, cut into oblong pinnae, 
 the lower ones of which are cut again into 
 more or less oblong, toothed divisions, the up- 
 per ones less and less divided ; rachis green, 
 broad, flat ; fruit-dots linear, short; indusium 
 thin, hidden at length by the sporangia, which 
 mature in July. 
 
 With us this plant is decidedly 
 rare. New York and Connecticut 
 are given as its northern limits. I 
 have found it only in one locality, in the neighbor- 
 hood of a mountain lake in Ulster County, N. Y. 
 Though growing here somewhat abundantly, the 
 fern is so small that, unless your eyes are trained to 
 search every cranny in the hope of some new find, 
 you are not likely to notice it. Even with trained 
 eyes you may readily fancy that the narrow chinks 
 in the cliffs which rise sheerly from the lake- are 
 merely patched with moss. But when you have 
 
 pulled your boat close under the shelving rocks, 
 
 130 
 
PLATE XVIII 
 
 MOUNTAIN SPLEENWORT 
 A tortile frond b A pinna of fertile frond 
 
V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 V SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 and have secured a hold that enables you to stand 
 up and examine at leisure the suspicious patches, 
 your heart bounds with delight as you get a 
 near view of the fringe of blue-green, leathery 
 fronds which flatten themselves against the gray 
 
 Mountain Spleenwort 
 
 cliffs. Apparently 
 only the plants that 
 grow under specially 
 favorable conditions 
 are able to develop fronds that attain a length 
 of five or six inches. Only in what must have 
 been almost constant shadow, under the shelving 
 rocks, directly above the lake and refreshed 
 always by its moisture, did I find these really 
 
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR, 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 attractive, thrifty-looking plants. The specimens, 
 which were located at some distance from the 
 lake, growing in one instance on top of a 
 mountain, again in the shaded crevices of a cliff, 
 were tiny, indefinite-looking plants with nothing 
 to recommend them to any eyes save those of 
 the fern collector. In every instance they grew 
 from fissures in the rocks, rooting apparently in a 
 mere pinch of earth, yet with such tenacity that it 
 would have been very difficult to extract a plant 
 unharmed. In almost every case they were 
 shielded much of the time from exposure to the 
 sun. 
 
 The large plants in the immediate vicinity of the 
 lake were noticeably bluish-green in color. 
 
 It is to be hoped that the few known haunts of 
 tne Mountain Spleenwort will be respected in order 
 that this rare little plant may be preserved. 
 
TROI1P V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 uivuur SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 28. EBONY SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium ebeneum (A. platyneuron) 
 
 Maine to Florida and westward, on rocks and hill-sides. Nine to 
 eighteen inches high, with blackish and shining stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Upright, narrowly oblanceolate, fertile fronds much 
 the taller, once-pinnate ; pinnce usually alternate, oblong, finely 
 toothed, the base auricled on the upper or on both sides ; fruit- 
 dots many, oblong, nearer midvein than margin ; indusium silvery 
 till maturity. 
 
 The slender fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort hold 
 themselves with a sort of rigid grace which suggests 
 a combination of delicacy and 
 endurance. 
 
 It is an attractive plant with 
 an elusiveness of habit which 
 serves, perhaps, to increase its 
 charm. Its range is from Maine 
 to Florida and westward; it is 
 said to prefer limestone soil, 
 and my past experience has 
 proved it a fairly common plant, yet so far this sum- 
 mer, in many expeditions in a part of the country 
 rich in limestone, I have found only one 
 specimen, while last year along the road- 
 sides of Long Island I found its black- 
 stemmed fronds standing erect and slim 
 in crowded ranks under groups of red 
 cedars. In other years it has abounded 
 in localities of a different character, 
 sometimes following its little relative, the Maiden- 
 hair Spleenwort, into moist ravines or along 
 
 Portion of fertile frond 
 
 Fertile pinna 
 magnified 
 
PLATE XIX 
 
 EBONY SPLEENWORT 
 
 US 
 
CROUP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LtAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR-, 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 the shelves of shaded rocks, again climbing ex- 
 posed hill-sides, where its fresh beauty is always a 
 surprise. 
 
 The fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort usually face 
 the sun, even if so doing necessitates the twisting 
 of its stalk. 
 
 29. MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium Trichomanes 
 
 Almost throughout North America. A small rock fern, four to 
 twelve inches long, with purplish - brown and shining, thread- 
 like stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Linear in outline, somewhat rigid, once-pinnate ; 
 pinna roundish or oval, unequal-sided, attached to rachis by a 
 narrow point, entire or toothed ; fruit-dots short, oblong, narrowed 
 at the ends, three to six on each side of the midrib ; sporangia 
 dark -brown when ripe ; indusium delicate. 
 
 In childhood the delicate little fronds and dark, 
 glistening, thread-like stalks of the Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort seemed to me a token of the mysterious, 
 ecstatic presence of the deeper 
 woods, of woods where dark 
 hemlocks arched across the 
 rock-broken stream, where the 
 spongy ground was carpeted 
 with low, nameless plants with 
 white-veined or shining leaves 
 F.nii.pinn. and coral . like berries, where 
 
 precious red-cupped mosses covered the fallen tree- 
 trunks and strange birds sang unknown songs. 
 Perhaps because in those days it was a rare plant 
 
 136 
 
GROUP V 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 to be met with on rare occasions, in a spirit of 
 breathless exultation, I almost begrudge finding it 
 now on shaded cliffs close to the highway. 
 
 Certainly it seems lovelier when it holds itself 
 somewhat aloof from the beaten paths. One of its 
 favorite haunts is a 
 mossy cliff which forms 
 
 part of a ra- 
 vine of sin- 
 g u 1 a r 
 beauty. 
 Along 
 the base 
 of this . 
 cliff foams 
 a rushing 
 stream on its way 
 to the valley. Over- 
 head stretch branches of hem- 
 lock, Cedar, and baSSWOOd. Maidenhair Spleenwort 
 
 On the broader shelves the mountain maple, the 
 silver birch, and the hobble-bush secure a pre- 
 carious foothold. Below rare sunbeams bring out 
 rich patches of color on the smooth, muscular 
 trunks of the beeches. Close to the water, per- 
 haps, wheel a pair of spotted sand-pipers, now 
 
 137 
 
V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR i 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 lighting on the rocks in order to secure some in- 
 sect, now tilting backward and forward with the 
 comical motion peculiar to them, 
 now gliding swiftly along the 
 pebbly shore till their brown and 
 gray and white coats are lost in 
 the brown and gray and white of 
 tower pinna shore, rock, and water. 
 
 In such a retreat as this ravine the Maidenhair 
 Spleenwort seems peculiarly at home. Its tufted 
 fronds have a fresh greenness that 
 is a delight to the eye as they spring ~r*>~ 
 from little pockets or crannies too v. 
 shallow, we would suppose, for the x-^T" 
 necessary moisture and nourishment. V 
 Its near companions are the Walk- ^ 
 
 ing Fern, whose tapering, leaf-like, 
 blue-green fronds leap along the Upper pinn * 
 shelving ledge above, and the Bulblet Bladder Fern, 
 which seems to gush from every crevice of the cliff. 
 
 30. GREEN SPLEENWORT 
 
 , A selenium viride 
 
 Northern New England, west and northward, on shaded rocks. 
 A few inches to nearly a foot long, with tufted stalks, brownish 
 below, green above. 
 
 Fronds. Linear-lanceolate, once-pinnate, pale green ; pinna 
 ovate, toothed, mid vein indistinct and forking ; fruit-dots oblong ; 
 indusium straight or curved. 
 
 The Green Spleenwort in general appearance 
 resembles the Maidenhair Spleenwort. Perhaps 
 
 138 
 
PLATE XX 
 
 GREEN SPLEENWORT 
 
SROUP V 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 its most distinguishing feature is its stalk, which, 
 though brown below, becomes green above, while 
 that of its little relative is dark and shining through- 
 out. Its discovery on Mt. Mansfield, Vt., by Mr. 
 Pringle gave it a place in the flora of the United 
 
 States, as is shown in the 
 following passage from Mr 
 Pringle's address before the 
 Vermont Botanical Club: 
 
 " On this first visit to Mt. 
 Mansfield my work was re- 
 stricted to the crest of the 
 great mountain. About the 
 cool and shaded cliffs in front 
 of the Summit House were 
 then first brought to my view 
 Aspidium fragrans . . . and 
 . for I was still on my fern 
 hunt. The finding of the former added a species 
 to the Vermont catalogue ; the latter was an ad- 
 dition to the flora of the United States. Such little 
 discoveries gave joy to the young collector." 
 
 31. SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium ebenoides 
 
 Connecticut to the Mississippi and southward to Alabama, on 
 limestone. Four to twelve inches long, with blackish and 
 shining stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Lanceolate, tapering to a long, narrow apex, generally 
 pinnate below, pinnatifid above ; fruit-dots straight or slightly 
 curved ; indusium narrow. 
 
 140 
 
 Fertile pinna 
 
 Asplenium viride, 
 
PLATE XXI 
 
 SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT 
 
PROUP V FERTILE AND STERILh FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 The known stations of this curious little plant are 
 usually in the immediate neighborhood of the Walk- 
 ing Leaf and the Ebony Spleenwort, of which ferns 
 it is supposed to be a hybrid. The long, narrow 
 apex occasionally forming a new plant, and the ir- 
 regular fruit-dots remind one of the Walking Leaf, 
 while the lustrous black stalk, the free veins, and the 
 pinnate portions of the fronds suggest the Ebony 
 Spleenwort. 
 
 Scott's Spleenwort matures in August. It is rare 
 and local, except in Alabama. The fact, however, 
 that it has been discovered in widely distant locali- 
 ties east of the Mississippi should lend excitement 
 to fern expeditions in any of our limestone neigh- 
 borhoods where we see its chosen associates, the 
 Walking Leaf and the Ebony Spleenwort. To find 
 a new station for this interesting little fern, even if 
 it consisted of one or two plants only, as is said to 
 have been the case at Canaan, Conn., would well re- 
 pay the fatigue of the longest tramp. 
 
 32. PINNATIFID SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium pinnatifidum 
 
 New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Illinois, and southward to 
 Alabama and Arkansas, on rocks. Four to fourteen inches long, 
 with polished stalks, blackish below, green above, when young 
 somewhat chaffy below. 
 
 Fronds. Broadly lance-shaped, tapering to a long, slender 
 point, pinnatifid or pinnate below ; pinna rounded or the lowest 
 tapering to a point , fruit-dots straight or somewhat curved ; *- 
 dusium straight or curved. 
 
 142 
 
5LATEJ2J 
 
 FINNATIFID SPLEENWORT 
 
 '43 
 
rort .,r, v FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR j 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 This plant resembles the Walking Leaf to such an 
 extent that formerly it was not considered a sep- 
 arate species. The long, slender apex of its frond, 
 which, it is said, sometimes takes root, as in the 
 Walking Leaf, gave ground for its confusion with 
 that fern. But the tapering apex of the frond of the 
 Pinnatifid Spleenwort is not so long and the veins 
 of the frond are free. 
 
 The Pinnatifid Spleenwort grows on rocks. Its 
 usual companions are the Mountain Spleenwort and 
 the Maidenhair Spleenwort. Williamson tells us 
 that, though it is quite common in Kentucky, he 
 has never found a frond which rooted at the apex. 
 Eaton, however, speaks of " one or two instances of 
 a slight enlargement of the apex, as if there were 
 an attempt to form a proliferous bud. 
 
 33. BRADLEY'S SPLEENWORT 
 
 Asplenium Bradleyi 
 
 New York to Georgia and Alabama, westward to Arkansas, on 
 rocks preferring limestone. Six to ten inches long, with slender, 
 chestnut-brown stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-lanceolate or oblong, tapering to a point, pin- 
 nate ; pinna oblong-ovate, lobed or pinnatifid ; fruit-dots short, 
 near the midrib ; indusium delicate. 
 
 To my knowledge the only place in the northeast- 
 ern States where this rare and local species has been 
 collected is near Newburg, N. Y., where Dr. Eaton 
 found a plant growing on lime rock in 1864. 
 
 144 
 
PLATE XXIM 
 
 BRADLEY S SPLEENWOR7 
 a Fertile pinna 
 
 145 
 
34- WALKING FERN. 
 WALKING LEAF 
 
 Camptosorus rhizophyllus 
 
 Canada to North Carolina and westward, 
 on shaded rocks, preferring limestone. Four 
 to eighteen inches long, with light-green 
 stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Simple, lanceolate, long-tapering 
 toward the apex, usually heart-shaped at base, 
 the apex often rooting and forming a new 
 plant ; frtdt-dots oblong or linear, irregularly 
 
 scattered on the lower surface of the frond ; indusium 
 
 thin. 
 
 To its unusual and suggestive title this plant un- 
 doubtedly owes much of the interest which it seems 
 to arouse in the minds of those who do not profess 
 to be fern-lovers. A friend tells me that as a child, 
 eagerly on the lookout for this apparently active 
 little plant, he was so much influenced by its title 
 that he thought it might be advantageous to secure a 
 butterfly-net as an aid in its capture. I find that 
 older people as well are tempted to unwonted ener- 
 gy if promised a glimpse of the Walking Fern, Then, 
 
 146 
 
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 spoRANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 too, the scarcity of the plant in many localities, or, 
 indeed, its entire absence from certain parts of the 
 country, gives it a reputation for rarity which is one 
 of the most certain roads to fame. 
 
 For many years I was unable to track it to any of 
 its haunts. During a summer spent in Rensselaer 
 County, N. Y., the Walking Leaf was the object of 
 various expeditions. I recall one drive of twenty- 
 five miles devoted to hunting up a rumored station. 
 At the end of the day, which 
 turned out cold and rainy, and 
 fruitless so far as its special ob- 
 ject was concerned, I felt in- 
 clined to believe that the plant 
 had justified its title and had 
 walked out of the neighborhood. 
 Yet, after all, no such expedi- 
 tion, even with wind and weather 
 against one, as in this case, is 
 really fruitless. The sharp watch 
 along the roadside, the many 
 little expeditions into inviting 
 pastures, up promising cliffs, over moss-grown bowld- 
 ers, down to the rocky border of the brook, are sure 
 to result in discoveries of value or in moments of 
 delight. A flower yet unnamed, a butterfly beautiful 
 as a gem, an unfamiliar bird-song traced to its source, 
 a new, suggestive outlook over the well-known val- 
 ley, and, later, "a sleep pleasant with all the influences 
 ot long hours in the open air " any or all of these 
 results may be ours, and go to make the day count. 
 
 H7 
 
 Portion of fertile frond 
 
TROIIP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 Finally, one September afternoon, shortly before 
 leaving the neighborhood, we resolved upon a last 
 search, in quite a new direction. Several miles from 
 home, at a fork in the road, standing in a partially 
 wooded pasture, we noticed just such a large, shaded 
 rock, with mossy ledges, as had filled us with vain 
 hopes many times. J. suggested a closer exam- 
 ination, which I discouraged, remembering previous 
 disappointments. But something in the look of the 
 great bowlder provoked his curiosity, so over the 
 fence and up the ledges he scrambled. Almost his 
 first resting-place was a projecting shelf which was 
 carpeted with a mat of bluish-green foliage. It 
 needed only a moment's investigation to identify the 
 leathery, tapering fronds of the Walking Fern. No 
 one who has not spent hours in some such search as 
 this can sympathize with the delight of those mo- 
 ments. We fairly gloated over the quaint little 
 plants, following with our fingers the slender tips 
 of the fronds till they rooted in the moss, starting 
 another generation on its life journey, and earn- 
 ing for itself the title of Walking Leaf or Walking 
 Fern. 
 
 Although since then I have found the Walking 
 Leaf frequently, and in great abundance, I do not re- 
 member ever to have seen it make so fine a display. 
 The plants were unusually large and vigorous, and 
 the aspect of the matted tufts was uncommonly 
 luxuriant. To be sure, some allowance must be made 
 for the glamour of a first meeting. 
 
 The Walking Leaf grows usually on limestone 
 
 148 
 
PROIIP V F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 rocks, though it has been found on sandstone, shale, 
 and conglomerate as well. I have also seen it on the 
 stumps of decaying trees near limestone cliffs in 
 Central New York, where it is a common plant, 
 creeping along the shaded, mossy ledges above star- 
 like tufts of the Maidenhair Spleenwort and fragile 
 clusters of the Slender Cliff Brake, venturing to the 
 brook's edge with sprays of the Bulblet Bladder 
 Fern, and climbing the turreted summits of the hills 
 close to the Purple Cliff Brake. 
 
 Although without the grace of the Maidenhair, 
 the delicacy of certain of the Spleenworts, or the 
 stately beauty of the Shield Ferns, the oddity and 
 sturdiness of this little plant are bound to make it a 
 favorite everywhere. 
 
 Occasionally a plant is found which will keep up 
 its connection with two or three generations ; that 
 is, a frond will root at the apex, forming a new plant 
 (the second generation). This will also send out 
 a rooting frond which gives birth to a new plant 
 (the third generation) before the two first fronds 
 have decayed at their tips so as to sever the connec- 
 tion. 
 
 At times forking fronds are found, these forks also 
 rooting occasionally at their tips. 
 
 149 
 
V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 35. HART'S TONGUE 
 
 Scolopendrium v^llgare (S. scolopendriurri) 
 
 Shaded ravines under limestone cliffs in Central New York and 
 near South Pittsburg, Tenn. A few inches to nearly two feet long, 
 with stalks which are chaffy below and sometimes to the base of 
 the leaf. 
 
 Fronds. Narrowly oblong, undivided, from a somewhat heart- 
 shaped base, bright-green ; friiit-dots linear, elongated, a row on 
 either side of the midrib and at right angles to it ; indusium 
 appearing to be double. 
 
 When Gray describes a fern as "very rare" and 
 Dr. Britton limits it to two small stations in neigh- 
 boring counties in the whole northern United 
 States, the fern lover looks for- 
 ward with a sense of eager antici- 
 pation to seeing it for the first 
 time. 
 
 During a week spent at Caze- 
 novia, N. Y., a few years ago, 
 I learned that the rare Hart's 
 Tongue grew at Chittenango 
 Falls, only four miles away. But 
 my time was limited, and on a 
 single brief visit to the picturesque 
 spot where the broad Chittenango 
 stream dashes over cliffs one hun- 
 dred and fifty feet high, losing 
 
 Tip of fertile frond *!/ A i ! J jj i 
 
 itself in the wild, wooded glen 
 below on its journey to the distant valley, I did 
 little more than revel in the beauty of the foaming 
 mass which for many days " haunted me like a pas- 
 
 150 
 
sion." I saw no signs of the plant 
 which has done almost as much as 
 " the sounding cataract " to make 
 the spot famous. 
 
 The combined recollection of the 
 beautiful falls and the for me un- 
 discovered fern, joined to the fact 
 that Madison and the adjoining 
 Onondaga County are favorite 
 hunting grounds for the fern lover 
 on account of the many species 
 which they harbor, drew us to 
 Cazenovia for the summer two 
 years later. 
 
 Guided by the explicit direc- 
 tions of Mr. J. H. Ten Eyck Burr, 
 a fern enthusiast who is always 
 ready to share with others, of 
 whose good 
 faith he is as- 
 sured, his en- 
 joyment of the 
 hiding-places 
 of his favorites, 
 we found at 
 last the Hart's 
 Tongue in its 
 own home, 
 
 
 Hart's Tongue 
 
F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 If Mr. Burr's kindness in sending me some fine 
 pressed specimens, and the illustrations I had seen 
 in various books, had not already made me familiar 
 with the general look of the plant, the long, un- 
 divided, tongue-like fronds, so different from one's 
 preconceived notion of a fern, would have been a 
 great surprise. Even now, although I have visited 
 many times its hidden retreats, and have noted with 
 delight every detail of its glossy, vigorous growth, 
 it seems to me always as rare and unusual as it did 
 the first day I found it. 
 
 At Chittenango Falls the Hart's Tongue grows a 
 few yards from the base of bold, overhanging lime- 
 stone cliffs, the tops of which are fringed by pen- 
 dent roots of the red cedar. Nearly always it is 
 caught beneath moss-grown fragments of the fall- 
 en limestone, the bright-green, undulating, glossy 
 leaves either standing almost erect (curving out- 
 ward slightly above) or else falling over toward the 
 slope of the land so as to present a nearly pros- 
 trate appearance. At times these fronds are very 
 numerous, as many as fifty to a plant, forming great 
 clumps of foliage. Again we find a plant with only 
 half a dozen or even fewer green fronds. At matur- 
 ity the linear, bright-brown fruit-dots, a row on 
 either side the midrib, are conspicuous on the lower 
 surfaces of the fronds. 
 
 This haunt of the Hart's Tongue is shaded by a 
 growth of tall basswoods and maples, of sturdy 
 oaks and hemlocks. The neighboring cliffs are 
 
 draped with the slender fronds of the Bulblet Blad- 
 
 152 
 
PROIIP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 der Fern. On every side rise the tall crowns of the 
 omnipresent Evergreen Wood Fern. Lower down, 
 close to the rushing stream which we see mistily 
 through the green branches, its roar always in our 
 ears, grow the Walking Leaf and the Maidenhair. 
 The little Polypody climbs over the rocks and 
 perches contentedly on the spreading roots of trees, 
 while a few fragile plants of the Slender Cliff Brake, 
 something of a rarity in these parts, are fastened to 
 the mossy ledges. 
 
 The other published northern station of the 
 Hart's Tongue is at Jamesville, some fifteen miles 
 from Chittenango Falls, near a small sheet of water 
 known commonly as Green Pond, christened botan- 
 ically Scolopendrium Lake. Here also it grows 
 among the talus at the foot of limestone cliffs. The 
 plants which I found in this locality were less luxu- 
 riant than those at Chittenango Falls. They grow 
 in more exposed, less shaded spots. 
 
 Scolopendrium Lake has become somewhat fa- 
 mous in the world of fern students by reason of 
 Mr. Underwood's claim that in its immediate vicin- 
 ity, within a radius of fifty rods from the water's 
 edge (the lake being a mere pond), grow twenty- 
 seven different kinds of ferns, while within a circle 
 whose diameter is not over three miles thirty-four 
 species have been found. During this one day we 
 gave to the neighborhood, we could not hope to 
 find so great a number, the result, perhaps, of many 
 days' investigation, and were forced to content our- 
 selves with the twenty-one species we did find. In 
 
 153 
 
PRHIIP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 his list Mr. Underwood marks the Purple Cliff 
 Brake as found but once, so I judge he did not dis- 
 cover the station on the turreted cliffs close by 
 where it grows in extravagant profusion, producing 
 fronds not only much longer and finer than 1 had 
 seen elsewhere, but superior to those pictured in 
 the illustrated books. 
 
 During the same summer, on an expedition to 
 Perryville Falls, which we had planned for the 
 express purpose of finding the Rue Spleenwort and 
 the Purple Cliff Brake, a new station was discov- 
 ered for the Hart's Tongue. To Miss Murray Led- 
 yard, of Cazenovia, belongs the honor of finding the 
 first plants in this locality. We had been success- 
 ful in the original object of our journey, and had 
 crossed the stream in order to examine the oppo- 
 site cliffs. J. and I, curious to study the wet wall 
 of rock close to the sheer white veil of water, which 
 fell more than one hundred feet, finally secured 
 an unsubstantial foothold among graceful tufts of 
 the greenish, lily-like flowers, which ought to re- 
 ceive a more homely and appropriate title than 
 Zygadenus elegans. Having satisfied ourselves that 
 the mossy crevices harbored no plants of the Slen- 
 der Cliff Brake, now the immediate object of our 
 search, we followed the natural path beneath the 
 overhanging rock and above the sheer descent to 
 the ravine, examining the cliffs as we cautiously 
 picked our way. Miss Ledyard had remained be- 
 low, and suddenly we heard her give a triumphant 
 shout, followed by the joyful announcement that 
 
PROIIP v FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 she had found the Hart's Tongue. The station 
 being previously quite unknown, this was a most 
 interesting discovery. On entering the ravine we 
 had discussed its possibility, but I had fancied that 
 any hope of it would be unfounded, as I supposed 
 the ground had been thoroughly canvassed by the 
 many botanists who had visited the neighborhood. 
 
 The plants were still young, but large and vigor- 
 ous, growing in a partial opening among the bass- 
 woods, maples, and beeches, on a steep slope cov- 
 ered with fragments of limestone, some thirty or 
 forty feet from the base of the cliffs. We must 
 have found from twenty to thirty plants within a 
 radius of as many feet. 
 
 Unfortunately, as it turned out, the discovery 
 found its way to the columns of the local paper, 
 and on our return to the station, some weeks later 
 our eager expectation of seeing the young plants 
 in the splendor of maturity was crushed by find- 
 ing that the spot had been ruthlessly invaded and 
 a number of the finest plants had disappeared. Be- 
 fore long it will be necessary for botanists to form a 
 secret society, with vows of silence as to fern local- 
 ities and some sort of lynch law for the punishment 
 of vandals. 
 
 This fern, so rare with us, is a common plant in 
 Europe, its fronds attaining at times a length of two 
 or three feet. In Ireland and the Channel Islands 
 it is especially abundant. In Devonshire, England, 
 it is described as growing " on the tops and at the 
 sides of walls ; hanging from old ruins . . . drop- 
 
PROIIP V F R T1LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 
 
 ping down its long, green fronds into the cool 
 and limpid water of roadside wells hewn out of the 
 rock ; often exposed to the full blaze of the sun, 
 but always in such cases dwindled down to a tiny 
 size " (" The Fern Paradise"). 
 
 The Hart's Tongue has been known as the Cater- 
 pillar Fern and the Seaweed Fern. 
 
 36. VIRGINIA CHAIN FERN 
 
 Woodwardia Virginica 
 
 Swampy places, often in deep water, from Maine to Florida. Two 
 to more than three feet high. 
 
 Fronds. Once-pinnate ; pinnce pinnatifid, with oblong seg- 
 ments ; fruit-dots oblong, in chain-like rows along the midrib 
 both of the pinnae and of the lobes, confluent when ripe ; indusium 
 fixed by its outer margin, opening on the side next the midrib. 
 
 Emerging from the shade and silence of a little 
 wood upon the rolling downs where one has 
 glimpses of the blue bay, our attention is attracted 
 by a tall fern beside the path, growing among a 
 tangle of shrubs and vines. It does not grow in 
 symmetrical crowns or tufts like an Osmunda, but 
 its fronds are almost as handsome, the divisions 
 being wider apart and more scattered. Turning 
 over two or three of the rather glossy fronds, we 
 find a rusty-backed, fertile frond, covered on one 
 side with the regular chain-like rows of fruit-dots 
 which make its name of Chain Fern seem very 
 
 appropriate and descriptive. 
 
 156 
 
PLATE XXIV 
 
 
 UPPER PART OF FROND OF VIRGINIA CHAIN FERN 
 9 Portion f fertile pinna * Tip * fertile einm 
 
 157 
 
CROUP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 
 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT -DOTS 
 
 In the low, damp ground near the coast one may 
 expect to find this fern ; its haunts, where the nar- 
 row path winds between tall masses of sweet-pepper 
 bush and wet meadows where pogonia and calopo- 
 gon delight us in July, and the white-fringed orchids 
 may be found in later summer, are among the most 
 beautiful of the many beautiful kinds of country 
 that the fern and flower lover knows, to which his 
 feet stray inevitably in the season of green things, 
 and which are the solace of his " inward eye" when 
 that season is past. 
 
GROUP VI 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND USUALLY 
 SIMILAR, FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 37. NEW YORK FERN 
 
 Aspidium Noveboracense (Dryopteris Noveboracensis) 
 
 Newfoundland to South Carolina, in woods and open mead- 
 ows, One to more than two feet high, with stalks shorter than the 
 fronds. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-shaped, tapering both ways from the middle 
 pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped, the lowest pairs shorter and deflexed, 
 divided into flat, oblong lobes which are not reflexed over the fruit- 
 dots ; fruit-dots round, distinct, near the margin ; indusium minute. 
 
 At times the pale-green fronds of the New York 
 Fern throng to the roadside, which is flanked by a 
 tangled thicket of Osmundas, wild roses, and elder 
 bushes. 
 
 Again, they stay quietly at home in the open marsh 
 or in the shadow of the hemlocks and cedars, where 
 
VI FE R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 1 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 they have fragrant pyrola and pipsissewa for com- 
 pany, and where the long, melancholy note of the 
 peewee breaks the silence. 
 
 This plant is easily distinguished from the Marsh 
 Fern by the noticeable tapering at both ends of its 
 frond, and by the flat instead of reflexed margins to 
 the lobes of the fertile pinnae. 
 
 38. MARSH FERN 
 
 Aspidium Thelypteris (Dryopteris Thelypteris} 
 
 New Brunswick to Florida, in wet woods and swamps. One tc 
 nearly three feet high. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-shaped, slightly downy, once-pinnate, fertile 
 fronds longer-stalked than the sterile ; pinna, the lower ones hardly 
 smaller than the others, cut into oblong, entire lobes, which are ob- 
 tuse in the sterile fronds, but appear acute in the fertile ones from 
 the strongly revolute margins ; veins once or twice forked ; fruit- 
 dots small, round, half-way between midvein and margin, or nearer 
 margin, soon confluent ; indusium small. 
 
 In our wet woods and open swamps, and occasion- 
 ally in dry pastures, the erect, fresh-green fronds of 
 the Marsh Fern grow abundantly. The lowest pin- 
 nae are set so high on the long slender stem as to 
 give the fern the appearance of trying to keep dry, 
 daintily holding its skirts out of the mud as it were. 
 
 The plant's range is wide. As I pick my way 
 through marshy inland woods, using as bridges the 
 fallen trunks and interlacing roots of trees, its bright 
 fronds standing nearly three feet high, crowd about 
 me. Close by, securing, like myself, a firmer foot- 
 hold by the aid of the trees' roots, I notice the flat, 
 
 160 
 
FLATE XXV 
 
 NEW YORK FERN 
 
 a Portion of fertile pinna b Tip of pinna thowing veining 
 
 161 
 
GROUP VI 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKF 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 mottled green and white rosettes and the 
 slender wands of flowers of the rattlesnake 
 orchid. In the open swamps beyond the 
 fern's companion is another 
 orchid, the ladies' tresses, 
 with braided spikes of white, 
 and in this case deliciously 
 fragrant flowers. 
 
 In open marshes near the 
 sea I find this plant associat- 
 ing itself with 
 the violet- 
 scented ad- 
 der's mouth, 
 with glis- 
 t e n i n g 
 sundew, 
 and with 
 gaudy 
 Turk's- 
 cap lilies. 
 From 
 the New 
 
 York Fern 
 it may be 
 distinguish- 
 ed easily by 
 the some- 
 what abrupt 
 
PLATE XXVI 
 
 MARSH FERN 
 Frtil frond Steri 
 
CROUP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 instead of tapering base of the frond, by the strongly 
 revolute margins of the fertile frond, and by its 
 long stalk. 
 
 From the Massachusetts Fern it may be distin- 
 guished by its forked veins, the less revolute mar- 
 gins of the fertile frond, and by its thicker texture 
 and deeper green. 
 
 39. MASSACHUSETTS FERN 
 
 Aspidium siwulatum (Dryopteris simulate?) 
 
 New Hampshire to the Indian Territory, in wooded swamps. One 
 to more than three feet high. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-lance-shaped, little or not at all narrowed at 
 the base, rather thin, pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped, cut into oblong, 
 obtuse segments, which are slightly reflexed in the fertile fronds, 
 veins not forked ; fruit-dots rather large, somewhat distant ; indu- 
 sium "withering-persistent." 
 
 This species closely resembles the Marsh Fern. 
 The less revolute margins of the fertile frond, the 
 simple veins, its thinner texture, and its more distant 
 fruit-dots aid in its identification. It is found in 
 woodland swamps from New Hampshire to the 
 Indian Territory. 
 
PLATE XXVh 
 
 SPINULOSE WOOD FERN 
 Aspidium spinulosum, var. intermediur 
 a Portion of fertile pinnule 
 I6 5 
 
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 UKUUf VI AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 40. SPINULOSE WOOD FERN 
 
 Aspidium spinulosum (Dryopteris spinuhsa) 
 
 Newfoundland to Kentucky. The common European type, rare 
 in North America. One to two and a half feet high, with stalks 
 having a few pale-brown deciduous scales. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-ovate, twice-pinnate ; pinna oblique to the ra- 
 chis, elongated-triangular, the lower ones broadly triangular ; pin- 
 nules oblique to the midrib, connected by a narrow wing ; cut into 
 thorny-toothed segments ; fruit-dots round ; indusium smooth, 
 without marginal glands, soon withering. 
 
 To my knowledge I have only seen this fern in the 
 herbarium, h ^eing rare in this country. It is found, 
 I have been told, chiefly toward the tops of moun- 
 tains. Its pinnae are noticeably ascending. 
 
 Var. intermedium (D. spinulosa intermedia) 
 
 Labrador to North Carolina, in woods almost everywhere. 
 Usually large, with somewhat chaffy stalks, having brown, dark- 
 centred scales. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-ovate, 2-3 pinnate ; pinna oblong-lance-shaped, 
 spreading, rather distant, the lowest unequally triangular, the pin- 
 nules on the lower side longer than those on the upper side ; pin- 
 nules ovate-oblong, spreading, with oblong lobes thorny-toothed 
 at the apex ; fruit-dots round ; indusium delicate, beset with tiny 
 stalked glands. 
 
 This is the form of the species that abounds in 
 our woods. Perhaps no one plant does more for 
 their beauty than this stately fern, whose rich-green, 
 outward-curving fronds spring in circles from fall- 
 en trees and decaying stumps as well as from the 
 ground. 
 
 The plant varies greatly in height, breadth, and 
 
 166 
 
PLATE XXVI I 
 
 BOOTT'S SHIELD FERN 
 
 a Tip of fertile pinna 
 
 I6 7 
 
CROUP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF -LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 way of holding itself. Sometimes the fronds stand 
 three feet high, and are broad and spreading. Again, 
 they are tall, slender, and somewhat erect. Again, 
 they are not more than a foot high. 
 
 At its best it grows with almost tropical luxuri- 
 ance and is a plant of rare beauty, its fronds hav- 
 ing a certain featheriness of aspect uncommon in 
 the Aspidiums. 
 
 Var. dilatatum (D. spinulosa dilatata) 
 Newfoundland to North Carolina, chiefly in the mountains. 
 
 Fronds. Usually large, broader at base than in either of the pre* 
 ceding species, ovate or triangular-ovate, oftenest thrice-pinnate ; 
 pinnules lance-oblong, the lowest often much elongated ; fruit* 
 dots round ; indusium smooth. 
 
 This form of the Spinulose Wood Fern is distin- 
 guished chiefly by its broader fronds and by the 
 smooth indusia. As these indusia can be seen satis- 
 factorily only by the aid of a magnifying-glass, there 
 is frequently some difficulty in distinguishing this 
 variety. Occasionally it occurs in a dwarf state, 
 fruiting when only a few inches high. 
 
 41. BOOTTS SHIELD FERN 
 
 Aspidium Boottii (Dryopteris Boottii) 
 
 Nova Scotia to Maryland, about ponds and in wet places. 
 One and a half to more than three feet high, with somewhat chaffy 
 stalks which have pale-brown scales. 
 
 Fronds. Long lance-shaped, somewhat narrowed at base, nearly 
 or quite twice-pinnate ; pinna, the lowest triangular-ovate, upper 
 longer and narrower; pinnules oblong-ovate, sharply thorny- 
 toothed, somewhat pinnatifid below ; fruit-dots round ; indusium 
 slightly glandular. 
 
 1 68 
 
PLATE XXIX 
 
 CRESTED SHIELD FERN 
 
 a A pinna b Portion of fertile pinna 
 
 I6 9 
 
CROUP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF - LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUITS-DOTS ROUND 
 
 Boott's Shield Fern is found in moist woods and 
 near ponds. It is distinguished by its long, narrow 
 fronds and minutely glandular indusium. 
 
 42. CRESTED SHIELD FERN 
 
 Aspidium cristatum (Dryopteris cristata) 
 
 Newfoundland to Kentucky, in swamps. One to more than 
 three feet high, with stalks which are chaffy, especially below, 
 and which have light-brown scales, stalks of sterile fronds much 
 shorter than those of fertile fronds. 
 
 Fronds. Linear-oblong or lance-shaped, nearly twice-pinnate, 
 fertile ones taller and longer stalked than the sterile ; pinna (of the 
 fertile frond, turning their faces toward the apex of the frond) 
 rather short, lance-shaped or triangular-oblong, deeply impressed 
 with veins, cut deeply into oblong, obtuse, finely toothed divisions ; 
 fruit-dots large, round, half-way between midvein and margin; 
 indusium large, flat. 
 
 In wet woods, growing either from the ground or 
 from the trunks of fallen trees, and also in open 
 meadows, we notice the tall, slender, dark-green, 
 somewhat lustrous fronds of the Crested Shield 
 Fern, usually distinguished easily from its kinsmen 
 by the noticeably upward-turning pinnae of the fer- 
 tile fronds, and by the deep impression made by the 
 veins on their upper surfaces. 
 
 The sterile fronds are much shorter than the fer- 
 tile ones. They are evergreen, lasting through the 
 winter after the fertile fronds have perished. 
 
 Near the Crested Shield Fern we find often many 
 of its kinsmen, broad, feathery fronds of the Spinu- 
 
 lose Wood Fern, more slender ones of Boott's Shield 
 
 170 
 
PLATE XXX 
 
 Prt of CLINTON'S WOOD FERN 
 a Portion of fertile pinna 
 171 
 
PROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 Fern, great tufts made by the magnificent bright- 
 green fronds of Goldie's Fern, symmetrical circles 
 of vigorous Evergreen Wood Fern, and shining clus- 
 tersof the Christmas Fern. All these plants, belong- 
 ing to the one tribe, seek the same moist, shaded 
 retreats, and form a group of singular beauty and 
 vigor. 
 
 43. CLINTON'S WOOD FERN 
 
 Aspidium cristatum^ var. Clintonianum (Dryopteris cristata Clinto- 
 
 niana) 
 
 Maine to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in swampy woods. Two 
 and a half to four feet high. 
 
 Fronds. Larger in every way than those of the Crested Shield 
 Fern, nearly twice-pinnate ; pinna broadest at base, cut into from 
 eight to sixteen pairs of linear-oblong, obtuse, obscurely toothed di- 
 visions ; fruit-dots large, round, near the mid vein ; indusium or- 
 bicular, smooth. 
 
 This is a much larger and more showy plant than 
 the Crested Shield Fern. Its tall, broad, hardy- 
 looking fronds are found in our moist woods. While 
 not rare it is exclusive in its habits, and cannot be 
 classed with such every-day finds as its kinsmen, 
 the Marsh, Spinulose, Evergreen, and Christmas 
 Ferns. 
 
 172 
 
PLATE XXXI 
 
 Part of fertile frond of Goldie's Frn 
 a Portion of a fertile pinna 
 
 173 
 
VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 VI AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 44. GOLDIE'S FERN 
 
 Aspidium Goldianum (Dryopteris Goldieana) 
 
 New Brunswick to North Carolina and Tennessee, in rich woods. 
 Two to more than four feet high, with stalks which are chaffy near 
 the base. 
 
 Fronds. Broadly ovate, the early sterile ones much broader in 
 proportion and smaller, usually a foot or more wide, once-pinnate ; 
 pinna pinnatifid ; broadest in the middle (the distinction from Clin- 
 ton's Wood Fern), the divisions, about twenty pairs, oblong-linear, 
 slightly toothed ; fruit-dots very near the midvein ; indusium very 
 large, orbicular. 
 
 In the golden twilight of the deeper woods this 
 stately plant unfurls its tall, broad, bright - green 
 fronds, studded on their backs with the round fruit- 
 dots which are so noticeable in this Aspidium, ad- 
 ding much to their attractiveness by the suggestion 
 of fertility. 
 
 This plant ranks with the Osmundas and with the 
 Ostrich Fern in size and vigorous beauty. Its retir- 
 ing habits give it a reputation for rarity or at least 
 for exclusiveness. 
 
 174 
 
XXXII 
 
 EVERGREEN WOOD FERN 
 
 a Tip of fertil* pinna b Magnified fruit-dot, showing indusium and sporangia 
 
 175 
 
VT FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 45. EVERGREEN WOOD FERN. MARGINAL SHIELD 
 
 FERN 
 
 Aspidium marginale (Dryopteris marginalis) 
 
 Canada to Alabama, in rocky woods. A few inches to three feet 
 high, with more or less chaffy stalks having shining scales. 
 
 Fronds. Ovate-oblong, smooth, thick, somewhat leathery, once 
 or twice-pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped or triangular-ovate, tapering 
 at the end, cut into pinnules ; pinnules oblong, entire, or toothed ; 
 fruit-dots large, round, close to the margin ; indusium large, con- 
 vex, persistent. 
 
 Above the black leaf-mould in our rocky northern 
 woods rise the firm, graceful crowns formed by the 
 blue-green fronds of the Evergreen Wood Fern. 
 The plant bears a family likeness to the Crested 
 Shield Fern, but its conspicuously marginal fruit- 
 dots identify it at sight. 
 
 It is interesting to read that it comes " nearer 
 being a tree-fern than any other of our species, the 
 caudex covered by the bases of fronds of previous 
 seasons, sometimes resting on bare rocks for four 
 or five inches without roots or fronds " (see Eaton, 
 p. 70). This peculiarity in the plant's growth is 
 often striking and certainly suggests the tree-ferns 
 of the green-house. 
 
 Frequently in this species I notice what is more 
 or less common to nearly all ferns, the exquisite 
 contrast in the different shades of green worn by 
 the younger and older fronds and the charming 
 effect produced when the deep green of the centre 
 of a frond shades away in the most delicate manner 
 toward its apex and the tips of its pinnules. 
 
 As its English title signifies, the Evergreen Wood 
 
 176 
 
PRO11P VI F E R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 Fern flourishes throughout the winter. In one of 
 the October entries in his journal, Thoreau records 
 his satisfaction in the endurance of the hardy ferns : 
 " Now they are conspicuous amid the withered 
 leaves. You are inclined to approach and raise each 
 frond in succession, moist, trembling, fragile green- 
 ness. They linger thus in all moist, clammy swamps 
 under the bare maples and grapevines and witch 
 hazels, and about each trickling spring that is half 
 choked with fallen leaves. What means this per- 
 sistent vitality ? Why were these spared when the 
 brakes and osmundas were stricken down ? They 
 stay as if to keep up the spirits of the cold-blooded 
 frogs which have not yet gone into the mud, that 
 the summer may die with decent and graceful mod- 
 eration. Is not the water of the spring improved 
 by their presence? They fall back and droop here 
 and there like the plumes of departing summer, of 
 the departing year. Even in them I feel an argu- 
 ment for immortality. Death is so far from being 
 universal. The same destroyer does not destroy 
 all. How valuable they are, with the lycopodiums, 
 for cheerfulness. Greenness at the end of the year, 
 after the fall of the leaf, a hale old age. To my eye 
 they are tall and noble as palm-groves, and always 
 some forest nobleness seems to have its haunt under 
 their umbrage. All that was immortal in the swamp 
 herbage seems here crowded into smaller compass, 
 the concentrated greenness of the swamp. How dear 
 they must be to the chickadee and the rabbit! the cool, 
 slowly retreating rear-guard of the swamp army." 
 
 177 
 
vi FE R T * LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 
 V AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 46. FRAGRANT SHIELD FERN 
 
 Aspidium fragrant (Dryopteris fragrans) 
 
 Northern New England to Wisconsin and northward, on rocks. 
 Five to sixteen inches long, with very chaffy stalks having 
 brown, glossy scales. 
 
 Fronds. Lance-shaped, tapering to a point, nearly twice-pinnate, 
 fragrant ; pinnce oblong-lanceolate, pinnatifid ; fruit-dots round, 
 large ; indusium large and thin. 
 
 The Fragrant Shield Fern thrives in a coldei 
 climate than that chosen by many of its kinsmen. 
 Though found in the White Mountains, in the 
 Green Mountains (where it climbs to an elevation 
 of four thousand feet), in the Adirondacks, and in 
 other special localities of about the same latitude, 
 yet it is rare till we journey farther north. It loves 
 the crevices of shaded cliffs or mossy rocks, often 
 thriving best in the neighborhood of rushing brooks 
 and waterfalls. Frequently it seems to seek the most 
 inaccessible spots, as if anxious to evade discovery. 
 Mr. J. A. Bates, of Randolph, Vt, writes that he first 
 saw this little plant through a telescope from the 
 piazza of the Summit House on Mount Mansfield on 
 an apparently inaccessible ledge, the only instance in 
 my experience when the fern student has sought this 
 method of observation, suggesting " Ferns Through 
 a Spy-glass " as a companion volume to " Birds 
 Through an Opera-glass.*' But even the most care- 
 fully chosen spots are not safe from invasion, as Mr. 
 Bates tells us, for some unprincipled persons, having 
 
 felled neighboring trees and constructed a rude lad- 
 
 178 
 
r*LAT XiiXii 
 
 FRAGRANT SHIELD FEJW* 
 
 a. Portion ot fertile pinitt 
 
 179 
 
TROTIP VI FERT1LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 der, have succeeded in uprooting every plant 
 from the Fragrant Shield Fern Cliff on Mount 
 Mansfield. 
 
 The fronds of the Fragrant Shield Fern grow in a 
 crown and the fertile ones fruit in great abundance. 
 
 Eaton writes as follows touching the fragrance of 
 this fern and its use as a beverage : 
 
 " The pleasant odor of this plant remains many 
 years in the herbarium. The early writers compare 
 the fragrance to that of raspberries, and Milde repeats 
 the observation. Hooker and Greville thought it 
 'not unlike that of the common primrose.' Maxi- 
 mowicz states that the odor is sometimes lacking. 
 Milde quotes Redowsky as saying that the Yakoots 
 of Siberia use the plant in place of tea ; and, having 
 tried the experiment myself, I can testify to the not 
 unpleasant and very fragrant astringency of the 
 infusion/' 
 
 The following delightful description of the Fra- 
 grant Shield Fern was written by Mr. C. G. Pringle, 
 and is taken from Meehan's " Native Flowers and 
 Ferns " : 
 
 " In the several stations of Aspidium fragrans 
 among the Green Mountains which I have explored, 
 the plant is always seen growing from the crevices 
 or on the narrow shelves of dry cliffs not often 
 such cliffs as are exposed to the sunlight, unless it 
 be on the summits of the mountains, but usually 
 such cliffs as are shaded by firs, and notably such 
 as overhang mountain-rivulets and waterfalls. When 
 
 I visit such places in summer, the niches occupied 
 
 i So 
 
TROIIP v , FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 by the plants are quite dry. I think it would be 
 fatal to the plant if much spray should fall on it 
 during the season of its active growth. When you 
 enter the shade and solitude of the haunts of this 
 fern, its presence is betrayed by its resinous odor ; 
 looking up the face of the cliff, usually mottled with 
 lichens and moss, you see it often far above your 
 reach hanging against the rock, masses of dead 
 brown fronds, the accumulations of many years, pre- 
 served by the resinous principle which pervades 
 them ; for the fronds, as they disport regularly 
 about the elongating caudex, fall right and left pre- 
 cisely like a woman's hair. Above the tuft of droop- 
 ing dead fronds, which radiate from the centre of 
 the plant, grow from six to twenty green fronds, 
 which represent the growth of the season, those of 
 the preceding year dying toward autumn." 
 
 1*1 
 
GROUP VI F RmE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 47. BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN 
 
 Aspidium atuleatum, var. Braunii (Dryopteris Braunii) 
 
 Canada to Maine, the mountains of Pennsylvania and westward, 
 in deep rocky woods. One to more than two feet long, with 
 chaffy stalks, having brown scales. 
 
 Fronds. Thick, twice-pinnate ; pinnce lanceolate, tapering both 
 ways; pinnules covered with hairs and scales, truncate, nearly 
 rectangular at the base ; fruit-dots roundish, small, mostly near the 
 midveins ; indusium orbicular, entire. 
 
 This fern is said to have been first discovered by 
 Frederick Pursh in 1807 * n Smuggler's Notch, 
 Mount Mansfield, Vt. In the Green Mountains and 
 in the Catskills several stations have been estab- 
 lished. It has been found also in the Adirondacks 
 and in Oswego County, N. Y., and it is now re- 
 ported as common in the rocky woods of north- 
 ern Maine, and by mountain brooks in northern 
 New England. 
 
 Braun's Holly Fern is one of the numerous varie- 
 ties of the Prickly Shield Fern or A. aculeatum (D. 
 aculeatd). 
 
 Though few of our fern-students will have an op- 
 portunity to follow the Prickly Shield Fern through 
 all the forms it assumes in different parts of the 
 world, yet undoubtedly many of them will have the 
 pleasure of seeing in one of its lonely and lovely 
 haunts our own variety, Braun's Holly Fern. 
 
PLATE XXXIV 
 
 BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN 
 a Portion of pinna i> Fertile pinnu.e, indusia gon 
 
 183 
 
CROUP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKF 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUINI 
 
 48. COMMON POLYPODY. SNAKE FERN 
 
 Polypodium vulgfire 
 
 Almost throughout North America, on rocks. A few inches tc 
 more than a foot high. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong, smooth, somewhat 
 leathery, cut into narrowly oblong, usually 
 obtuse divisions which almost reach the 
 rachis ; fruit-dots large, round, half-way 
 between the midrib and margin ; *- 
 dusium, none. 
 
 Strangely enough, the Poly- 
 pody, one of our most abundant 
 and ubiquitous ferns, is not 
 rightly named, if it is noticed 
 at all, by nine out of ten people 
 who come across 
 it in the woods 
 or along the road- 
 side. Yet the plant 
 has a charm peculiarly 
 its own, a charm aris- 
 ing partly from its vig- 
 or, from the freshness 
 of its youth and 
 the endurance of 
 its old age, partly 
 from its odd out- 
 lines, and partly 
 from its usual en- 
 vironment, which 
 184 
 
v . FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 entitles it to a more ready and universal recog* 
 nition. 
 
 "The cheerful community of the polypody," as 
 Thoreau calls it, thrives best on the flat surfaces of 
 rocks. I recall the base of certain great cliffs where 
 the rocky fragments, looking as though hurled from 
 above by playful giants, are thickly covered with 
 these plants, their rich foliage softening into beauty 
 otherwise rugged outlines. Usually the plant is 
 found in somewhat shaded places. 
 Occasionally it grows on the trunks 
 of trees and on fallen logs, as well 
 as on rocks and cliffs. 
 
 A few weeks ago I found its 
 /ronds prettily curtaining the clev- 
 erly hidden nest of a pair of black 
 and white creepers. It is with 
 good reason that these birds are 
 noted for their skill in concealing 
 their dwelling-place. This special 
 afternoon, when persuaded by their 
 nervous chirps and flutterings about the rocky perch 
 where I was sitting that the young ones were close 
 by, I began an investigation of my precipitous and 
 very slippery surroundings which was not rewarded 
 for an hour or more. Not till I had climbed several 
 feet over the side of the cliff to a narrow shelf 
 below, broken through a thicket of blueberries, and 
 pushed aside the tufts of Polypody which hid the 
 entrance to the dark crevice in the rocks beyond, did 
 
 I discover the little nest holding the baby creepers. 
 
 185 
 
TROI1P VI F R TILE A ND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 Thoreau writes of the Polypody with peculiar 
 sympathy : 
 
 " It is very pleasant and cheerful nowadays, when 
 the brown and withered leaves strew the ground 
 and almost every plant is fallen withered, to come 
 upon a patch of polypody ... on some rocky 
 hill-side in the woods, where, in the midst of dry 
 and rustling leaves, defying frost, it stands so 
 freshly green and full of life. The mere greenness, 
 which was not remarkable in the summer, is posi- 
 tively interesting now. My thoughts are with the 
 polypody a long time after my body has passed. 
 . . . Why is not this form copied by our sculp- 
 tors instead of the foreign acanthus leaves and 
 bays ? How fit for a tuft about the base of a col- 
 umn ! The sight of this unwithering green leaf ex- 
 cites me like red at some seasons. Are not wood- 
 frogs the philosophers who frequent these groves? 
 Methinks I imbibe a cool, composed, frog-like phi- 
 losophy when I behold them. The form of the poly- 
 pody is strangely interesting, it is even outlandish. 
 Some forms, though common in our midst, are thus 
 perennially foreign as the growth of other latitudes. 
 . . . The bare outline of the polypody thrills me 
 strangely. It only perplexes me. Simple as it is, it 
 is as strange as an oriental character. It is quite 
 independent of my race and of the Indian, and of 
 all mankind. It is a fabulous, mythological form, 
 such as prevailed when the earth and air and 
 water were inhabited by those extinct fossil creat 
 
 ures that we find. It is contemporary with them, 
 
 186 
 
GROUP VI 
 
 FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 and affects us somewhat as the sight of them 
 might do." 
 
 49. LONG BEECH FERN 
 
 Phegopteris polypodioides (P. Phegopteris) 
 
 Newfoundland to Alaska, south to mountains of 
 Virginia, wet woods and hill-sides. Six or eight inches 
 to more than a foot high. 
 
 Fronds. Triangular, usually longer than broad 
 (4-9 inches long, 3-6 inches broad), downy, especially 
 beneath, thin, once-pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped, the 
 lower pair noticeably standing forward and deflexed, 
 cut into oblong, obtuse seg- 
 ments \fruit-dots small, round, 
 near the margin ; indusium, 
 none. 
 
 Of the three species 
 of Phegopteris native to 
 the northeastern States 
 P. polypodioides, com- 
 monly called the Long 
 Beech Fern, is the one 
 I happen to have en- 
 countered oftenest. 
 
 It is a less delicate 
 plant than either of its 
 sisters, the effect of the 
 larger and older specimens being 
 rather hardy, yet its downy, often 
 light-green, triangular frond is ex- 
 ceedingly pretty, with a certain od- 
 dity of aspect which it owes to the 
 
 187 
 
 Long Betch Fern 
 
CROUP VI FE R T I LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 lowest pair of pinnae, these being conspicuously 
 deflexed and turned forward. This peculiarity 
 gives it a decided individuality and renders it easy 
 of identification. 
 
 The Long Beech Fern I have found growing 
 
 a Portion of pinna 
 
 alternately in company with the Oak Fern and the 
 Broad Beech Fern. It loves the damp woods, 
 clambering over the roots of trees or carpeting 
 thickly the hollows that lie between. 
 
 50. BROAD BEECH FERN. HEXAGON BEECH FERN 
 
 Phegopteris hexagonoptera 
 
 Quebec to Florida, in dry woods and on hill-sides, with stalks 
 eight to eighteen inches long. 
 
 Fronds. Triangular, as broad or broader than long, seven to 
 twelve inches broad, thin, slightly hairy, often finely glandular be- 
 neath, fragrant, once-pinnate ; pinna, the large, lowest ones broad- 
 est near the middle and cut nearly to the midrib into linear- 
 oblong, obtuse segments, the middle ones lance-shaped, tapering, 
 the upper ones oblong, obtuse, toothed or entire ; basal segments 
 of the pinnae forming a continuous, many-angled wing along the 
 main rachis ; fruit-dots round, small, near the margin ; mdusium, 
 none. 
 
 In many ways this plant resembles its sister, the 
 
 Beech Fern, but usually it is a larger plant, 
 1*8 
 
PLATE XXXV 
 
 BROAD BEECH FERN 
 I*) 
 
VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 with more broadly triangular fronds, which wear, to 
 my mind, a brighter, fresher, more delicate green. 
 In the Long Beech Fern the two lower pairs of pin- 
 nae differ little in length and breadth, while in the 
 Broad Beech Fern the lowest pair are decidedly 
 larger and broader than the next pair. The wing 
 along the rachis formed by the basal segments of the 
 pinnae seems to me more conspicuous in the latter 
 than in the former. 
 
 The range of the Broad Beech Fern extends far- 
 ther south than does that of its two kinsmen, neither 
 of which are found, I believe, south of Virginia. It 
 seeks also more open and usually drier woods. Its 
 leaves are fragrant. 
 
 Williamson says that its fronds are easily decolor- 
 ized and that they form a " good object for double- 
 staining, a process well known to microscopists." 
 
 51. OAK FERN 
 
 Phegopleris Dryopteris 
 
 Northeastern United States to Virginia, west to Oregon and 
 Alaska, usually in wet woods, with stalks six to nine inches long. 
 
 Fronds. Usually longer than broad, four to nine inches long, 
 broadly triangular, the three primary divisions widely spreading, 
 smooth, once or twice-pinnate ; fruit-dots small, round, near the 
 margin ; indusium, none. 
 
 So far as I remember, my first encounter with the 
 Oak Fern was in a cedar swamp, famous for its 
 growth of showy lady's-slippers. One July day 
 in the hope of finding in flower some of these 
 
 iqo 
 
 
PLATE XXXVt 
 
 OAK FERN 
 
 IQ* 
 
VJ FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 orchids, I visited this swamp. It lay in a semi- 
 twilight, caused by the dense growth of cedars and 
 hemlocks. Prostrate on the spongy sphagnum be- 
 low were hosts of uprooted trees, so overrun with 
 trailing strands of partridge-vine, twin-flower, gold- 
 thread, and creeping snowberry, and so soft and 
 yielding to the feet that they seemed to have be- 
 come one with the earth. The stumps and far- 
 reaching roots of the trees that had been cut or 
 broken off above ground, instead of having been 
 uprooted bodily, had also become gardens of many 
 delicate woodland growths. Some of these decay- 
 ing stumps and outspreading roots were thickly 
 clothed with the clover-like leaflets of the wood- 
 sorrel, here and there nestling among them a pink- 
 veined blossom. On others I found side by side 
 gleaming wild strawberries and dwarf raspberries, 
 feathery fronds of Maidenhair, tall Osmundas, the 
 Crested and the Spinulose Shield Ferns, the leaves 
 of the violet, foam-flower, mitrewort, and many 
 others of the smaller, wood-loving plants. Among 
 these stumps were pools of water filled with the 
 dark, polished, rounded leaves of the wild calla, 
 and bordered by beds of moss which cushioned the 
 equally shining but long and pointed leaves of the 
 Clintonia. Near one of these pools grew a patch 
 of delicate, low-spreading plants, evidently ferns. 
 It needed only one searching look at the broad, 
 triangular, light-green fronds suggesting somewhat 
 those of a small Brake with roundish fruit-dots be- 
 low to assure me that I had found the Oak Fern. 
 
 IQ2 
 
VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 Every lover of plants or of birds or of any natural 
 objects will appreciate the sense of something more 
 exciting than satisfaction which I experienced as I 
 knelt above the little plantation and gathered a few 
 slender-stemmed fronds. One such find as this 
 compensates for many hours of fatigue and discom- 
 fort, or intensifies the enjoyment of an already 
 happy day. The expedition had justified itself with 
 the first full view of the solemn, beautiful depths of 
 the cedar forest. The discovery of the Oak Fern 
 provided a tangible token of what we had accom- 
 plished, and when finally we found the tall, leafy 
 plants of the showy lady's-slipper, without a single 
 blossom left upon them, our disappointment was so 
 mild as to be almost imperceptible. 
 
 As is often the case, having once discovered the 
 haunt of the Oak Fern, it ceased to be a rarity. It 
 joined the host of plants which climbed over the 
 mossy stumps and fallen logs, and at times it fairly 
 carpeted the ground beneath the cedars and hem- 
 locks. 
 
 193 
 
Cystopteris bulbifera 
 
 Canada to Tennessee, on wet 
 rocks, preferring limestone. One 
 to three feet long, with light- 
 colored, somewhat brittle stalks. 
 
 Fronds. Elongated, lance-shaped 
 from a broad base, often bearing be- 
 neath large, fleshy bulbs, usually 
 twice-pinnate; pinna lance-oblong, 
 pointed ; pinnules toothed or deeply 
 
 lobed ; fruit-dots roundish, indusium short, 
 
 hood-like, attached by a broad base on the side 
 
 toward the midrib, early 
 
 thrown back and withering 
 
 so that the mature fruit-dots 
 
 appear arched. 
 
 The Bulblet Blad- 
 der Fern is never more 
 at home than when 
 it grows close to falling water, clinging to rocks 
 
 dark and wet with spray. It seems to reflect 
 
 194 
 
PLATE. XXX v| j 
 
 BULBLET BLADDER 
 a Portion of fruiting jinna 
 
 195 
 
runup vi FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 the very spirit of the waterfall, all its life and 
 grace, as it springs from the dripping ledges, cloth- 
 ing them with a diaphanous garment of delicate 
 green which vies with their neighboring veil of 
 white, now pouring over some rocky shelf a solid 
 but silent mass of pale luxuriant foliage, now trailing 
 down the cliff its long, tapering fronds, side by side 
 with silvery strands of water, close to tufts of wind- 
 blown, spray-tipped hare-bells. 
 
 Although the plant is never seen at its best save 
 in some such neighborhood as this, its slender, feath- 
 ery fronds are always possessed of singular grace 
 and charm, whether undulating along the dried 
 rocky bed of a mountain brook or bending till their 
 slender tips nearly touch the rushing stream or 
 growing quite away from the rocks which are 
 their natural and usual companions among the 
 moss-grown trunks and fallen trees of the wet 
 woods. 
 
 I know no other fern, save the climbing fern, 
 which is so vine-like and clinging. In reality its 
 stalk and midrib are somewhat brittle, yet this brit- 
 tleness does not prevent its adapting itself with sup- 
 ple and exquisite curves to whatever support it has 
 chosen. 
 
 In its manner of growth, as well as in its slender, 
 tapering outline, the Bulblet Bladder Fern is so in- 
 dividual that there can be no difficulty in identifying 
 the full-sized fertile fronds, even in the absence of 
 the little bulbs which grow on the under side of the 
 
 frond, usually at the base of the pinnae. The sterile 
 
 196 
 
rLATE XXXVIU 
 
 FRAGILE BLADDER FERN 
 
 Portion of fertile pinna b Tip of fertile pinna 
 
 c Magnified fruit-dot showing indusium 
 197 
 
PRO! IP VI FE R T 1 LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 UKUUr AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 fronds are shorter and broader in proportion, and 
 not so easily identified. 
 
 53. FRAGILE BLADDER FERN. COMMON BLADDER 
 
 FERN 
 
 Cystopteris fragilis 
 
 A rock and wood fern, found from Newfoundland to Georgia. 
 Six to eighteen inches long, with slender and brittle stalks, green 
 except at the base. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-lanceolate, thin, twice to thrice-pinnate or pin- 
 natifid ; pinnce lance-ovate, irregularly cut into toothed segments 
 which at their base run along the midrib by a narrow margin ; fruit- 
 dots roundish, often abundant; indusium early withering and 
 exposing the sporangia, which finally appear naked. 
 
 This plant may be ranked among the earliest ferns 
 of the year. In May or June, if we climb down to 
 the brook where the columbine flings out her bril- 
 liant, nodding blossoms, we find the delicate little 
 fronds, just uncurled, clinging to the steep, moist 
 rocks, or perhaps beyond, in the deeper woods, they 
 nestle among the spreading roots of some great for- 
 est tree. Their " fragile greenness" is very winning. 
 As the plant matures, attaining at times a height of 
 nearly two feet, it loses something of this first deli- 
 cate charm. By the end of July its fruit has ripened, 
 its spores are discharged, and the plant disappears. 
 Frequently, if not always, a new crop springs up in 
 August. We are enchanted to discover tender 
 young fronds making patches of fresh green in ev- 
 ery crevice of the rocks among which the stream 
 forces its precipitous way. Once more the woods 
 
 are flavored with the essence of spring. In our 
 
 198 
 
PLATE XXXiX 
 
 RUSTY WOODSIA 
 
 199 
 
TROT IP VI F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 delight in this new promise we forget for a mo- 
 ment to mourn the vanishing summer. 
 
 The outline of the Common Bladder Fern sug- 
 gests that of the Obtuse Woodsia. The two plants 
 might be difficult to distinguish were it not for the 
 difference in their indusia. At maturity the indu- 
 sium of the Common Bladder Fern usually disap- 
 pears, leaving the fruit-dot naked, while that of the 
 Obtuse Woodsia is fastened underneath the fruit- 
 dot and splits apart into jagged, spreading lobes. 
 
 The sterile fronds of the Slender Cliff Brake also 
 have been thought to resemble this fern, in whose 
 company it often grows. 
 
 Williamson says that the Common Bladder Fern 
 is easily cultivated either in mounds or on rock- 
 work. 
 
 54. RUSTY WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia Ilvensis 
 
 From Labrador and Greenland south to North Carolina and Ken- 
 tucky, usually on exposed rocks in somewhat mountainous regions. 
 A few inches to nearly one foot high. 
 
 Fronds. Oblong-lance-shaped, rather smooth above, the stalk 
 and under surface of the frond thickly clothed with rusty chaff, 
 once-pinnate ; pinna oblong, obtuse, sessile, cut into oblong seg- 
 ments ; fruit-dots round, near the margin, often confluent at matur- 
 ity ; indusium detached by its base under the sporangia, dividing 
 into slender hairs which curl above them. 
 
 Last Decoration Day, while clambering over 
 some rocky cliffs in the Berkshire Hills, I found the 
 Rusty Woodsia growing in masses so luxuriant to 
 the eye and so velvety to the touch that it hardly 
 
 200 
 
PLATE XL 
 
 BLUNT-LOBED WOODSIA 
 Portion of pinna b Fruit-dot magnified, showing indutium 
 
 201 
 
PROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 suggested the bristly looking plant which one finds 
 later in the summer. 
 
 This fern reverses the usual order of things, be- 
 ing gray-haired in youth and brown-haired in old 
 age, with the result that in May its effect is a soft, 
 silvery green. But even in August, if you chance 
 upon a vigorous tuft springing from some rocky 
 crevice, despite its lack of delicacy and its bristle 
 of red-brown hairs or chaff, the plant is an attract- 
 ive one. 
 
 Environment has much to do with the charm of 
 ferns. The first plant of this species I ever identi- 
 fied grew on a rocky shelf within a few feet of a 
 stream which flowed swift and cold from the near 
 mountains. Close by, from the forked branches of 
 a crimson-fruited mountain maple, hung the dainty, 
 deserted nest of a vireo. Always the Rusty Wood- 
 sia seems to bring me a message from that abode 
 of solitude and silence. 
 
 55. BLUNT-LOBED WOODSIA 
 
 Wood si a obtusa 
 
 Canada to Georgia and Alabama and westward, on rocks. 
 Eight to twenty inches high, with stalks not jointed, chaffy when 
 young. 
 
 Fronds. Broadly lanceolate, nearly twice-pinnate ; pinnce rather 
 remote, triangular-ovate or oblong, pinnately parted into obtuse, 
 oblong, toothed segments ; veins forked ; fruit-dots on or near 
 the minutely toothed lobes ; indusium conspicuous, splitting into 
 several jagged lobes. 
 
 The Blunt-lobed Woodsia is not rare on rocks and 
 stony hillsides in Maine and Northern New York. 
 
TROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 It is found frequently in the valley of the Hudson. 
 Though not related to the Common Bladder Fern 
 (C.fragilif\ it has somewhat the same general ap- 
 pearance. Its fronds, however, are usually both 
 broader and longer, and its stalk and pinnae are 
 slightly downy. Its range does not vary greatly 
 from that of the Common Bladder Fern, but 
 usually it grows in more exposed spots and some- 
 times basks in strong sunshine. 
 
 Meehan says the Blunt-lobed Woodsia is found 
 along the Wissahickon Creek, Penna., on dry walls 
 in shady places. " One of its happiest phases," 
 he continues, " is toward the fall of the year, when 
 the short, barren fronds which form the outer circle 
 bend downward, forming a sort of rosette, in the 
 centre of which the fertile fronds somewhat erectly 
 stand." 
 
 The sterile fronds remain fairly green till spring. 
 
 56. NORTHERN WOODSIA. ALPINE WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia hyperborea ( IV. alpind) 
 
 Northern New York and Vermont, and northward from Labra- 
 dor to Alaska, on rocks. Two to six inches long, with stalks 
 jointed near the base. 
 
 Fronds. Narrowly oblong-lanceolate, nearly smooth, pinnate ; 
 fiinncz triangular-ovate, obtuse, lobed ; lobes few ; fruit-dots some- 
 what scattered ; indusium as in W. Ilvensis. 
 
 This rare little fern has been found by Dr. Peck 
 in the Adirondacks and by Horace Mann, jr., and 
 
 Mr. Pringle in Vermont. In his delightful " Rem- 
 
 203 
 
PRO1IP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 iniscences of Botanical Rambles in Vermont," 
 published in the Torrey Bulletin, July, 1897, Mr. 
 Pringle describes his first discovery of this species : 
 
 " I was on the mountain [Willoughby] on the 4th 
 of August and examined the entire length of the 
 cliffs, climbing upon all their accessible shelves. 
 Among the specimens of Woodsia glabella brought 
 away were a few which I judged to belong to a 
 different species. Mr. Frost, to whom they were 
 first submitted, pronounced them Woodsia glabella. 
 Not satisfied with his report, I showed them to Dr. 
 Gray. By him I was advised to send them to Pro- 
 fessor Eaton, because, as he said, Woodsia is a criti- 
 cal genus. Professor Eaton assured me that I had 
 Woodsia hyperborea, . . . another addition to the 
 flora of the United States." 
 
 Later in the year Mr. Pringle made a visit to 
 Smugglers' Notch on Mount Mansfield, when he was 
 " prepared to camp in the old Notch House among 
 hedgehogs, and botanize the region day by day." 
 This visit was rich in its results. The most nota- 
 ble finds were Aspidium fragrans, Asplenium viride 
 Woodsia glabella^ and Woodsia hyperborea. 
 
 204 
 
PLATE XU 
 
 NORTHERN WOODS* 
 
VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY S i MILAR . FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 57. SMOOTH WOODSIA 
 
 Woodsia glabella 
 
 Northern New York and Vermont, and northward from Labra^ 
 dor to Alaska, on moist rocks. Two to five inches long, with 
 stalks jointed at base. 
 
 Fronds. Very delicate, linear or narrowly lanceolate, smooth 
 on both sides, pinnate ; pinna roundish ovate, obtuse, lobed, lobes 
 few ; fruit-dots scattered ; indusium minute. 
 
 The Smooth Woodsia closely resembles the 
 Northern Woodsia, and one may expect to find it 
 in much the same parts of the country. In texture 
 it is still more delicate ; its fronds are almost per- 
 fectly smooth, its outline is narrower, and its pinnae 
 are but slightly lobed. 
 
 Mr. Pringle tells us that a letter from Mr. George 
 Davenport, asking him to look for Woodsia gla- 
 bella, awakened his first interest in ferns. His own 
 account of these early fern hunts is inspiring in its 
 enthusiasm : 
 
 " In 1873 George Davenport was beginning his 
 study of ferns. A letter from him, asking me to look 
 for Woodsia glabella . . . started me on a fern hunt. 
 The species had been found on Willoughby Moun- 
 tain, Vt, and at Little Falls, N. Y.; might it not 
 be growing in many places in Vermont? When I 
 set out I knew, as I must suppose, not a single fern, 
 and it was near the close of the summer. You can 
 imagine what delights awaited me in the autumn 
 woodlands. I made the acquaintance of not a few 
 ferns, though it was too late to prepare good speci- 
 mens of them. In this first blind endeavor I got, of 
 
 206 
 
SMOOTH WOODSIA 
 
 9 Fertile pinna 
 
 207 
 
r PHI IP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 URUUr AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 course, no clew to Woodsia glabella. The next sum- 
 mer the hunt was renewed and persistently followed 
 up. I found pleasure in securing one by one nearly 
 all our Vermont ferns. At the time I thought it 
 worthy of remembrance that a single field of diversi- 
 fied pasture and woodland on an adjoining farm 
 vielded me thirty species. Although the two com- 
 mon species of Woodsia were near at hand, Woodsia 
 glabella was still eluding my search. I sent a friend 
 to the summit of Jay Peak in a fruitless quest for it. 
 Finally, on September ist, I joined Mr. Congdon at 
 its old station on Willoughby Mountain, and made 
 myself familiar with its exquisite form. 
 
 " During the first two years of my collecting in 
 earnest, 1874 and 1875, several visits were made to 
 Camel's Hump, the peak most accessible to me. In 
 this way some time was lost, because its subalpine 
 area is limited, and consequently the number of rare 
 plants to be found there is small. Yet, with such 
 dogged persistence as sometimes prevents my mak- 
 ing good progress, my last visit to that point was 
 not made till the 2Oth of June, 1876. On that day I 
 clambered, I believe, over every shelf of its great 
 southern precipice and peered into every fissure 
 among the rocks. At last, as I was climbing up the 
 apex over the southeastern buttress, my perilous toil 
 was rewarded by the discovery not only of Woodsia 
 glabella, but of Aspidium fragrans. . . . There 
 were only a few depauperate specimens of each 
 which had not yet succumbed to the adverse condi- 
 tions of their dry and exposed situation." 
 
 aoS 
 
PROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 In the following passage Mr. Pringle describes his 
 pleasure, some years later, in the companionships 
 fostered by a common interest in his pet hobby : 
 
 " . . . my delight in this preserve of boreal 
 plants was shared with not a few genial botanists. 
 Charles Faxon came before any of us suspected that 
 he possessed undeveloped talent for a botanical ar- 
 tist of highest excellence. Edwin Faxon followed 
 his young brother, and with me made the tedious as- 
 cent to Stirling Pond, a day of toil well rewarded. 
 Thomas Morong came, before the hardships of his 
 Paraguayan journey had broken him down. . . . 
 Our honored President came. . . . In those days, 
 as now, ... he was often my companion to add 
 delight to my occupation and to reinforce my en- 
 thusiasm. . . . The gentle Davenport came at 
 last to behold for the first time in their native haunts 
 many of the objects of his first love and study. When 
 I had found for him yet once more in a fifth Vermont 
 station (this was under Checkerberry Ledge, near 
 Bakersfield) the fern he at first desired, and, together 
 with that, had discovered within our limits three or 
 four others quite as rare and scarcely expected, I 
 might feel that I had complied with the request of his 
 letter. But that letter initiated a warm friendship 
 between us and association in work upon American 
 ferns, which has continued to the present time. 
 During these twenty-three years of botanical travel 
 on my part my hands have gathered all but thirty- 
 six of the one hundred and sixty-five species of North 
 American ferns, and from the more remote corners 
 
 I3Q 
 
PROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 
 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 
 
 of our continent I have sent home to my friend for 
 description and publication sixteen new ones. Yet 
 I trust that the fern hunt upon which he started me 
 in 1873 is still far from its close." 
 
 The above quotations illustrate fairly the enthu- 
 siasm aroused by a pursuit which is full of peculiar 
 fascination. Almost anyone who has made a study 
 of our native ferns will recall hours filled with de- 
 light through their agency, companions made more 
 companionable by means of a common interest in 
 their names, haunts, and habits. 
 
 210 
 
INDEX TO LATIN NAMES 
 
 AoiANTUM Capillus-Veneris, 108 
 Adiantum emarginatum, no 
 Adiantum pedatum, 108 
 Adiantum tenerum, no 
 Aspidium acrostichoides, 96 
 Aspidium aculeatum, 182 
 Aspidium aculeatum var. Braunii, i8a 
 Aspidium Boottii, 168 
 Aspidium Braunii, 182 
 Aspidium cristatum, 170 
 Aspidium cristatum, var. Clintonia- 
 
 num, 172 
 
 Aspidium fragrans, 178 
 Aspidium Goldianum, 174 
 Aspidium marginale, 176 
 Aspidium Noveboracense, 159 
 Aspidium spinulosum, 166 
 Aspidium spinulosum, var. dilata- 
 
 tum, 168 
 
 Aspidium spinulosum, var. interme- 
 dium, 166 
 
 Aspidium Thelypteris, 160 
 Asplenium acrostichoides, 124 
 Asplenium angustifolium, 98 
 Asplenium Bradleyi, 144 
 Asplenium ebeneum, 134 
 Asplenium ebenoides, 140 
 Asplenium Felix-fcemina, 120 
 Asplenium montanum, 130 
 Asplenium pinnatifidum, 142 
 Asplenium platyneuron, 134 
 Asplenium Ruta-muraria, 126 
 Asplenium thelypteroides, 124 
 Asplenium Trichomanes, 136 
 Asplenium viride, 138 
 
 BOTRYCHIUM dissectum, 81 
 Botrychium gracile, 80 
 
 Botrychium lanceolatum, 86 
 Botrychium Lunaria, 84 
 Botrychium matricariaefoliunx. 86 
 Botrychium simplex, 81 
 Botrychium ternatum, 81 
 Botrychium Virginianum, 80 
 
 CAMPTOSORUS rhizophyllus, 146 
 Cheilanthes lanosa, 112 
 Cheilanthes vestita, 112 
 Cystopteris bulbifera, 194 
 Cystopteris fragilis, 198 
 
 DICKSONIA pilosiuscula, 114 
 Dicksonia punctilobula, 114 
 Dryopteris acrostichoides, 96 
 Dryopteris aculeata, 182 
 Dryopteris Boottii, 168 
 Dryopteris Braunii, 182 
 Dryopteris cristata, 170 
 Dryopteris cristata Clintoniana, 172 
 Dryopteris fragrans, 178 
 Dryopteris Goldieana, 174 
 Dryopteris marginalis, 176 
 Dryopteris Noveboracensis, 159 
 Dryopteris simulata, 164 
 Dryopteris spinulosa, 166 
 Dryopteris spinulosa dilatata, 168 
 Dryopteris spinulosa intermedia, 
 
 166 
 Dryopteris Thelypteris, 160 
 
 LYGODIUM palmatum, 75 
 
 ONOCLEA sensibilis, 54 
 
 Onoclea sensibilis, var. obtusilobata, 
 
 5* 
 Onoclea Struthiopteris, 56 
 
INDEX TO LATIN NAMES 
 
 Ophioglossum vulgatum, 77 Pteris aquilina, 105 
 
 Osmunda cinnamomea, 60 Pteris esculenta, 107 
 Osmunda cinnamomea, var. fron- 
 
 dosa > fa SCHIZ^EA pusilla, 63 
 
 Osmunda Claytoniana, 72 Scolopendrium scolopendrium, 150 
 
 Osmunda regalis, 67 Scolopendrium vulgare, 150 
 
 PELL^EA atropurpurea, 90 
 
 Pellsea gracilis, 87 WoODSiA Alpina, 203 
 
 Pellaea Stelleri, 87 Woodsia glabella, 206 
 
 Phegopteris Dryopteris, 190 Woodsia hyperborea, 203 
 
 Phegopteris hexagonoptera, 188 Woodsia Ilvensis, 200 
 
 Phegopteris Phegopteris, 187 Woodsia obtusa, 202 
 
 Phegopteris polypodioides, 187 Woodwardia angustifolia, 102 
 
 Polypodium vulgare, 184 Woodwardia Virginica, 156 
 
 212 
 
INDEX TO ENGLISH NAMES 
 
 ADDER'S Tongue, 77 
 Alpine Woodsia, 203 
 
 BEECH Fern, Broad, 188 
 
 Beech Fern, Long, 187 
 
 Bladder Fern, Bulblet, 194 
 
 Bladder Fern, Common, 198 
 
 Bladder Fern, Fragile, 198 
 
 Blunt-lobed Woodsia, 202 
 
 Boott's Shield Fern, 168 
 
 Bracken, 105 
 
 Bradley 's Spleenwort, 144 
 
 Brake, 105 
 
 Braun's Holly Fern, 182 
 
 CATERPILLAR Fern, 156 
 Chain Fern, Net-veined, 102 
 Chain Fern, Virginia, 156 
 Christmas Fern, 96 
 Cinnamon Fern, 60 
 Cliff Brake, Purple, 90 
 Cliff Brake, Slender, 87 
 Clinton's Wood Fern, 172 
 Climbing Fern, 75 
 Common Polypody, 184 
 Creeping Fern, 75 
 Crested Shield Fern, 170 
 Curly Grass, 63 
 
 EAGLE Fern, 105 
 Ebony Spleenwort, 134 
 Evergreen Wood Fern, 67 
 
 FLOWERING Fern, 67 
 Fragile Bladder Fern, 198 
 Fragrant Shield Fern, 178 
 
 GOLDIE'S Fern, 174 
 
 Grape Fern, Lance-leaved, 86 
 Grape Fern, Little, 82 
 Grape Fern, Matricary, 86 
 Grape Fern, Ternate, 81 
 Grape Fern, Virginia, 80 
 Green Spleenwort, 138 
 
 HAIRY Lip Fern, 112 
 Holly Fern, Braun's, 182 
 Hartford Fern, 75 
 Hart's Tongue, 150 
 Hay-scented Fern, 114 
 
 INTERRUPTED Fern, 72 
 
 LADY Fern, 120 
 Lance-leaved Grape Fern, 86 
 Little Grape Fern, 82 
 Lip Fern, Hairy, 112 
 Long Beech Fern, 187 
 
 MAIDENHAIR, 108 
 Maidenhair Spleenwort, 136 
 Marginal Shield Fern, 176 
 Marsh Fern, 160 
 Massachusetts Fern, 164 
 Matricary Grape Fern, 86 
 Moonwort, 84 
 Mountain Spleenwort, 130 
 
 NARROW-LEAVED Spleenwort, 98 
 Net-veined Chain Fern, 102 
 New York Fern, 159 
 Northern Woodsia, 203 
 
 OAK Fern, 190 
 Ostrich FerA, 56 
 
INDEX TO ENGLISH NAMES 
 
 PINNATIFID Spleenwort, 142 
 Polypody, Common, 184 
 Prickly Shield Fern, 182 
 Purple Cliff Brake, 90 
 
 RATTLESNAKE Fern, 80 
 Royal Fern, 67 
 Rue Spleenwort, 126 
 Rusty Woodsia, 200 
 
 SCOTT'S Spleenwort, 140 
 Shield Fern, Boott's, 168 
 Shield Fern, Crested, 170 
 Shield Fern, Fragrant, 178 
 Shield Fern, Marginal, 176 
 Shield Fern, Prickly, 182 
 Seaweed Fern, 156 
 Sensitive Fern, 54 
 Silvery Spleenwort, 124 
 Slender Cliff Brake, 87 
 Smooth Woodsia, 206 
 Snake Fern, 184 
 Spinulose Wood Fern, 166 
 Spleenwort, Bradley's, 144 
 Spleenwort, Ebony, 134 
 
 Spleenwort, Green, 138 
 Spleenwort, Maidenhair, 136 
 Spleenwort, Mountain, 130 
 Spleenwort, Narrow-leaved, 98 
 Spleenwort, Pinnatifid, 142 
 Spleenwort, Rue, 126 
 Spleenwort, Silvery, 124 
 Spleenwort, Scotts', 140 
 
 TERNATE Grape Fern, 81 
 
 VIRGINIA Chain Fern, 156 
 Virginia Grape Fern, 80 
 
 WALKING Fern, 146 
 Walking Leaf, 146 
 Wall Rue, 126 
 Wood Fern, Clinton's, 172 
 Wood Fern, Evergreen, 176 
 Wood Fern, Spinulose, 166 
 Woodsia, Alpine, 203 
 Woodsia, Blunt-lobed, 202 
 Woodsia, Northern, 203 
 Woodsia, Rusty, 200 
 Woodsia, Smooth, 206 
 
 314 
 
INDEX TO TECHNICAL TERMS 
 
 ANTHERIDIA, 34 
 
 Archegonia, 34 
 
 Alternation of generations, 33 
 
 Asexual generation, 34 
 
 FROND, 28 
 Fertile frond, 3 
 Fertilization, 34 
 
 INDUSIUM, 31 
 ONCE-PINNATE frond, 30 
 
 PINNATIFID frond, 29 
 Pinnae, 30 
 
 Pinnules, 30 
 Prothallium, 34 
 
 RACHIS, 30 
 Rootstock, 28 
 
 SEXUAL generation, 33 
 Simple frond, 29 
 Sori, 30 
 Sporangia, 30 
 Spore, 30 
 Sterile frond, 31 
 
 TWICE-PINNATE frond, 30 
 VEINS, free, 30 
 
 215 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 How to Know the Wild 
 Flowers 
 
 By MRS. WILLIAM STARR DANA 
 
 With 48 colored plates and new black-and-white drawings, 
 enlarged, rewritten, and entirely reset. 
 
 A guide to the names, haunts, and habits of our native 
 wild flowers. With 48 full-page colored plates by 
 ELSIE LOUISE SHAW, and no full-page illustrations 
 by MARION SATTERLEE. Crown 8vo, $2.00 net. 
 
 " Readers will find that even a bowing acquaintance with 
 the flowers repays one generously for the effort expended in its 
 achievement," says the author in her introduction. " Such an 
 acquaintance serves to transmute the tedium of a railway journey 
 into the excitement of a tour of discovery. It causes the monot- 
 ony of a drive through an ordinarily uninteresting country to be 
 forgotten in the diversion of noting the wayside flowers, and 
 counting a hundred different species where formerly less than a 
 dozen would have been detected. It invests each boggy meadow 
 and bit of rocky woodland with almost irresistible charm." 
 
 "She has systematized her facts in a compact and convenient 
 form. She is practical and terse, and is also alive to the things 
 which are not entirely matters of fact." New York Tribune. 
 
 Miss C. W. Hunt, Superintendent of Children's Department, 
 Brooklyn Public Library, says: "Get this book if you only carry 
 one flower book on your vacation." 
 
 "Particularly noteworthy for its beautiful colored plates, 
 about fifty in number. So beautifully were these made that in 
 many cases the actual flower seems starting from the page, and 
 one can almost fancy the perfume, too, is in evidence." 
 
 New York Times. 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 By Mrs. WILLIAM STARR DANA 
 
 (FRANCES THEODORA PARSONS) 
 
 ACCORDING TO SEASON 
 
 Talks about the flowers in the order of their appearance 
 in the woods and fields. With 32 full-page illustra- 
 tions in colors from drawings by Elsie Louise Shaw. 
 $1.75 net. 
 
 " It is a privilege to own such a book, for its artistic charm 
 and its contents well deserve their setting." The Dial. 
 
 " The charm of this book is as pervading and enduring as 
 is the charm of nature." New York Times. 
 
 "Delightful talks upon the beauty of the changing year 
 and the parts contributed to such pleasures by forest, grove, 
 and stream." The Interior. 
 
 By LOUISE SHELTON 
 
 THE SEASONS IN A 
 FLOWER GARDEN 
 
 A hand-book of information and instruction for the ama- 
 teur. Illustrated. $1.00 net. 
 
 11 Pleasant and useful, and may be confidently recommended 
 to amateur gardeners." New York Times. 
 
 " A manual admirably adapted in every way to the needs of 
 people who desire to utilize a small garden space to the best 
 possible advantage." Providence Journal. 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 597-599 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 How to Know the Ferns 
 
 By FRANCES THEODORA PARSONS 
 
 Author of "According to Season" and "How to Know 
 the Wild Flowers." With 144 illustrations from 
 photographs. Crown 8vo, $1.50 net. 
 
 Written in the same fresh entertaining way, and with 
 the same care and authority, that made invaluable to 
 nature lovers her work on "How to Know the Wild 
 Flowers." 
 
 "Since the publication, six years ago, of 'How to Know the 
 Wild Flowers,'" says the writer, "I have received such convin- 
 cing testimony of the eagerness of nature lovers of all ages and 
 conditions to familiarize themselves with the inhabitants of our 
 woods and fields, and so many assurances of the joy which such 
 a familiarity affords, that I have prepared this companion 
 volume on 'How to Know the Ferns.'" 
 
 "The charm of this book is pervading and enduring as is the 
 charm of nature." New York Times. 
 
 "This is a notably thorough little volume. The text is not 
 voluminous, and even with its many full-page illustrations the 
 book is small; but brevity, as we are glad to see so many writers 
 on nature learning, is the first of virtues in this field. . . . The 
 author of 'How to Know the Ferns' has mastered her subject, 
 and she treats of it with authority." New York Tribune. 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 Our Native Trees and 
 How to Identify Them 
 
 By HARRIET L. KEELER 
 
 With 178 full-page plates from photographs, and 162 text- 
 drawings. Crown 8vo, $2.00 net. 
 
 The trees described in this volume are those indigenous 
 to the region extending from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
 Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the northern 
 boundaries of the Southern States; together with a few 
 well-known and naturalized foreign trees such as the 
 Horse-Chestnut, Lombardy Poplar, Ailantus, and Syca- 
 more Maple. 
 
 "Miss Keeler has made a very commendable addition to the 
 semi-popular treatises on American plants, in a well-written, 
 well-illustrated, and well-printed account of native and natural- 
 ized trees. Bits of the best from the poets and prose writers re- 
 lieve the descriptions, and the folk-lore of a number of trees is 
 well if briefly told." American Naturalist. 
 
 "To such of the general public as habitually frequent the 
 woods which they love, the book will be most welcome, for it is 
 carefully classified, adequately illustrated, and most readably 
 written." Boston Budget. 
 
 "It condenses into convenient shape a fund of information 
 spread over many volumes of older works, and blends the prac- 
 tical and poetical in a way to delight all readers." 
 
 St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 Our Northern Shrubs 
 
 By HARRIET L. KEELER 
 
 With 205 photographic plates and 35 pen-and-ink draw- 
 ings. Crown 8vo, $2.00 net. 
 
 The volume is prepared not only for the amateur botan- 
 ist who seeks a more adequate description than the text- 
 books afford, and not only for the lover of nature who 
 desires a personal acquaintance with the bushes that grow 
 in the fields; but also to serve those who are engaged in 
 the establishment and decoration of city parks, roadways, 
 and boulevards; those who are seeking to beautify country 
 roadsides and railroad stations as well as those who, in 
 the decoration of their own home grounds, would gladly 
 use our native shrubs were their habits and character better 
 understood. 
 
 "Simple, clear descriptions that a child can understand, are 
 given of shrubs that find their home in the region extending 
 from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, and from Canada to 
 the boundaries of our Southern States." Outlook. 
 
 "There are over two hundred plates from photographs, and 
 a number from drawings. The photographs, all of shrubs in 
 flower or fruit, are very beautiful, and so clear as to make identi- 
 fication perfectly simple." Dial. 
 
 "An interesting feature of this book is the sparing but judicious 
 incorporation of quotations from those authors among us who 
 have best interpreted nature." Churchman. 
 
BOOKS ON GARDEN 
 FIELD AND WOOD 
 
 Our Garden Flowers 
 
 By HARRIET L. KEELER 
 
 Author of "Our Native Trees" and "Our Northern 
 Shrubs." With 96 full-page illustrations from photo- 
 graphs and 1 86 illustrations from drawings. Crown 
 8vo, $2.00 net', postage extra. 
 
 A popular study of the life histories of familiar flowers, 
 their structural affiliations, their native lands, that has those 
 qualities of clearness, thoroughness, and charm of style that 
 have made her other books famous. 
 
 It is beautifully illustrated. 
 
 "This book," says its author in her preface, "is the outcome 
 of a life-long search for a volume with which one might make a 
 little journey into the garden, and become acquainted with the 
 dwellers therein; their native land, their life history, their struc- 
 tural affiliations. 
 
 "Among the many species of a genus it has often been neces- 
 sary to select but one for description. As a rule the choice has 
 been either the typical form, or the one longest in cultivation, or 
 the greatest favorite. 
 
 "While it has been the aim to make the book a fairly complete 
 study of all the annual and perennial flowering herbs commonly 
 found in a hardy garden, it is by no means intended to be a 
 catalogue." 
 
 Full of practical, tested, systematically arranged, and 
 well indexed information. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
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 OCT261970 
 
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 General Library 
 
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