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diff --git a/old/11365.txt b/old/11365.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b2ce49 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11365.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4484 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Fern Lover's Companion, by George Henry Tilton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fern Lover's Companion + A Guide for the Northeastern States and Canada + +Author: George Henry Tilton + +Release Date: February 28, 2004 [EBook #11365] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FERN LOVER'S COMPANION *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Leonard D Johnson and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +[Illustration: A Fern Lover] + +The Fern Lover's Companion + + +A Guide for the Northeastern States +and Canada + +BY + +GEORGE HENRY TILTON, A.M. + + "This world's no blot for us + Nor blank; it means intensely and it means good + To find its meaning is my meat and drink." + +[Illustration] + + + + +DEDICATION + + +To Alice D. Clark, engraver of these illustrations, who has spared no pains +to promote the artistic excellence of this work, and to encourage its +progress, these pages are dedicated with the high regards of THE AUTHOR. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +List of Illustrations +Preface +Introduction +Key to Genera +Classification of Ferns +The Polypodies +The Bracken Group: + Bracken + Cliff Brakes + Rock Brake +The Lip Ferns (_Cheilanthes_) +The Cloak Fern (_Notholaena_) +The Chain Ferns +The Spleenworts: + The Rock Spleenworts. _Asplenium_ + The Large Spleenworts. _Athyrium_ +Hart's Tongue and Walking Leaf +The Shield Ferns: + Christmas and Holly Fern + Marsh Fern Tribe + The Beech Ferns + The Fragrant Fern + The Wood Ferns + The Bladder Ferns +The Woodsias +The Boulder Fern (_Dennstaedtia_) +Sensitive and Ostrich Ferns +The Flowering Ferns (_Osmunda_) +Curly Grass and Climbing Fern +Adder's Tongue +The Grape Ferns: + Key to the Grape Fern + Moonwort + Little Grape Fern + Lance-leaved Grape Fern + Matricary Fern + Common Grape Fern + Rattlesnake Fern +Filmy Fern +Noted Fern Authors +Fern Literature +Time List for Fruiting of Ferns +Glossary +Note: Meaning of Genus and Species +Checklist + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +A Fern Lover +Prothallium Diagram +Pinnate Frond +Bipinnate Frond +Pinnatifid Frond +Spore Cases +Linen Tester +Curly Grass. _Schizaea_ +Cinnamon Fern. _Osmunda cinnamomea_ +Sensitive Fern. _Onoclea sensibilis_ +Ostrich Fern. _Onoclea Struthiopteris_ +Interrupted Fern. _Osmunda Claytoniana_ +Climbing Fern. _Lygodium_ +Flowering Fern. _Osmunda regalis spectabilis_ +Adder's Tongue. _Ophioglossum_ +Grape Fern. _Botrychium_ +Polypody. _Polypodium_ +Beech Fern. _Phegopteris_ +Cloak Fern. _Notholaena_ +Filmy Fern. _Trichomanes_ +Bracken. _Pteris_ +Maidenhair. _Adiantum_ +Cliff Brake. _Pellaea_ +Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes_ +Rock Brake. _Cryptogramma_ +Chain Fern. _Woodwardia_ +Shield Fern. _Polystichum_ +Wood Fern. _Aspidium_ +Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris_ +Woodsia +Hayscented Fern. _Dennstaedtia_ +Hart's Tongue. _Scolopendrium_ +Walking Fern. _Camptosorus_ +Asplenium Type +Athyrium Type +Sporangia of the Five Families +Indusium +Common Polypody. _Polypodium vulgare_ +Sori of Polypody +Polypody in mass (Greenwood) +Gray Polypody. _Polypodium incanum_ +Brake. Bracken. Sterile Frond +Bracken. Fertile Frond +Bracken, var. _pseudocaudata_ +Spray of Maidenhair +Sori of Maidenhair +Maidenhair. _Adiantum pedatum_ +Alpine Maidenhair +Venus-Hair Fern. _Adiantum capillus-veneris_ +Purple Cliff Brake. _Pellaea atropurpurea_ +Dense Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma densa_ +Slender Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma Stelleri_ +Parsley Fern. _Cryptogramma acrostichoides_ +Alabama Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes alabamensis_ +Hairy Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes lanosa_ +Slender Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes Feei_ +Pinnae of Slender Lip Fern +Powdery Cloak Fern. _Notholaena dealbata_ +Common Chain Fern. _Woodwardia virginica_ +Net-veined Chain Fern. _Woodwardia areolata_ +The Spleenworts +Pinnatifid Spleenwort. _Asplenium pinnatifidum_ +Scott's Spleenwort. _Asplenium ebenoides_ +Green Spleenwort. _Asplenium viride_ +Maidenhair Spleenwort. _Asplenium Trichomanes_ +Maidenhair Spleenwort. _Asplenium Trichomanes_ (Fernery) +Ebony Spleenwort. _Asplenium platyneuron_ +Bradley's Spleenwort. _Asplenium Bradleyi_ +Mountain Spleenwort. _Asplenium montanum_ +Rue Spleenwort. _Asplenium Ruta-muraria_ +Rootstock of Lady Fern (Two parts) +Sori of Lady Fern. _Athyrium angustum_ +Varieties of Lady Fern +Lowland Lady Fern. _Athyrium asplenioides_ +Silvery Spleenwort. _Athyrium acrostichoides_ +Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. _Athyrium angustifolium_ +Pinnae and Sori of _Athyrium angustifolium_ +Sori of _Scolopendrium vulgare_ +Hart's Tongue. _Scolopendrium vulgare_ +Walking Fern. _Camptosorus rhizophyllus_ +Christmas Fern. _Polystichum acrostichoides_ +Varieties of Christmas Fern +Braun's Holly Fern. _Polystichum Braunii_ +Holly Fern. _Polystichum Lonchitis_ +Marsh Fern. _Aspidium Thelypteris_ +Marsh Fern, in the mass +Massachusetts Fern. _Aspidium simulatum_ +New York Fern. _Aspidium noveboracense_ +Sori of _Aspidium noveboracense_ +Pinnae and Sori of _Aspidium noveboracense_ +Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Dryopteris_ +Northern Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Robertiana_ +Broad Beech Fern. _Aspidium hexagonoptera_ +Long Beech Fern. _Aspidium polypedioides_ +Fragrant Fern. _Aspidium fragrans_ +Marginal Shield Fern. _Aspidium marginale_ +Crown of Fronds of _Aspidium marginale_ +Sori of _Aspidium marginale_ +Male Fern. _Aspidium Filix-mas_ +_Aspidium Filix-mas_ and details +Goldie's Shield Fern. _Aspidium Goldianum_ +_Aspidium Goldianum_, in the mass +Crested Shield Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_ +Crested Shield Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_ (No. 2) +Clinton's Shield Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_ var. _Clintonianum_ +Crested Marginal Fern. _Aspidium cristatum x marginale_ +_Aspidium cristatum x marginale_, in the mass +Boott's Shield Fern. _Aspidium Boottii_ +Spinulose Shield Fern. _Aspidium spinulosum_ +_Aspidium spinulosum_ var. _intermedium_ +_Aspidium spinulosum_ var. _americanum_ +Bulblet Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris bulbifera_ +_Cystopteris bulbifera_ with sprouting bulb +Fragile Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris fragilis_ +Rusty Woodsia. _Woodsia ilvensis_ +Northern Woodsia. _Woodsia alpina_ +Details of Alpine Woodsia +Blunt-lobed Woodsia. _Woodsia obtusa_ +Smooth Woodsia. _Woodsia glabella_ +Hayscented Fern. _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_ +Forked variety of _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_ +Field View of _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_ +Pinnae and Sori of _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_ +Meadow View of Sensitive Fern +Obtusilobata Forms of Sensitive Fern, Leaf to Fruit +Sori of Sensitive Fern +Sensitive Fern. _Onoclea sensibilis_ +Sensitive Fern, Fertile and Sterile Fronds on Same Plant +Ostrich Fern. _Onoclea Struthiopteris_. Fertile Fronds +Ostrich Fern. Sterile Fronds +Sori and Sporangia of Ostrich Fern +Royal Fern. _Osmunda regalis spectabilis_ +Sori of Royal Fern +Interrupted Fern. _Osmunda Claytoniana_ +Interrupted Fern. Fertile Pinnules Spread Open +Cinnamon Fern. _Osmunda cinnamomea_ +Cinnamon Fern. Leaf Gradations +Two Varieties of Cinnamon Fern +_Osmunda cinnamomea glandulosa_ +Curly Grass. _Schizaea pusilla_ +Sporangia of Curly Grass +Climbing Fern. _Lygodium palmatum_ +Adder's Tongue. _Ophioglossum vulgatum_ +Moonwort. _Botrychium Lunaria_ +Moonwort, Details +Little Grape Fern. _Botrychium simplex_ +Lance-leaved Grape Fern. _Botrychium lanceolatum_ +Matricary Grape Fern. _Botrychium ramosum_ +Common Grape Fern. _Botrychium obliquum_ +_Botrychium obliquum_ var. _dissectum_ +_Botrychium obliquum_ var. _oneidense_ +Ternate Grape Fern. _Botrychium ternatum_ var. _intermedium_ +Ternate Grape Fern. _B. ternatum_ var. _intermedium_ +Rattlesnake Fern. _Botrychium virginianum_ +Filmy Fern. _Trichomanes Boschianum_ +Fruiting Pinnules of Filmy Fern +Crosiers +Noted Fern Authors +Spray of the Bulblet Bladder Fern + + + + +PREFACE + + +A lover of nature feels the fascination of the ferns though he may know +little of their names and habits. Beholding them in their native haunts, +adorning the rugged cliffs, gracefully fringing the water-courses, or +waving their stately fronds on the borders of woodlands, he feels their +call to a closer acquaintance. Happy would he be to receive instruction +from a living teacher: His next preference would be the companionship of a +good fern book. Such a help we aim to give him in this manual. If he will +con it diligently, consulting its glossary for the meaning of terms while +he quickens his powers of observation by studying real specimens, he may +hope to learn the names and chief qualities of our most common ferns in a +single season. + +Our most productive period in fern literature was between 1878, when +Williamson published his "Ferns of Kentucky," and 1905, when Clute +issued, "Our Ferns in Their Haunts." Between these flourished D.C. Eaton, +Davenport, Waters, Dodge, Parsons, Eastman, Underwood, A.A. Eaton, Slosson, +and others. All their works are now out of print except Clute's just +mentioned and Mrs. Parsons' "How to Know the Ferns." Both of these +are valuable handbooks and amply illustrated. Clute's is larger, more +scholarly, and more inclusive of rare species, with an illustrated key to +the genera; while Mrs. Parsons' is more simple and popular, with a naive +charm that creates for it a constant demand. + +We trust there is room also for this unpretentious, but progressive, +handbook, designed to stimulate interest in the ferns and to aid the +average student in learning their names and meaning. Its geographical +limits include the northeastern states and Canada. Its nomenclature follows +in the main the seventh edition of Gray's Manual, while the emendations +set forth in _Rhodora_, of October, 1919, and also a few terms of later +adoption are embodied, either as synonyms or substitutes for the more +familiar Latin names of the Manual, and are indicated by a different type. +In every case the student has before him both the older and the more recent +terms from which to choose. However, since the book is written primarily +for lovers of Nature, many of whom are unfamiliar with scientific terms, +the common English names are everywhere given prominence, and strange to +say are less subject to change and controversy than the Latin. There is +no doubt what species is meant when one speaks of the Christmas fern, the +ostrich fern, the long beech fern, the interrupted fern, etc. The use of +the common names will lead to the knowledge and enjoyment of the scientific +terms. + +A friend unfamiliar with Latin has asked for pointers to aid in pronouncing +the scientific names of ferns. Following Gray, Wood, and others we have +marked each accented syllable with either the grave (`) or acute () +accent, the former showing that the vowel over which it stands has its long +sound, while the latter indicates the short or modified sound. Let it be +remembered that any syllable with either of these marks over it is the +accented syllable, whose sound will be long or short according to the slant +of the mark. + +We have appropriated from many sources such material as suited our purpose. +Our interest in ferns dates back to our college days at Amherst, when we +collected our first specimens in a rough, bushy swamp in Hadley. We found +here a fine colony of the climbing fern (_Lygodium_). We recall the slender +fronds climbing over the low bushes, unique twiners, charming, indeed, in +their native habitat. We have since collected and studied specimens of +nearly every New England fern, and have carefully examined most of the +other species mentioned in this book. By courtesy of the librarian, Mr. +William P. Rich, we have made large use of the famous Davenport herbarium +in the Massachusetts Horticultural library, and through the kindness of +the daughter, Miss Mary E. Davenport, we have freely consulted the larger +unmounted collection of ferns at the Davenport homestead, at Medford,[1] +finding here a very large and fine assortment of _Botrychiums_, including a +real _B. ternatum_ from Japan. + +[Footnote 1: Recently donated to the Gray Herbarium.] + +For numerous facts and suggestions we are indebted to the twenty volumes of +the _Fern Bulletin_, and also to its able editor, Mr. Willard N. Clute. To +him we are greatly obligated for the use of photographs and plates, and +especially for helpful counsel on many items. We appreciate the helpfulness +of the _American Fern Journal_ and its obliging editor, Mr. E.J. Winslow. +To our friend, Mr. C.H. Knowlton, our thanks are due for the revision of +the checklist and for much helpful advice, and we are grateful to Mr. +S.N.F. Sanford, of the Boston Society of Natural History, for numerous +courtesies; but more especially to Mr. C.A. Weatherby for his expert and +helpful inspection of the entire manuscript. + +The illustrations have been carefully selected; many of them from original +negatives bequeathed to the author by his friend, Henry Lincoln Clapp, +pioneer and chief promoter of school gardens in America. Some have been +photographed from the author's herbarium, and from living ferns. A few +are from the choice herbarium of Mr. George E. Davenport, and also a few +reprints have been made from fern books, for which due credit is given. The +Scott's spleenwort, on the dedication page, is reprinted from Clute's "Our +Ferns in Their Haunts." + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Thoreau tells us, "Nature made a fern for pure leaves." Fern leaves are in +the highest order of cryptogams. Like those of flowering plants they are +reinforced by woody fibres running through their stems, keeping them erect +while permitting graceful curves. Their exquisite symmetry of form, their +frequent finely cut borders, and their rich shades of green combine to make +them objects of rare beauty; while their unique vernation and method of +fruiting along with their wonderful mystery of reproduction invest them +with marked scientific interest affording stimulus and culture to the +thoughtful mind. By peculiar enchantments these charming plants allure the +ardent Nature-lover to observe their haunts and habits. + + "Oh, then most gracefully they wave + In the forest, like a sea, + And dear as they are beautiful + Are these fern leaves to me." + +As a rule the larger and coarser ferns grow in moist, shady situations, as +swamps, ravines, and damp woods; while the smaller ones are more apt to be +found along mountain ranges in some dry and even exposed locality. A tiny +crevice in some high cliff is not infrequently chosen by these fascinating +little plants, which protect themselves from drought by assuming a mantle +of light wool, or of hair and chaff, with, perhaps, a covering of white +powder as in some cloak ferns--thus keeping a layer of moist air next to +the surface of the leaf, and checking transpiration. + +Some of the rock-loving ferns in dry places are known as "resurrection" +ferns, reviving after their leaves have turned sere and brown. A touch of +rain, and lo! they are green and flourishing. + +Ferns vary in height from the diminutive filmy fern of less than an inch +to the vast tree ferns of the tropics, reaching a height of sixty feet or +more. + + +REPRODUCTION + +Ferns are propagated in various ways. A frequent method is by perennial +rootstocks, which often creep beneath the surface, sending up, it may be, +single fronds, as in the common bracken, or graceful leaf-crowns, as in the +cinnamon fern. The bladder fern is propagated in part from its bulblets, +while the walking leaf bends over to the earth and roots at the tip. + +[Illustration: MALE SHIELD FERN. Fern Reproduction by the Prothallium] + +Ferns are also reproduced by spores, a process mysterious and marvellous as +a fairy tale. Instead of seeds the fern produces spores, which are little +one-celled bodies without an embryo and may be likened to buds. A +spore falls upon damp soil and germinates, producing a small, green, +shield-shaped patch much smaller than a dime, which is called a prothallium +(or prothallus). On its under surface delicate root hairs grow to give it +stability and nutriment; also two sorts of reproductive organs known as +antheridia and archegonia, the male and female growths analogous to the +stamens and pistils in flowers. From the former spring small, active, +spiral bodies called antherozoids, which lash about in the moisture of +the prothallium until they find the archegonia, the cells of which are so +arranged in each case as to form a tube around the central cell, which is +called the ooesphere, or egg-cell, the point to be fertilized. When one +of the entering antherozoids reaches this point the desired change is +effected, and the canal of the archegonium closes. The empty ooesphere +becomes the quickened ooesphore whose newly begotten plant germ unfolds +normally by the multiplication of cells that become, in turn, root, stem, +first leaf, etc., while the prothallium no longer needed to sustain its +offspring withers away.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In the accompanying illustration, it should be remembered that +the reproductive parts of a fern are microscopic and cannot be seen by the +naked eye.] + +Fern plants have been known to spring directly from the prothallus by a +budding process apart from the organs of fertilization, showing that Nature +"fulfills herself in many ways."[2] + +[Footnote 2: The scientific term for this method of reproduction is apogamy +(apart from marriage). Sometimes the prothallus itself buds directly from +the frond without spores, for which process the term apospory is used. +(Meaning, literally, without spores.)] + + +VERNATION + +All true ferns come out of the ground head foremost, coiled up like a +watch-spring, and are designated as "fiddle-heads," or crosiers. (A real +crosier is a bishop's staff.) Some of these odd young growths are covered +with "fern wool," which birds often use in lining their nests. This wool +usually disappears later as the crosier unfolds into the broad green blade. +The development of plant shoots from the bud is called vernation (Latin, +_ver_ meaning spring), and this unique uncoiling of ferns, "circinnate +vernation." + + +VEINS + +The veins of a fern are free, when, branching from the mid-vein, they do +not connect with each other, and simple when they do not fork. When +the veins intersect they are said to anastomose (Greek, an opening, or +network), and their meshes are called areolae or areoles (Latin, _areola_, a +little open space). + + +EXPLANATION OF TERMS + +A frond is said to be pinnate (Latin, _pinna_, a feather), when its primary +divisions extend to the rachis, as in the Christmas fern (Fig. 1). A frond +is bipinnate (Latin, _bis_, twice) when the lobes of the pinnae extend to +the midvein as in the royal fern (Fig. 2). These divisions of the pinnae are +called pinnules. When a frond is tripinnate the last complete divisions are +called ultimate pinnules or segments. A frond is pinnatifid when its lobes +extend halfway or more to the rachis or midvein as in the middle lobes +of the pinnatifid spleenwort (Fig. 3). The pinnae of a frond are often +pinnatifid when the frond itself is pinnate; and a frond may be pinnate +in its lower part and become pinnatifid higher up as in the pinnatifid +spleenwort just mentioned (Fig. 3). + +[Illustration: Fig. 1] + +[Illustration: Fig. 2] + +[Illustration: Fig. 3] + +The divisions of a pinnatifid leaf are called segments; of a bipinnatifid +or tripinnatifid leaf, ultimate segments. + + +SPORANGIA AND FRUIT DOTS + +Fern spores are formed in little sacs known as spore-cases or sporangia +(Fig. 4). They are usually clustered in dots or lines on the back or margin +of a frond, either on or at the end of a small vein, or in spike-like +racemes on separate stalks. Sori (singular _sorus_, a heap), or fruit dots +may be naked as in the polypody, but are usually covered with a thin, +delicate membrane, known as the indusium (Greek, a dress, or mantle). The +family or genus of a fern is often determined by the shape of its indusium; +e.g., the indusium of the woodsias is star-shaped; of the Dicksonias, +cup-shaped; of the aspleniums, linear; of the wood ferns, kidney-shaped, +etc. + +[Illustration: Fig. 4] + +In many ferns the sporangia are surrounded in whole or in part by a +vertical, elastic ring (annulus) reminding one of a small, brown worm +closely coiled (Fig. 4). As the spores mature, the ring contracts and +bursts with considerable force, scattering the spores. The spores of the +different genera mature at different times from May to September. A good +time to collect ferns is just before the fruiting season. (For times of +fruiting see individual descriptions or chronological chart on page 220.) + + +HELPFUL HINTS + +The following hints may be helpful to the young collector: + +1. A good lens with needles for dissecting is very helpful in examining the +sori, veins, glands, etc., as an accurate knowledge of any one of these +items may aid in identifying a given specimen. Bausch and Lomb make a +convenient two-bladed pocket glass for about two dollars.[1] + +[Footnote 1: In the linen tester here figured (cost $1.50) the lens is +mounted in a brass frame which holds it in position, enabling the dissector +to use both hands. A tripod lens will also be found cheap and serviceable.] + +[Illustration] + +2. Do not exterminate or weaken a fern colony by taking more plants than it +can spare. In small colonies of rare ferns take a few and leave the rest to +grow. It is decidedly ill-bred to rob a locality of its precious plants. +Pick your fern leaf down close to the root-stock, including a portion of +that also, if it can be spared. Place your fronds between newspaper sheets +and lay "dryers" over them (blotting paper or other absorbent paper). Cover +with a board or slat frame, and lay on this a weight of several pounds, +leaving it for twenty-four hours; if the specimens are not then cured, +change the dryers. Mount the prepared specimens on white mounting sheets. +The regulation size is 16-1/2 by 11-1/2 inches. The labels are usually +3-3/4 by 1-3/4 inches. A sample will suggest the proper inscription. + + HERBARIUM OF JOHN DOE + _Ophioglossum vulgatum_, L. + (Adder's Tongue) + Willoughby Lake, Vt. + August 19, 1911. Wet meadow. + Coll. X.Y.Z. Rather common + but often overlooked + +Place the label at the lower right-hand corner of the sheet, which is now +ready to be laid in the genus cover, usually of manila paper 16-1/2 by 12 +inches. + +It is well to jot down important memoranda at the time of collecting. This +is the method in use at the Gray Herbarium in Cambridge. It can, of course, +be modified to suit one's own taste or convenience. The young collector can +begin by simply pressing his specimens between the leaves of a book, +the older and coarser the better; and he can mount them in a blank book +designed for the purpose, or if he has only a common blank book, he can cut +out some of the leaves, alternately with others left in place, as is often +done with a scrap book, that when the book is full it may not be crowded at +the back. Or he can use sheets of blank paper of any uniform size and mount +the specimens on these with gummed strips, and then group them, placing +those of the same genus together. Such an extemporized herbarium, though +crude, will serve for a beginning, while stimulating his interest, and +advancing his knowledge of the ferns. Let him collect, press, and mount +as many varieties as possible, giving the name with date and place of +collecting, etc. Such a first attempt may be kept as a reminder of pleasant +hours spent in learning the rudiments of a delightful study. + +We cannot insist too strongly upon the necessity of handling and studying +the living plant. Every student needs to observe for himself the haunts, +habits, and structure of real ferns. We would say to the young student, +while familiarizing yourself with the English names of the ferns, do not +neglect the scientific names, which often hold the key to their meaning. +Repeat over and over the name of each genus in soliloquy and in +conversation until your mind instantly associates each fern with its family +name--"_Adiantum_," "_Polystichum_," "_Asplenium_," and all the rest. Fix +them in the memory for a permanent asset. With hard study and growing +knowledge will come growing attachment. How our great expert, Mr. +Davenport, loved the ferns! He would handle them with gentle touch, fondly +stroke their leaves, and devoutly study their structure, as if inspired by +the All-wise Interpreter. + + "Move along these shades + In gentleness of heart: with gentle hand + Touch--for there is a spirit in the woods." + + + + +KEY TO THE GENERA + + +This key, in illustrating each genus, follows the method of Clute in "Our +Ferns in Their Haunts," but substitutes other and larger specimens. Five of +these are from Waters' "Ferns" by permission of Henry Holt & Co. + +As the indusium, which often determines the name of a fern, is apt in some +species to wither early, it is important to secure for study not only a +fertile frond, but one in as good condition as possible. For convenience +the ferns may be considered in two classes. + + +I + +THOSE WHICH HAVE THE FRUITING PORTION IN GREENISH, BERRY-LIKE STRUCTURES +AND NOT ON THE BACK OF FRONDS + + +A. FRUITING FRONDS WHOLLY FERTILE + +(Fertile and sterile fronds entirely unlike) + +[Illustration] + +1. Fruit in a one-sided spike in two ranks; plants very small; sterile +fronds thread-like and tortuous. + +Curly Grass. _Schizaea_. + +[Illustration] + +2. Fruit in a club-shaped, brown or cinnamon-colored spike loaded with +sporangia; fruit in early spring. + +Cinnamon Fern. _Osmunda cinnamomea_. + +[Illustration] + +3. Fruit in berry-like, greenish structures in a twice pinnate spike, which +comes up much later than the broad and coarse pinnatifid sterile fronds. + +Wet ground. Sensitive Fern. _Onoclea_. + +[Illustration] + +4. Fruit in pod-like or necklace-like pinnae; fertile frond pinnate; sterile +frond tall, pinnatifid; fruit late. + +Ostrich Fern. _Onoclea struthiopteris_. + + +B. FRUITING FRONDS PARTLY STERILE + +[Illustration] + +1. Fruiting portion in the middle of the frond; two to four pairs of +fertile pinnae. + +Interrupted Fern. _Osmunda Claytoniana_. + +[Illustration] + +2. Fruiting portion at the apex of the frond. Sterile pinnae palmate; rachis +twining. + +Climbing Fern. _Lygodium_. + +[Illustration] + +Sterile pinnae pinnate; fronds large, fertile portion green, turning brown, +forming a panicle at the top. + +Royal Fern. _Osmunda regalis_. + +[Illustration] + +3. Fruiting portion seemingly on a separate stock a few inches above the +sterile. + +Sterile part an entire, ovate, green leaf near the middle; fertile part a +spike. + +Adder's Tongue. _Ophioglossum_. + +[Illustration] + +Sterile portion more or less divided; fruit in racemes or panicles, rarely +in spikes. + +Grape Ferns. Moonwort. _Botrychium_. + + +II + +THOSE WHICH HAVE THE FRUITING PORTION ON THE BACK OR MARGIN OF FRONDS + + +A. INDUSIUM WANTING + +[Illustration] + +1. Fruit-dots large, roundish; fronds evergreen. Rock species. + +Polypody. _Polypodium_. + +[Illustration] + +2. Fruit-dots small, roundish; fronds triangular. + +Beech Ferns. _Phegopteris_. + +[Illustration] + +3. Fruit in lines on the margin of the pinnules; under surface of the +fronds covered with whitish powder. + +Cloak Ferns. _Notholaena_. + + +B. INDUSIUM PRESENT + +[Illustration] + +1. Sori on the edge of a pinnule terminating a vein; sporangia at the base +of a long, bristle-like receptacle surrounded by a cup-shaped indusium. + +Filmy Fern. _Trichomanes_. + +[Illustration] + +2. Indusium formed by the reflexed margin of the pinnules. + +(1) Sporangia on a continuous line; fronds large, ternate; indusium narrow. +Bracken. Brake. _Pteris_. + +[Illustration] + +(2) Sporangia in oblong sori under a reflexed tooth of a pinnule; indusium +broad; rachis dark and shining. Maidenhair. _Adiantum_. + +[Illustration] + +(3) Sori in roundish or elongated masses. + +Indusium broad, nearly continuous, fronds mostly smooth, somewhat leathery, +pinnate. Rock species. Cliff brakes. _Pellaea_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium narrow, seldom continuous, formed by the margin of separate lobes +or of the whole pinnules; often inconspicuous, fronds usually hairy. Lip +Ferns. _Cheilanthes_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium of the reflexed edges, at first reaching to the midrib, or nearly +so; later opening out nearly flat; fruiting pinnules pod-like; sterile +fronds broad. Rock brakes. _Cryptogramma_. + +[Illustration] + +3. Indusium never formed of the margin of the frond. Sori various. + +(1) Fruit-dots oblong, parallel with the midrib, somewhat sunken in the +tissues of the frond. Water-loving species. Chain Ferns. _Woodwardia_. + +[Illustration] + +(2) Fruit-dots and indusium roundish. + +Indusium shield-shaped, fixed by the center. Evergreen glossy ferns in +rocky woods. Shield Ferns. _Polystichum_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium cordate, fixed by the sinus. Wood Ferns. _Aspidium_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium hood-shaped, fixed centrally behind the sorus and arching over it, +soon withering, often illusive. Fronds two to three pinnate, very graceful. +Moisture-loving species. Bladder Ferns. _Cystopteris_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium star-shaped, of a few irregular segments fixed beneath the sorus, +often obscure. Mostly small, rock-loving plants, usually rather chaffy, at +least at the base, and growing in tufts. _Woodsia_. + +[Illustration] + +Indusium cup-shaped, fixed beneath the sorus, supported by the tooth of a +leaf; sporangia borne in an elevated, globular receptacle open at the top. +Fronds finely cut. Hayscented Fern. _Dennstaedtia_. + +[Illustration] + +(3) Fruit-dots and indusium linear. (But see _Athyrium_.) + +Very long, nearly at right angles to the midrib, double; blade thick +oblong-lanceolate, entire; heart-shaped at the base. Hart's Tongue. +_Scolopendrium_. + +[Illustration] + +Shorter and irregularly scattered on the under side of the frond, some +parallel to the midrib, others oblique to it, and often in pairs or joined +at the ends; blade tapering to a slender tip. Walking Fern. _Camptosorus_. + +[Illustration] + +Short, straight, mostly oblique to the midrib. Indusium rather narrow, +opening toward the midrib, fronds lobed or variously divided. Spleenworts. +_Asplenium_. + +[Illustration] + +Short, indusium usually more or less curved and frequently crossing a vein. +The large spleenworts including Lady Fern. _Athyrium_. + + + + +DESCRIPTIVE TEXT OF THE FERNS + + +In this manual our native ferns are grouped scientifically under five +distinct families. By far the largest of these groups, and the first to be +treated, is that of the _real ferns (Polypodiaceae)_ with sixty species and +several chief varieties. Then follow the _flowering ferns (Osmundaceae)_ +with three species; the _curly grass_ and _climbing ferns (Schizaeaceae)_ +with two species; the _adder's tongue_ and _grape ferns (Ophioglossaceae)_ +with seven species; and the _filmy ferns (Hymenophyllaceae)_ with one +species. + +Corresponding with these five families, the sporangia or spore cases of +ferns have five quite distinct forms on which the families are founded. + +[Illustration: Fig. 1] + +[Illustration: Fig. 2] + +[Illustration: Fig. 3] + +[Illustration: Fig. 4] + +1. The Fern Family proper (_Polypodiaceae_) has the spore cases stalked and +bound by a vertical, elastic ring (Fig. 1). The clusters of fruit-dots +containing the spore cases may be open and naked as in polypody (Fig. 2), +or covered by an indusium, as in the shield ferns (Fig. 3). + +2. The Royal Fern Family (_Osmunda_) has the spore cases stalked with only +a rudimentary ring on one side, which opens longitudinally (Fig. 4). + +3. The Climbing Fern Family (_Lygodium, Schizaea_) has the spore cases +sessile in rows; they are small, nut-like bodies with the elastic ring +around the upper portion (Fig. 5).[1] + +[Footnote 1: These figures are enlarged.] + +4. The Adder's Tongue Family (_Ophioglossum, Botrychium_) has simple spore +cases without a ring, and discharges its spores through a transverse slit +(Fig. 6). + +5. The Filmy Fern Family (_Trichomanes_) has the spore cases along +a bristle-like receptacle and surrounded by an urn-shaped, slightly +two-lipped involucre; ring transverse and opening vertically (Fig. 7). + +[Illustration: Fig. 5] + +[Illustration: Fig. 6] + +[Illustration: Fig. 7] + + + + +THE FERN FAMILY PROPER OR REAL FERNS + +_POLYPODIACEAE_ + + +Green, leafy plants whose spores are borne in spore-cases (sporangia), +which are collected in dots or clusters (fruit-dots or sori) on the back +of the frond or form lines along the edge of its divisions. Sporangia +surrounded by vertical, elastic rings bursting transversely and scattering +the spores. Fruit-dots (sori) often covered, at least when young, by a +membrane called the indusium. Spores brown. + + +THE POLYPODIES + +1. POLYPODY. _Polypodium_ + +(From the Greek meaning many-footed, alluding to the branching rootstocks.) + +Simple ferns with stipes articulated to the creeping rootstocks, which are +covered with brown, chaffy scales. Fruit-dots round, naked, arranged on the +back of the frond in one or more rows each side of the midrib. Sporangia +pedicelled, provided with a vertical ring which bursts transversely. A +large genus with about 350 species, widely distributed, mostly in tropical +regions. + +(1) COMMON POLYPODY. _Polypodium vulgare_ + +Fronds somewhat leathery in texture, evergreen, four to ten inches tall, +smooth, oblong, and nearly pinnate. The large fruit-dots nearly midway +between the midrib and the margin, but nearer the margin. + +[Illustration: Common Polypody. _Polypodium vulgare_] + +Common everywhere on cliffs, usually in half shade, and may at times spring +out of decaying logs or the trunks of trees. As the jointed stipes, harking +back to some ancient mode of fern growth, fall away from the rootstocks +after their year of greenness, they leave behind a scar as in Solomon's +seal. The polypody is a gregarious plant. By intertwining its roots the +fronds cling together in "cheerful community," and a friendly eye discovers +their beauty a long way off. August. Abounds in every clime, including +Europe and Japan. + +In transplanting, sections should be cut, not pulled from the matted mass. + +Var. _cambricum_ has segments broader and more or less strongly toothed. + +Var. _cristatum_ has the segments forked at the ends. + +Several other forms are also found. + +[Illustration: Fruited Frond] + +[Illustration: The Common Polypody. _Polypodium vulgare_ (Photographed by +Miles Greenwood, Melrose, Mass.)] + +(2) GRAY OR HOARY POLYPODY + +_Polypodium incanum. P. polypodioides_ + +Fronds oblong, two to seven inches long, deeply pinnatifid, gray and scurfy +underneath with peltate scales having a dark center. Fruit-dots rather +small, near the margin and obscured by the chaff. + +[Illustration: Gray or Hoary Polypody. _Polypodium incanum_] + +In appearance the gray polypody is much like the common species, as the +Greek ending _oides_ (like) implies. In Florida and neighboring states it +often grows on trees; farther north mostly on rocks. Reported as far north +as Staten Island. It is one of the "resurrection" ferns, reviving quickly +by moisture after seeming to be dead from long drouth. July to September. +Widely distributed in tropical America. Often called Tree-Polypody. + + + + +THE BRACKEN GROUP + + +Sporangia near or on the margin of the segments, the reflexed portions of +which serve as indusia. + + +1. BRACKEN OR BRAKE + +_Pteris aquilina_. PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM[1] + +[Footnote 1: The use of small capitals in the scientific names indicates in +part the newer nomenclature which many botanists are inclined to adopt.] + +Fronds broadly triangular, ternate, one to three feet high or more, the +widely spreading branches twice pinnate, the lower pinnules more or less +pinnatifid. Sporangia borne in a continuous line along the lower margin +of the ultimate divisions whose reflexed edges form the indusium. (Greek, +_pteron_, a wing, the feathery fronds suggesting the wings of a bird.) + +[Illustration: Common Bracken or Brake, a Sterile Frond. _Pteris aquilina_ +(Providence County, R.I.)] + +[Illustration: A Fertile Frond of Common Bracken. _Pteris aquilina_ +(Suffolk County, Mass.)] + + "The heath this night must be my bed, + The bracken curtain for my head." + SCOTT. + +The outlines of the young bracken resemble the little oak fern. It +flourishes in thickets and open pastures, often with poor soil and scant +shade. It is found in all parts of the world, and is said to be the most +common of all our North American ferns. In a cross section of the mature +stipe superstition sees "the devil's hoof" and "King Charles in the oak," +and any one may see or think he sees the outlines of an oak tree. It was +the bracken, or eagle fern, as some call it, which was supposed to bear the +mysterious "fern seed," but only on midsummer eve (St. John's eve). + + "But on St. John's mysterious night, + Confest the mystic fern seed fell." + +This enabled its possessor to walk invisible. + + "We have the receipt for fern-seed, + We walk invisible." +SHAKESPEARE. + + +The word brake or bracken is one of the many plant names from which some of +our English surnames are derived, as Brack, Breck, Brackenridge, etc., +and fern (meaning the bracken) is seen in Fern, Fearns, Fernham, Fernel, +Fernside, Farnsworth, etc. Also, in names of places as Ferney, Ferndale, +Fernwood, and others. Although the bracken is coarse and common, it makes a +desirable background for rockeries, or other fern masses. The young ferns +should be transplanted in early spring with as much of the long, running +rootstock as possible. + +Var. _pseudocaudata_ has longer, narrower and more distant pinnules, and is +a common southern form. + +[Illustration: Var. _pseudocaudata_] + + + +2. MAIDENHAIR. _Adiantum_ + +Ferns with much divided leaves and short, marginal sori borne at the ends +of free-forking veins, on the under side of the reflexed and altered +portion of the pinnules, which serves as an indusium. Stipes and branches +of the leaves very slender and polished. + +(Greek, unwetted, because drops of water roll off without wetting the +leaves.) + +(1) COMMON MAIDENHAIR. _Adiantum pedatum_ + +A graceful fern of shady glen and rocky woodland, nine to eighteen inches +high, the black, shining stalks forked at the top into two equal, +recurved branches, the pinnae all springing from the upper side. Pinnules +triangular-oblong, bearing short sori on their inwardly reflexed margins +which form the indusium. + +[Illustration: A Spray of Maidenhair] + +[Illustration: Fruiting Pinnae of Maidenhair] + +The maidenhair has a superficial resemblance to the meadow rue, which also +sheds water, but it may be known at once by its black, shining stalks with +their divisions all borne on one side. It is indeed a most delicate fern, +known and admired by every one. The term maidenhair may have been suggested +by the black, wiry roots growing from the slender rootstock, or by the +dark, polished stems, or, as Clute explains it, "because the black roots, +like hair, were supposed, according to the 'doctrine of signatures' to be +good for falling hair, and the plant was actually used in the 'syrup of +capillaire'[A] (_Am. Botanist_, November, 1921). While the maidenhair is +not very common, it is widely distributed, being found throughout our +section, westward to California, and northward to the British Provinces. + +"Though the maidenhair has a wide range, and grows abundantly in many +localities, it possesses a quality of aloofness which adds to its charm. +Its chosen haunts are dim, moist hollows in the woods, or shaded hillsides +sloping to the river. In such retreats you find the feathery fronds +tremulous on their glistening stalks, and in their neighborhood you find, +also, the very spirit of the woods." + + +MRS. PARSONS. + +[Footnote A: It may be stated that capillaire syrup besides the use here +indicated was highly esteemed as a pectoral for the relief of difficult +breathing.] + +[Illustration: Common Maidenhair. _Adiantum pedatum_ (Reading, Mass., +Kingman)] + +[Illustration: Alpine Maidenhair. _Adiantum pedatum_, Var. _aleuticum_ +(Fernald and Collins, Gaspe County, Quebec, 1906) (From the Gray +Herbarium)] + +The fern is not hard to cultivate if allowed sufficient moisture and shade. +Along with the ostrich fern it makes a most excellent combination in a fern +border. + +Var. ALEUTICUM, or Alpine Maidenhair. A beautiful northern form especially +abundant on the high tableland of the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, where it is +said to cover hundreds of acres. In the east it is often dwarfed--six +to ten inches high, growing in tufts with stout rootstocks, having the +pinnules finely toothed instead of rounded and the indusia often lunate, +rarely twice as long as broad. (Fernald in _Rhodora_, November, 1905.) Also +found in northern Vermont, and to the northwestward. + +(2) THE VENUS-HAIR FERN. _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris_ + +Fronds with a continuous main rachis, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate +below. Pinnules, fan-shaped on slender, black stalks, long, deeply and +irregularly incised. Veins extending from the base of the pinnules like the +ribs of a fan. + +[Illustration: Venus Hair Fern. _Adiantum Capillus-Veneris_] + +While our common maidenhair is a northern fern, the Venus-hair Fern is +confined to the southern states. It is rarely found as far north as +Virginia, where it meets, but scarcely overlaps its sister fern. The +medicinal properties of _Adiantum pedatum_ were earlier ascribed to the +more southern species, which is common in Great Britain, but, like many +another old remedy, "the syrup of capillaire" is long since defunct. + + + +3. CLIFF BRAKES. _Pellaea_ + +Sporangia borne on the upper part of the free veins inside the margins, in +dot-like masses, but may run together, as in the continuous fruiting line +of the bracken. Indusium formed of the reflexed margins of the fertile +segments which are more or less membranous. (Pellaea, from the Greek +_pellos_, meaning dusky, in allusion to the dark stipes.) + +(1) PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE. _Pellaea atropurpurea_ + +Stipes dark purple or reddish-brown, polished and decidedly hairy and +harsh to the touch, at least on one side. Fronds coriaceous, pale, simply +pinnate, or bipinnate below; the divisions broadly linear or oblong, or +the sterile sometimes oval, chiefly entire, somewhat heart-shaped, or +else truncate at the stalked base. Veins about twice forked. Basal scales +extending into long, slender tips, colorless or yellow. + +[Illustration: Purple Cliff Brake. _Pellaea atropurpurea_] + +Another name is "the winter brake," as its fronds remain green throughout +the winter, especially in its more southern ranges. It grows on rocky +ledges with a preference for limestone, and often in full sun. In large and +mature fronds its pinnae are apt to be extremely irregular. While its stipes +are purplish, its leaves are bluish-green, and its scales light-brown or +yellow. Strange to say, this brake of the cliffs thrives in cultivation. +Woolson says of it, "This fern is interesting and valuable. It is not only +beautiful in design, but unique in color, a dark blue-green emphasizing +all the varying tints about it--a first-class fern for indoor winter +cultivation. It is a rapid grower, flourishing but a few feet from coal +fire or radiator, in a north or south window. It quickly forgives neglect, +and if allowed to dry up out of doors or indoors, recovers in due time when +put in a moist atmosphere. It makes but one imperative demand, and that is +the privilege of standing still. Overzealous culturists usually like to +turn things around, but revolving cliffs are not in the natural order of +things. The slender black stipes are very susceptible to changes of light +and warped and twisted fronds result." + +Dry, calcareous rocks, southern New England and westward. Rare. Var. +_cristata_ has forked pinnae somewhat crowded toward the summit of the +frond. Missouri. + + +(2) SMOOTH CLIFF BRAKE + +_Pellaea glabella. Pellaea atropurpurea_, var. _Bushii_ + +Naked with a few, scattered, spreading hairs, smooth surface and dark +polished stipes. Rhizome short with membranous, orange or brown scales +having a few bluntish teeth on each edge. Pinnae sub-opposite, divergent, +narrowly oblong, obtuse; base truncate, cordate or clasping, occasionally +auricled; lower pinnae often with orbicular or cordate pinnules. Sterile +pinnae broader, bluish or greenish glaucous above, often crowded to +overlapping. The smooth cliff brake has a decidedly northern range, growing +from northern Vermont to Missouri, and northwestward, but found rarely, if +at all, in southern New England. + +[Illustration: Dense Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma densa_ (From Waters's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + + +(3) DENSE CLIFF BRAKE + +_Cryptogramma densa. Pellaea densa_ + +Modern botanists are inclined to place the dense cliff brake and the +slender cliff brake under the genus _Cryptogramma_, which is so nearly like +_Pellaea_ that one hesitates to choose between them. The word Cryptogramma +means in Greek a _hidden line_, alluding to the line of sporangia hidden +beneath the reflexed margin. + +The dense cliff brake may be described as follows: + +Stipes three to nine inches tall, blades one to three inches, +triangular-ovate, pinnate at the summit, and tripinnate below. Segments +linear, sharp-pointed, mostly fertile, having the margins entire and +recurved, giving the sori the appearance of half-open pods. Sterile +fronds sharply serrate. Stipes in dense tufts ("_densa_") slender, wiry, +light-brown. + +This rare little fern is a northern species and springs from tiny crevices +in rocks, preferring limestone. Like many other rock-loving species, it +produces spores in abundance, having no other effective means of spreading, +and its fertile fronds are much more numerous than the sterile ones, and +begin to fruit when very small. Gaspe and Mt. Albert in the Province of +Quebec, Grey County, Ontario, and in the far west. + + +(4) SLENDER CLIFF BRAKE + +_Cryptogramma Stelleri. Pellaea gracilis_ + +Fronds (including stipes) three to six inches long, thin and slender with +few pinnae. The lower pinnae pinnately parted into three to five divisions, +those of the fertile fronds oblong or linear-oblong; those of the sterile, +obovate or ovate, crenulate, decurrent at the base. Confined to limestone +rocks. Quebec and New Brunswick, to Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and +to the northwest. + +[Illustration: Slender Cliff Brake. _Cryptogramma Stelleri_] + +We have collected this dainty and attractive little fern on the limestone +cliffs of Mt. Horr, near Willoughby Lake, Vt. It grew in a rocky grotto +whose sides were kept moist by dripping water. How we liked to linger near +its charming abode high on the cliff! And we liked also to speak of it by +its pleasing, simple name, "Pellaea gracilis," now changed for scientific +reasons, but we still like the old name better. + + +(5) THE ROCK BRAKE. PARSLEY FERN + +_Cryptogramma acrostichoides_ + +Sterile and fertile fronds very dissimilar; segments of the fertile, linear +and pod-like; of the sterile, ovate-oblong, obtuse, and toothed. The plants +spring from crevices of rocks and are from six to eight inches high. Stipes +of the fertile fronds are about twice as long as the sterile, making two +tiers of fronds. + +[Illustration: Parsley Fern or Rock Brake. _Cryptogramma acrostichoides_ +(California and Oregon) (Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)] + +The parsley fern is the typical species of the genus _Cryptogramma_. The +indusium is formed of the altered margin of the pinnule, at first reflexed +to the midrib, giving it a pod-like appearance, but at length opening out +flat and exposing the sporangia. Clute, speaking of this fern as "the rock +brake," calls it a border species, as its home is in the far north--Arctic +America to Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Colorado and California. + + + +4. LIP FERNS. _Cheilanthes_ + +Mostly small southern ferns growing on rocks, pubescent or tomentose with +much divided leaves. Sori at the end of the veins at first small and +roundish, but afterwards more or less confluent. The indusium whitish and +sometimes herbaceous, formed of the reflexed margin of the lobes or of the +whole pinnule. Veins free, but often obscure. Most of the ferns of this +genus grow in dry, exposed situations, where rain is sometimes absent for +weeks and months. For this reason they protect themselves by a covering +of hairs, scales or wool, which hinders the evaporation of water from the +plant by holding a layer of more or less saturated air near the surface of +the frond. (In Greek the word means _lip flower_, alluding to the lip-like +indusia.) + +(1) ALABAMA LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes alabamensis_ + +Fronds smooth, two to ten inches long, lanceolate, bipinnate. Pinnae +numerous, oblong-lanceolate, the lower usually smaller than those above. +Pinnules triangular-oblong, mostly acute, often auricular or lobed at the +base. Indusia pale, membranous and continuous except between the lobes. +Stipes black, slender and tomentose at the base. + +[Illustration: Alabama Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes alabamensis_ (From Waters's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + +This species of lip fern may be distinguished from all the others within +our limits by its smooth pinnae. On rocks--mountains of Virginia to +Kentucky, and Alabama, and westward to Arizona. + +(2) HAIRY LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes lanosa, C. vestita_ + +[Illustration: Hairy Lip Fern] + +Fronds twice pinnate, lanceolate with oblong, pinnatifid pinnules; seven +to fifteen inches tall, slender and rough with rusty, jointed hairs. Pinnae +triangular-ovate, usually distant, the ends of the rounded lobes reflexed +and forming separate involucres which are pushed back by the ripening +sporangia. + +This species like the other lip ferns is fond of rocks, springing from +clefts and ledges. While hairy it is much less tomentose than the two +following species. Unlike most of the rock-loving ferns this species is not +partial to limestone, but grows on other rocks as well. It has been found +as far north as New Haven, Conn., also near New York, and in New Jersey, +Georgia, and westward to Wyoming and southward. + +(3) WOOLLY LIP FERN. _Cheilanthes tomentosa_ + +Fronds eight to eighteen inches long, lanceolate-oblong, tripinnate. Pinnae +and pinnules ovate-oblong, densely woolly especially beneath, with slender, +whitish, obscurely jointed hairs. Of the ultimate segments the terminal +one is twice as long as the others. Pinnules distant, the reflexed, narrow +margin forming a continuous, membranous indusium. Stipe stout, dark brown, +densely woolly. + +By donning its thick coat of wool this species is prepared to grow in +the most exposed situations of the arid southwest. It is said to be the +"rarest, tallest and handsomest of the lip ferns." + +Mountains of Virginia and Kentucky to Georgia, and west to Missouri, Texas +and Arizona. + +(4) SLENDER LIP FERN + +_Cheilanthes Feei, C. lanuginosa_ + +Stipes densely tufted, slender, at first hairy, dark brown, shining. Fronds +three to eight inches long, ovate-lanceolate, with thickish, distinctly +articulated hairs, twice or thrice pinnate. Pinnae ovate, the lowest +deltoid. Pinnules divided into minute, densely crowded segments, the +herbaceous margin recurved and forming an almost continuous indusium. + +[Illustration: Slender Lip Fern] + +The slender lip fern, known also as Fee's fern, is much the smallest of the +lip ferns, averaging, Clute tells us, "but two inches high." This is only +one-third as tall as the woolly lip fern and need not be mistaken for it. +The fronds form tangled mats difficult to unravel. It grows on dry rocks +and cliffs--Illinois and Minnesota to British Columbia, and south to Texas, +New Mexico and Arizona. + +[Illustration: Pinnae of Slender Lip Fern. _Cheilanthes Feei_ (From Waters's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + + + +5. CLOAK FERN. _Notholaena_ + +Small ferns with fruit-dots borne beneath the revolute margin of the +pinnules, at first roundish, but soon confluent into a narrow band without +indusium. Veins free. Fronds one to several times pinnate, the lower +surface hairy, or tomentose or powdery. Includes about forty species, +mostly American, but only one within our limits. (Greek name means +_spurious cloak_, alluding to the rudimentary or counterfeit indusium.) + +(1) POWDERY CLOAK FERN. _Notholaena dealbata_ + +Fronds two to six inches long, triangular-ovate, acute, broadest at the +base, tripinnate. Stalks tufted, wiry, shining, dark brown. Upper surface +of the very small segments green, smooth, the lower densely coated with +a pure, white powder; hence, the specific name _dealbata_, which means +whitened. Sori brown at length; veins free. + +There are several species of cloak ferns, but only one within our limits. +The dry, white powder which covers them doubtless is designed to protect +them from too rapid evaporation of moisture, as they all inhabit dry and +sunny places. This delicate rock-loving fern is found in the clefts of dry +limestone rocks in Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and southwestward. + + + +THE CHAIN FERNS. _Woodwardia_ + +Large and somewhat coarse ferns of swampy woods with pinnate or nearly +two-pinnate fronds, and oblong or linear fruit-dots, arranged in one or +more chain-like rows, parallel to and near the midribs. Indusium fixed by +its outer margin to a veinlet and opening on the inner side. In our +section there are two species. (Named for Thomas J. Woodward, an English +botanist.) + +[Illustration: Powdery Cloak Fern. _Notholaena +dealbata_ (Kansas) (G.E. Davenport)] + +[Illustration: The Common Chain Fern. +_Woodwardia virginica_] + +(1) THE COMMON CHAIN FERN. _Woodwardia virginica_ + +Sterile and fertile fronds similar in outline, two to four feet high, once +pinnate, the pinnae deeply incised with oblong segments. Fruit-dots oblong +in chain-like rows along the midrib both of the pinnae and the lobes, +confluent when ripe. Veins forming narrow rows of net-like spaces (areoles) +beneath the fruit-dots, thence free to the margin. The spores ripen in +July. + +The sterile fronds resemble those of the cinnamon fern, but the latter grow +in crowns, with a single frond in the center, while the fronds of the +chain fern rise singly from the creeping rootstock, which sends them up at +intervals all summer. The sori are borne on the backs of fertile fronds. +There are usually more sterile than fertile blades, especially in dense +shade. We have waded repeatedly through a miry swamp in Melrose, Mass., +where the wild calla flourishes along with the blueberry and other swamp +bushes, and have found the chain fern in several shaded spots, but every +frond was sterile. It is said that when exposed to the sun it always faces +the south. Swamps, Maine to Florida, especially along the Atlantic Coast, +and often in company with the narrow-leaved species. + +[Illustration: Net-Veined Chain Fern. _Woodwardia areolata_ (Stratford, +Conn.)] + +(2) NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN + +NARROW-LEAVED CHAIN FERN + +_Woodwardia areolata. W. angustifolia_ + +Root stocks creeping and chaffy. Sterile and fertile fronds unlike; sterile +ones nine to twelve inches tall, deltoid-ovate. Broadest at the base, with +lanceolate, serrulate divisions united by a broad wing. Veins areolate; +fertile fronds taller, twelve to twenty inches high with narrowly linear +divisions, the areoles and fruit-dots in a single row each side of the +secondary midrib, the latter sunk in the tissues. + +This species is less common than the Virginia fern, but they often grow +near each other. We have collected both in the Blue Hill reservation near +Boston, and both have been found in Hingham, Medford, and Reading, and +doubtless in other towns along the coast. Mrs. Parsons speaks of finding +them in the flat, sandy country near Buzzard's Bay. The net-veined species +has some resemblance to the sensitive fern, but in the latter the spore +cases are shut up in small pods formed by the contracting and rolling up of +the lobes, whereas the chain fern bears its sori on the under side of long, +narrow pinnae. Besides, the sterile fronds of the latter have serrulate +segments. As in the sensitive fern there are many curious gradations +between the fertile and sterile fronds, both in shape and fruitfulness. +Waters calls them the "_obtusilobata_ form." + +[Illustration: The Spleenworts 1. Narrow-leaved 2. Ebony 3. Rue 4. Scott's +5. Maidenhair 6. Green 7. Mountain] + + +THE SPLEENWORTS + + +A. THE ROCK SPLEENWORTS. _Asplenium_ + +Small, evergreen ferns. Fruit-dots oblong or linear, oblique, separate when +young. Indusium straight or rarely curved, fixed lengthwise on the upper +side of a fertile veinlet, opening toward the midrib. Veins free. Scales of +rhizome and stipes narrow, of firm texture and with thick-walled cells. + +(1) PINNATIFID SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium pinnatifidum_ + +Fronds four to six inches long, lanceolate, pinnatifid or pinnate near the +base, tapering above into a slender prolongation. Lobes roundish-ovate, or +the lower pair acuminate. Fruit-dots irregular, numerous. Stipes tufted, +two to four inches long, brownish beneath, green above. + +Although this fern, like all the small spleenworts, is heavily fruited, +it is extremely rare. It is found as far north as Sharon, Conn., thence +southward to Georgia, to Arkansas and Missouri. On cliffs and rocks. +Resembles the walking fern, and its tip sometimes takes root. + +(2) SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium ebenoides_ + +Fronds four to ten inches long, broadly lanceolate, pinnatifid or pinnate +below, tapering to a prolonged and slender apex. Divisions lanceolate from +a broad base. Fruit-dots straight or slightly curved. Stipe and rachis +brown. + +[Illustration: Pinnatifid Spleenwort. _Asplenium pinnatifidum_ a, Small +Plants from Harper's Ferry; b, Sori on Young Fronds (From Waters's "Ferns," +Henry Holt & Co.)] + +[Illustration: Scott's Spleenwort. _Asplenium ebenoides_ a, from Virginia; +b, from Alabama; c, from Maryland (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & +Co.)] + +Resembles the last, and like that has been known to root at the tip. It is +a hybrid between the walking fern and the ebony spleenwort, as proved by +Miss Margaret Slosson, and may be looked for in the immediate vicinity of +its parents. It was discovered by R.R. Scott, in 1862, at Manayunk, Pa., a +suburb of Philadelphia, and described by him in the Gardener's Monthly of +September, 1865. Vermont to Alabama, Missouri, and southward. Rare, but +said to be plentiful in a deep ravine near Havana, Ala. + +[Illustration: Green Spleenwort. _Asplenium viride_] + +(3) GREEN SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium viride_ + +Fronds two to ten inches long, linear, pinnate, pale green. Pinnae +roundish-ovate, crenate, with indistinct and forking midveins. Stalks +tufted, short, brownish below, green above. Rachis green. + +Discovered at Smuggler's Notch, Mt. Mansfield, Vt., by C.G. Pringle in +1876. Found sparingly at Willoughby Lake, high on the cliffs of Mt. Horr. +This rare and delicate little plant bears a rather close resemblance to the +maidenhair spleenwort, which, however, has dark stipes instead of green. + +Northern New England, west and northwest on shaded limestone rocks. + +[Illustration: Maidenhair Spleenwort. _Asplenium Trichomanes_] + +(4) MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium Trichomanes_ + +Stipes densely tufted, purple-brown, shining. Fronds three to eight inches +long, linear, dark green, rather rigid. Pinnae roundish-oblong or oval, +entire or finely crenate, attached at the base by a narrow point. Midveins +forking and evanescent. + +Not very common, but distributed almost throughout North America. May be +looked for wherever there are ledges, as it does not require limestone. +July. + +[Illustration: Maidenhair Spleenwort. _Asplenium Trichomanes_ (From +Woolson's "Ferns," Doubleday, Page & Co.)] + +(5) SMALL SPLEENWORT + +_Asplenium parvulum. A. resiliens_ + +Fronds four to ten inches tall, narrowly linear, rather firm, erect. Pinnae +opposite, oblong, entire or finely crenate, and auricled at the base. +Stipes and rachis black and shining. Midveins continuous. + +This small fern is a southern species half way between the maidenhair and +ebony spleenworts, but rather more like the latter from which it differs in +being smaller and thicker, and in having the fertile and sterile fronds of +the same size. Mountains of Virginia to Kansas and southward. + +(6) EBONY SPLEENWORT + +_Asplenium platyneuron. A. ebeneum_ + +Fronds upright, eight to eighteen inches high, linear-lanceolate, the +fertile ones much taller, and pinnate. Pinnae scarcely an inch long, the +lower ones very much shorter, alternate, spreading, finely serrate or +incised, the base auricled. Sori numerous, rather near the midvein, stipe +and rachis lustrous brown. ("Ebony.") + +This rigidly upright but graceful fern flourishes in rocky, open woods, and +on rich, moist banks, often in the neighborhood of red cedars. Having come +upon it many times in our rambles, we should say it was not uncommon. + +A lightly incised form of the pinnae has been described as var. _serratum_. +A handsome form discovered in Vermont in 1900 by Mrs. Horton and named +_Hortonae_ (also called _incisum_) has plume-like fronds with the pinnae cut +into oblique lobes, which are coarsely serrate. + +[Illustration: Ebony Spleenwort. _Asplenium platyneuron_ (Melrose, Mass., +G.E. Davenport)] + +[Illustration: Bradley's Spleenwort. _Asplenium Bradleyi_ a, from Maryland; +b, from Kentucky (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + +(7) BRADLEY'S SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium Bradleyi_ + +Fronds oblong-lanceolate, pinnate, three to ten inches long. Pinnae +oblong-ovate, obtuse, incised or pinnatifid into oblong, toothed lobes. +The basal pinnae have broad bases, and blunt tips and are slightly stalked. +Stipes and rachis dark brown and the sori short, near the midrib. + +A rare and beautiful fern growing on rocks preferring limestone and +confined mostly to the southern states. Newburg, N.Y., to Kentucky and +Alabama, westward to Arkansas. + +(8) MOUNTAIN SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium montanum_ + +Fronds ovate-lanceolate from a broad base, two to eight inches long, +somewhat leathery, pinnate. Pinnae ovate-oblong, the lowest pinnately cleft +into oblong or ovate cut-toothed lobes, the upper ones less and less +divided. Rachis green, broad, and flat. + +[Illustration: Mountain Spleenwort (From the "Fern Bulletin")] + +Small evergreen ferns of a bluish-green color, growing in the crevices of +rocks and cliffs. Connecticut to Ohio, Kentucky, Arkansas and southwest. +July. Rare. Williams, in his "Ferns of Kentucky," says of this species, +"Common on all sandstone cliffs and specimens are large on sheltered rocks +by the banks of streams." + +(9) RUE SPLEENWORT. _Asplenium Ruta-muraria_ + +Fronds evergreen, small, two to seven inches long, deltoid-ovate, two to +three pinnate below, simply pinnate above, rather leathery in texture. +Divisions few, stalked, from cuneate to roundish-ovate, toothed or incised +at the apex. Veins forking. Rachis and stipe green. Sori few, soon +confluent. + +[Illustration: The Rue Spleenwort. _A. Ruta-muraria_ (Top, Lake +Huron--Lower Left, Mt. Toby, Mass.--Lower Right, Vermont) (From Herbarium +of Geo. E. Davenport)] + +This tiny fern grows from small fissures in the limestone cliffs, and +is rather rare in this country; but in Great Britain it is very common, +growing everywhere on walls and ruins. From Mt. Toby, Mass., and Willoughby +Mountain, Vt., to Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky and southward. + + +B. THE LARGE SPLEENWORTS. _Athyrium_ + +The following species, which are often two to three feet high and grow in +rich soil, are quite different in appearance and habits from the small rock +spleenworts just described. Some botanists have kept them in the genus +_Asplenium_ because their sori are usually rather straight or only slightly +curved, but others are inclined to follow the practice of the British +botanists and put them into a separate group under _Athyrium_. Nearly all +agree that the lady fern, with its variously curved sori, should be placed +here, and many others would place the silvery spleenwort in the same genus, +partly because of its frequently doubled sori. In regard to the last member +of the group, the narrow-leaved spleenwort, there is more doubt. The sori +taken separately would place it with the _Aspleniums_, but considering its +size, structure, habits of growth and all, it seems more closely allied to +the two larger ferns than to the little rock species. We shall group the +three together as the large spleenworts, or for the sake of being more +definite adopt Clute's felicitous phrase. + + + + +THE LADY FERN AND ITS KIN + + +1. THE LADY FERNS + +Fronds one to three feet high, broadly lanceolate, or ovate-oblong, +tapering towards the apex, bipinnate. Pinnae lanceolate, numerous. Pinnules +oblong-lanceolate, cut-toothed or incised. Fruit-dots short, variously +curved. Indusium delicate, often reniform, or shaped like a horseshoe, in +some forms confluent at maturity. + +Widely distributed, common and varying greatly in outline. The newer +nomenclature separates the lady fern of our section into two distinct +species, which should be carefully studied.[A] + +[Footnote A: See monograph by F.K. Butters in _Rhodora_ of September, +1917.] + +(1) THE UPLAND LADY FERN. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTUM + +_Asplenium Filix-femina_ + +The rootstock or rhizome of the Upland Lady Fern here pictured shows how +the thick, fleshy bases of the old fronds conceal the rootstock itself. In +the Lowland Lady Fern the rootstock is but slightly concealed by old stipe +bases, and so may be distinguished from its sister fern. + +One design of such rootstocks is to store up food (mostly starch), during +the summer to nourish the young plants as they shoot forth the next spring. +The undecayed bases of the old stipes are also packed with starch for the +same purpose. + +[Illustration: Rootstock of the Upland Lady Fern] + +[Illustration: The same split lengthwise (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt +& Co.)] + +[Illustration: Sori of Lady Fern. _Athyrium angustum_] + +Rootstocks horizontal, quite concealed by the thick, fleshy bases of old +fronds. Scales of the long, tufted stipes dark brown. Indusium curved, +often horseshoe-shaped, usually toothed or fringed with fine hairs, but +without glands. Fronds bipinnate, one to three feet high, widest near the +middle. + +This is the common species of northern New England and the Canadian +Provinces. The fronds differ very widely in form and a great many varieties +have been pointed out, but the fern student, having first learned to +identify the species, will gradually master the few leading varieties as he +meets them. + +Those growing in warm, sunny places where the fruit-dots when mature +incline to cover the whole back of the frond are called "sun forms." These +are varieties TYPICUM and ELATIUS, both with the pinnae obliquely ascending +(including variety _angustum_ of D.C. Eaton), but the latter has broader +fronds with the pinnules of the sterile fronds oblong-lanceolate, somewhat +acute and strongly toothed or pinnatifid. + +[Illustration: Varieties of Lady Fern Left to right--1st and 2nd, Var. +_typicum; 3d, elatius; 4th, rubellum; 5th, uncertain, perhaps confertum_] + +Var. RUBELLUM has the sori distinct even when mature; its pinnules stand +at a wide angle from the rachis of the pinna and are strongly toothed +or pinnatifid with obtuse teeth. This variety favors regions with cool +summers, or dense shade in warmer regions. The term RUBELLUM alludes to +the reddish stems so often seen but this sign alone may not determine the +variety. It occurs throughout the range of the species, being a common +New England fern. Fernald remarks that this is also a common form of the +species in southern Nova Scotia. + +Among other varieties named by Butters are CONFERTUM, having the pinnules +irregularly lobed and toothed; joined by a membranous wing, the lobes of +the pinnules broad and overlapping, giving the fern a compact appearance; +LACINIATUM with pinnules very irregular in size and shape, with many long, +acute teeth, which project in various directions. "An abnormal form which +looks as if it had been nibbled when young." + +These varieties are represented in the Gray Herbarium. + +(2) THE LOWLAND LADY FERN + +ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES + +Rootstocks creeping, not densely covered with the persistent bases of the +fronds. Stipes about as long as the blade. Scales of the stipe very few, +seldom persistent, rarely over 3-16 of an inch long. Fronds narrowly +deltoid, lanceolate, widest near the base, the second pair of pinnae +commonly longest. Indusia ciliate, the cilia (hairs) ending in glands. +Spores dark, netted or wrinkled. + +[Illustration: Lowland Lady Fern. ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES (From the Gray +Herbarium)] + +The following two forms are named by Butters: + +F. TYPICUM. The usual form frequent in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, +Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri. + +F. SUBTRIPINNATUM. An unusually large and rare form with triangular, +lanceolate, and pinnatifid pinnules, having blunt, oblong segments. Wet +situations in half shade. Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Virginia. + +Our lowland or southern lady fern flourishes in the southern states, comes +up the Atlantic Coast until it meets the upland or northern species in +Pennsylvania and southern New England, and their identification can hardly +fail to awaken in the student a keen interest. + +Our American botanists are inclined to think that the real _Athyrium +filix-femina_ is not to be found in the northeastern United States, but +is rather a western species, with its habitat in California and the Rocky +Mountain region and identical with _Athyrium cyclosorum_. + +But whatever changes may occur in the scientific name of the old _Athyrium +filix-femina_, the name lady fern will not change, but everywhere within +our limits it will hold its own as a familiar term. + +Underwood, writing of the lady fern under the genus _Asplenium_, mentions +the form "_exile_, small, starved specimens growing in very dry situations +and often fruiting when only a few inches high." He also mentions Eaton's +"_angustum_," and alludes to the "Remaining sixty-three varieties equally +unimportant that have been described of this species." + +The lady fern is common in moist woods, by walls and roadsides, and at its +best is a truly handsome species, although, like Mrs. Parsons, we have +noticed that in the late summer it loses much of its delicacy. "Many of +its forms become disfigured and present a rather blotched and coarse +appearance." The lady fern has inspired several poems, which have been +quoted more or less fully in the fern books. The following lines are from +the pen of Calder Campbell: + + "But not by burne in wood or dale + Grows anything so fair + As the palmy crest of emerald pale + Of the lady fern when the sunbeams turn + To gold her delicate hair." + +Referring, perhaps, to the fair colors of the unfolding crosiers revealing +stipes of a clear wine color in striking contrast with the delicate green +of the foliage. + +In identifying this fern the novice should bear in mind the tendency of the +curved sori of youth to become straightened and even confluent with age, +although such changes are rather unreliable. Possibly the suggestion of the +poetic Davenport may be helpful to some that there is "An indefinable charm +about the various forms of the lady fern, which soon enables one to know it +from its peculiarly graceful motion by merely gently swaying a frond in the +hand." Spores ripen in August. + +The lady fern is very easy to cultivate and when once established is apt to +crowd aside its neighbors. + +(3) SILVERY SPLEENWORT. ATHYRIUM ACROSTICHOIDES + +_Asplenium acrostichoides. Asplenium thelypteroides_ + +Fronds two to four feet tall, pinnate, tapering both ways from the middle. +Pinnae deeply pinnatifid, linear-lanceolate, acuminate. Lobes oblong, +obtuse, minutely toothed, each bearing two rows of oblong or linear +fruit-dots. Indusium silvery when young. + +[Illustration: Silvery Spleenwort. _Athyrium acrostichoides_] + +[Illustration: Silvery Spleenwort. Athyrium acrostichoides] + +The sterile fronds come up first and the taller, fertile ones do not appear +until late in June. Where there are no fruit-dots the hairs on the upper +surface of the fronds will help to distinguish it from specimens of the +Marsh fern tribe, which it somewhat resembles. The regular rows of nearly +straight, clear-cut sori of the fertile fronds are very attractive, and +the lower ones, as well as those at the slender tips of the pinnae, are +frequently double. + +Rich woods and moist, shady banks, New England to Kentucky and westward. +Generally distributed but hardly common. + +(4) NARROW-LEAVED SPLEENWORT + +ATHYRIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. _Asplenium angustifolium_ + +Fronds one to four feet tall, pinnate. Pinnae numerous, thin, short-stalked, +linear-lanceolate, acuminate, those of the fertile fronds narrower. +Fruit-dots linear. Indusium slightly convex. + +[Illustration: Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. _Athyrium angustifolium_ (Vermont) +(Geo. E. Davenport)] + +In rich woods from southern Canada and New Hampshire to Minnesota and +southward. September. Not common. Mt. Toby, Mass., Berlin and Meriden, +Conn., and Danville, Vt. Can be cultivated but should not be exposed to +severe weather, as its thin and delicate fronds are easily injured. Woolson +writes of it, "There is nothing in the fern kingdom which looks so cool and +refreshing on a hot day as a mass of this clear-cut, delicately made-up +fern." + +[Illustration: Pinnae and Sori of _Athyrium angustifolium_] + + + + +HART'S TONGUE + +_Scolopendrium_. PHYLLITIS + +Sori linear, a row on either side of the midvein, and at right angles to +it, the indusium appearing to be double. (_Scolopendrium_ is the Greek for +centipede, whose feet the sori were thought to resemble. _Phyllitis_ is the +ancient Greek name for a fern.) Only one species in the United States. + +[Illustration: Sori of _Scolopendrium vulgare_] + +(1) _Scolopendrium vulgare_ + +PHYLLITIS SCOLOPENDRIUM + +Fronds thick and leathery, oblong-lanceolate from an auricled, heart-shaped +base, ten to twenty inches long and one to two inches wide. Margin entire, +bright green. + +In shaded ravines under limestone cliffs. Chittenango Falls, and +Scolopendrium Lake, central New York, and Tennessee. Also, locally in +Ontario and New Brunswick. One of the rarest of our native ferns, although +very common in Great Britain. This plant is said to be easily cultivated, +and to produce numerous varieties. According to Woolson, "No rockery is +complete without the Hart's Tongue, the long, glossy, undulating fronds +of which are sufficiently unique to distinguish any collection." In +cultivation it "needs light protection through the winter in northern New +England." + +[Illustration: Hart's Tongue. _Scolopendrium vulgare_ (Base of calcareous +rocks, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada)] + + +WALKING FERN. WALKING LEAF + +_Camptosorus_ + +Fruit-dots oblong or linear as in _Asplenium_, but irregularly scattered on +either side of the reticulated veins of the simple frond, the outer ones +sometimes confluent at their ends, forming crooked lines (hence, the name +from the Greek meaning crooked sori). Only one species within our limits. + +_Camptosorus rhizophyllus_ + +Fronds evergreen, leathery, four to eighteen inches long, heart-shaped at +the base, but tapering towards the apex, which often roots and forms a +new plant. Veins reticulated. The auricles of this species are sometimes +elongated and may even take root. + +This curious and interesting fern is one of the finest for rockeries, the +tips taking root in rock-fissures. Shaded limestone, or sometimes other +rocks. Shapleigh and Winthrop, Me., rarely in New Hampshire (Lebanon), +and Connecticut, Mt. Toby, Mass., and western New England; also Canada to +Georgia and westward. + +[Illustration: Walking Fern. _Camptosorus rhizophyllus_] + + + + +THE SHIELD FERNS + + +THE CHRISTMAS AND HOLLY FERNS + +_Polystichum_ + +These have been grouped with the wood ferns, but are now usually placed +under the genus _Polystichum_, which has the sori round and covered with +a circular indusium fixed to the frond by its depressed center. The wood +ferns, on the other hand, have a kidney-shaped indusium attached to the +fronds by the sinus. (_Polystichum_ is the Greek for many rows, the sori of +some species being in many ranks.) + +(1) THE CHRISTMAS FERN + +_Polystichum acrostichoides. Aspidium acrostichoides_ + +Stipes clothed with pale, brown scales. Frond rigid and evergreen, one to +two feet long, lanceolate, pinnate. Pinnae linear-lanceolate, scythe-shaped, +auricled on the upper side, and with bristly teeth; fertile pinnae +contracted toward the top, bearing two rows of sori, which soon become +confluent and cover the entire surface. Indusium orbicular, fixed by its +depressed center. + +_F. incisum_ is a form in which the pinnae are much incised. + +_F. crispum_ has the edges of its pinnae crisped and ruffled. The name +Christmas fern, due to John Robinson, of Salem, Mass., suggests its fitness +for winter decoration. Its deep green and glossy fronds insure it a welcome +at Christmas time. "Its mission is to cheer the winter months and enhance +the beauty of the other ferns by contrast." In transplanting, a generous +mass of earth should be included and its roots should not be disturbed. + +[Illustration: Christmas Fern. _Polystichum acrostichoides_] + +[Illustration: Christmas Fern. _Polystichum acrostichoides_] + +[Illustration: Christmas Fern. _Polystichum acrostichoides_ Top, Forked +Form; Bottom, Incised Form (Maine)] + +(2) BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN + +_Polystichum Braunii. Aspidium aculeatum Braunii_ + +Fronds thick, rigid, one to two feet long, spreading, lanceolate, +tapering both ways, bipinnate. Pinnules ovate or oblong, truncate, nearly +rectangular at the base, sharply toothed and covered beneath with chaff and +hairs. Fruit-dots small and near the mid veins. Indusium orbicular, entire. +Stipes chaffy with brown scales. + +[Illustration: Braun's Holly Fern. _Polystichum Braunii_ (Willoughby +Mountain, Vt.) (Herbarium of G.H.T.)] + +This handsome fern is rather common in northern New England. We have +collected it in the Willoughby Lake region, Vt., and it is found at Mt. +Mansfield, Randolph, and elsewhere in that state; also at Gorham, N.H., +and Fernald reports it as common in northern Maine. It also grows in the +mountains of New York and Pennsylvania, and westward. It was formerly +thought to be a variety of the prickly shield fern (_P. aculeatum_), which +has a very wide range and numerous varieties. The fronds remain green +through the winter but the stipes weaken and fall over. + +(3) HOLLY FERN. _Polystichum Lonchitis_ + +Fronds linear-lanceolate, short-stalked and rigid, eight to fifteen inches +long. Pinnae broadly lanceolate-falcate or the lowest triangular, strongly +auricled on the upper side, densely spinulose-toothed. Sori midway between +the margin and midrib. + +[Illustration: Holly Fern. Polystichum Lonchitis (Nottawasaga, Canada, +West, Right, Alaska, Left) (Herbarium of C.E. Davenport)] + +The name holly fern suggests its resemblance to holly leaves with their +bristle-tipped teeth. The specific name lonchitis (like a spear) refers to +its sharp teeth. A northern species growing in rocky woods from Labrador +to Alaska, and south to Niagara Falls, Lake Superior and westward. Its +southern limits nearly coincide with the northern limits of the Christmas +fern. + + + + +THE MARSH FERN TRIBE + + +Under this designation Clute has grouped three of the shield ferns, which +have a close family resemblance, and has thus distinguished them from the +wood ferns, which also belong to the shield fern family. + +(1) THE MARSH FERN + +_Aspidium thelypteris_. THELYPTERIS PALUSTRIS +_Dryopteris thelypteris. Nephrodium thelypteris_ + +[Illustration: The Marsh Fern] + +These are all good names and each one is worthy to be chosen. _Aspidium_, +Greek for shield, in use for a century, adopted in all the seven editions +of Gray's Manual, is still the most familiar and pleasing term to its +friends. _Dryopteris_, Greek for oak fern, has been chosen by Underwood +and Britton and Brown and has grown in favor. _Nephrodium_, meaning +kidney-like, favored by Davenport, Waters and, of late, Clute, is a most +fitting name. THELYPTERIS, meaning lady fern, is found to be the earliest +name in use and according to rule the correct one. + +[Illustration: The Marsh Fern. _Aspidium Thelypteris_] + +Fronds pinnate, lanceolate, slightly or not at all narrowed at the base. +Pinnae horizontal or slightly recurved, linear-lanceolate and deeply +pinnatifid. Lobes obtuse, but appear acute when their margins are reflexed +over the sori. Veins once forked. Indusium minute. Stipes tall, lifting the +blades ten to fifteen inches above the mud, whence they spring. + +The fronds of the marsh fern are apt to be sterile in deep shade. It may be +readily distinguished from the New York fern by its broad base, instead of +tapering to very small pinnae; by its long stalk, lifting the blade up into +the sunlight, and by the revolute margins of the fertile fronds, which have +suggested for it the name of "snuff-box" fern. It is separated from +the Massachusetts fern by its forked veins. Common in marshes and damp +woodlands; Canada to Florida and westward. While the marsh fern loves +moisture and shade it is sometimes found in dry, open fields. Miss Lilian +A. Cole, of Union, Me., reports a colony as growing on land above the swale +in which Twayblade and Adder's Tongue are found, "around rock heaps in +open sunlight on clay soil, but homely and twisted," as if a former woodsy +environment had been long since cleared away while the deserted ferns +persisted. + +(2) MASSACHUSETTS FERN + +_Aspidium simulatum_. THELYPTERIS SIMULATA +_Dryopteris simulata. Nephrodium simulatum_ + +Fronds pinnate, one to three feet long, oblong-lanceolate, somewhat +narrowed at the base. Pinnae lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, the lower most +often turned inward. Veins simple. Indusium glandular. Sori rather large. + +Resembles the marsh fern, of which it was once thought to be a variety. +In some respects it is also like the New York fern, and is in fact +intermediate between the two. + +[Illustration: Massachusetts Fern. _Aspidium simulatum_ 1. Sterile Frond. +2. A Fruiting Pinnule. 3. Pinnule enlarged showing venation (From the "Fern +Bulletin")] + +That it is a distinct species was first pointed out by Raynal Dodge in +1880, and it later was named _simulatum_ by Geo. E. Davenport because of +its similarity to a form of the lady fern. It may be identified by its +thin texture and particularly by its simple veins. On account of its close +resemblance to the marsh fern, Clute would call it "The lance-leaved Marsh +Fern," instead of the irrelevant name of Massachusetts Fern. Woodland +swamps usually in deep shade, New England to Maryland and westward. Often +found growing with the marsh fern. + +(3) NEW YORK FERN + +_Aspidium noveboracense_. THELYPTERIS NOVEBORACENSIS +_Dryopteris noveboracensis. Nephrodium noveboracense_ + +Fronds pinnate, tapering both ways from the middle. Pinnae lanceolate, +pinnatifid, the lowest pairs gradually shorter and deflexed. Veins simple. +Indusium minute and beset with glands. + +[Illustration: New York Fern. _Aspidium noveboracense_] + +Very common in woodlands, preferring a dryer soil than the marsh fern. +August. The fronds are pale green, delicate and hairy beneath along the +midrib and veins. + +[Illustration: Sori of New York Fern (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & +Co.)] + +[Illustration: New York Fern. _Aspidium noveboracense_] + +When bruised its resinous glands give out a pleasing, ferny odor. This +species can be distinguished from every other by the greatly reduced pinnae +at its base. Throughout North America east of the Mississippi. + + + + +THE BEECH FERNS + + +The beech ferns are often classed with the polypodies, because, like them, +they have no indusium; but in other ways they are more akin to the wood +ferns. Their stipes are not jointed to the root stock, nor are their sori +at the ends of the veins as in the polypodies. We here place them with +the wood ferns, retaining the familiar name _Phegopteris_ but giving +THELYPTERIS as a synonym. The fruit-dots are small, round and naked, +borne on the back of the veins below the apex. Stipe continuous with the +rootstock. Veins free. (The name _Phegopteris_ in Greek means oak or beech +fern.) + +(1) OAK FERN + +_Phegopteris dryopteris_. THELYPTERIS DRYOPTERIS + +Fronds glabrous, broadly triangular, ternate, four to seven inches broad, +the divisions widely spreading, each division pinnate at the base. Segments +oblong, obtuse, entire or toothed. Fruit-dots near the margin. Rootstock +slender and creeping from which fronds are produced all summer, in +appearance like the small, ternate divisions of the bracken. + +This dainty fern has fronds of a delicate yellow-green, "the greenest of +all green things growing." Its ternate character is shown even in the +uncoiling of the fronds, the three round balls suggesting the sign of the +pawnbroker. The parts of the oak fern develop with great regularity, each +pinna, pinnule and lobe having another exactly opposite to it nearly +always. In rocky woods, common northward; also in Virginia, Kansas and +Colorado. A fine species for cultivation at the base of the artificial +rockery. + +[Illustration: Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Dryopteris_] + + + +(2) THE NORTHERN OAK FERN + +_Phegopteris Robertiana. Phegopteris calcarea_ + +THELYPTERIS ROBERTIANA + +Resembles the oak fern, but with fronds rather larger, especially the +terminal segment; also more rigid and coarser in appearance. Stalks and +fronds minutely glandular beneath. Lower pinnules of the lateral divisions +scarcely longer than the others. Often called "Limestone Polypody," the +beech ferns having formerly been classed with the polypodies. Britton and +Brown designate it as the "Scented Oak Fern." Canada and the northwestern +states. Rare. + +[Illustration: Northern Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Robertiana_ (From Water's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + +[Illustration: BROAD BEECH FERN. Phegopteris hexagonoptera] + +(3) BROAD BEECH FERN + +_Phegopteris hexagonoptera_ + +THELYPTERIS HEXAGONOPTERA + +Fronds triangular, broader than long, seven to twelve inches broad, +spreading more or less horizontally at the summit of the stipe; pubescent +and often glandular beneath; pinnae fragrant, lanceolate, the lowest pair +usually much larger than those above, having the segments elongated and cut +into lobes. Basal segments decurrent and forming a many-angled wing along +the main rachis. Fruit-dots small, near the margin. + +The broad beech fern is usually larger than its sister, the long beech +fern, and extends farther south, ranging from New England to Minnesota +and southward to Florida. It is sometimes called "six-angled polypody." +According to Dodge it is most common in Rhode Island and Connecticut. It +prefers rather dry, open woods. It is said to have a pleasant, ferny odor +when bruised. August. + +(4) LONG BEECH FERN + +_Phegopteris polypodioides_. THELYPTERIS PHEGOPTERIS + +Fronds triangular, longer than broad, four to six inches long, twice +pinnatifid. Pinnae lanceolate, acuminate, the lowest pair deflexed and +standing forward; cut into oblong, obtuse segments. Fruit-dots near the +margin. + +Compared with the broad beech fern this is the more northern species. While +usually quite distinct in structure, it sometimes approaches its sister +fern rather closely. + +It prefers deep woods and shaded banks. Newfoundland to Alaska and +southward to the mountains of Virginia. July. + +[Illustration: Long Beech Fern. _Phegopteris polypodioides_] + +[Illustration: The Long Beech Fern] + + + + +THE FRAGRANT FERN + +_Aspidium fragrans. Nephrodium fragrans_ + +THELYPTERIS FRAGRANS. _Dryopteris fragrans_ + +Fronds four to twelve inches high, glandular-aromatic, narrowly lanceolate +and twice pinnate or nearly so. Pinnae oblong-lanceolate, pinnate or deeply +pinnatifid. Pinnules toothed or entire nearly covered beneath with the +large, thin, imbricated indusia which are orbicular with a narrow sinus, +having the margins ragged and sparingly glanduliferous. Stipe short and +chaffy. + +The fragrant fern grows on high cliffs among the mountains of northern New +England. It is reported from scattered stations in northern Maine, from +north of the White Mountains and from Sunapee Lake in New Hampshire, and +in the Green Mountains south to central Vermont, New Brunswick and to +Minnesota. Found also in Alaska and Greenland. This much-coveted fern has a +singularly sweet and lasting fragrance, compared by some to strawberries, +by others to new-mown hay and sweet brier leaves. We have seen herbarium +specimens that were mildly and pleasantly odorous after several years. When +growing the fern may be tested "by its fragrance, its stickiness and its +beautiful brown curls." Evergreen. Spores ripen the middle of August. + +[Illustration: Fragrant Fern. _Aspidium fragrans_ (Mt. Mansfield. Vt.)] + + + + +KEY TO THE WOOD FERNS + +ASPIDIUM + +Fronds pinnate, the pinnae pinnatifid; + Blade soft and thin, not evergreen; + Lower pinnae reduced to mere lobes + New York Fern + Lower pinnae but slightly reduced; + Veins simple......................Massachusetts Fern + Veins forked..............................Marsh Fern + + Blade rather thick (subcoreaceous) mostly evergreen; + Fronds small, narrow, glandular, rock species + Fragrant Fern + Fronds large, two or more feet high; + Lower pinnae short, broadly triangular + Crested Shield Fern + Lower pinnae longer; + Sori close to the margin.... Marginal Shield Fern + Sori nearer the midvein; + Frond lanceolate....................Male Fern + Frond ovate..............Goldie's Shield Fern + +Fronds twice pinnate with the lower pinnules pinnatifid + Boott's Shield Fern + +Fronds nearly thrice pinnate................Spinulose Shield Fern + +[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern. _Aspidium marginale_] + + + +THE WOOD FERNS + + +The ferns of this group, not counting the small fragrant fern, prefer the +woods or at least shady places. Although the genus _Polystichum_ represents +the true shield ferns, the wood ferns are also thus designated, as their +indusia have nearly the shape of small, roundish shields. The old generic +name for them all was _Aspidium_ (meaning shield), first published in 1800. +For a long time its chief rival was _Nephrodium_ (kidney-like), 1803. Many +modern botanists have preferred the earlier name _Dryopteris_ (1763), +meaning oak fern, alluding, perhaps, to its forest-loving habits. +THELYPTERIS, still earlier (1762), may supersede the others. + +[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern. Aspidium marginale (From Woolson's +"Ferns," Doubleday, Page & Co.)] + +[Illustration: Sori of Marginal Shield Fern] + +(1) MARGINAL SHIELD FERN, EVERGREEN WOOD FERN + +_Aspidium marginale_. THELYPTERIS MARGINALIS +_Dryopteris marginalis. Nephrodium marginale_ + +Fronds from a few inches to three feet long, ovate-oblong, somewhat +leathery, smooth, twice pinnate. Pinnae lanceolate, acuminate, broadest just +above the base. Pinnules oblong, often slightly falcate, entire or toothed. +Fruit-dots large, round, close to the margin. Rocky hillsides in rich +woods, rather common throughout our area. The heavy rootstock rises +slightly above the ground and is clothed at the crown with shaggy, brown +scales. Its rising caudex, often creeping for several inches over bare +rocks, suggests the habit of a tree fern. In early spring it sends up a +graceful circle of large, handsome, bluish-green blades. The stipes are +short and densely chaffy. No other wood fern endures the winter so well. +The fronds burdened with snow lop over among the withered leaves and +continue green until the new ones shoot up in the spring. It is the most +valuable of all the wood ferns for cultivation. + +(2) THE MALE FERN + +_Aspidium Filix-mas_. THELYPTERIS FILIX-MAS +_Dryopteris Filix-mas. Nephrodium Filix-mas_ + +Fronds lanceolate, pinnate, one to three feet high growing in a crown from +a shaggy rootstock. Pinnae lanceolate, tapering from base to apex. Pinnules +oblong, obtuse, serrate at the apex, obscurely so at the sides, the basal +incisely lobed, distant, the upper confluent. Fruit-dots large, nearer the +mid vein than the margin, mostly on the lower half of each fertile segment. + +The male fern resembles the marginal shield fern in outline, but the fronds +are thinner, are not evergreen, and the sori are near the midvein. Its use +in medicine is of long standing. Its rootstock produces the well-known +_filix-mas_ of the pharmacist. This has tonic and astringent properties, +but is mainly prescribed as a vermifuge, which is one of the names given to +it. In Europe it is regarded as the typical fern, being oftener mentioned +and figured than any other. In rocky woods, Canada, Northfield, Vt., and +northwest to the great lakes, also in many parts of the world. + +[Illustration: The Male Fern. _Aspidium Filix-mas_ (Vermont)] + +[Illustration: FIG. 33G. _Aspidium filix mas_ 1, Illustration +exhibiting general habit; a, young leaves: 2, transverse section of +rhizome showing the conducting bundles a: 3, portion of the leaf bearing +sori; a indusium b, sporangia; 4, longitudinal; 5, transverse section of a +soris; a, leaf; b, indusium; c, sporangia: 6, a single sporangium; a, +stalk; c, annulus; d, spores. (After WOSSIDLO OFFICINAL) From a German +print, giving details] + +(3) GOLDIE'S FERN + +_Aspidium Goldianum_. THELYPTERIS GOLDIANA +_Dryopteris Goldiana. Nephrodium Goldianum_ + +Fronds two to four feet high and often one foot broad, pinnate, broadly +ovate, especially the sterile ones. Pinnae deeply pinnatifid, broadest +in the middle. The divisions (eighteen or twenty pairs) oblong-linear, +slightly toothed. Fruit-dots very near the midvein. Indusium large, +orbicular, with a deep, narrow sinus. Scales dark brown to nearly black +with a peculiar silky lustre. + +A magnificent species, the tallest and largest of the wood ferns. It +delights in rich woodlands where there is limestone. Its range is from +Canada to Kentucky. While not common, there are numerous colonies in New +England. It is reported from Fairfield, Me., Spencer and Mt. Toby, Mass., +and frequently west of the Connecticut River. We have often admired a large +and beautiful colony of it on the west side of Willoughby Mountain in +Vermont. It is easily cultivated and adds grace and dignity to a fern +garden. + +[Illustration: Goldie's Shield Fern. _Aspidium Goldianum_ (Vermont, 1874. +C.G. Pringle) (Herbarium of G.E. Davenport)] + +[Illustration: Goldie's Fern (From Woolson's "Ferns," Doubleday, Page & +Co.)] + +(4) THE CRESTED FERN + +_Aspidium cristatum_. THELYPTERIS CRISTATA + +_Dryopteris cristata. Nephrodium cristatum_ + +Fronds one to two feet long, linear-oblong or lanceolate, pinnate, acute. +Pinnae two to three inches long, broadest at the base, triangular-oblong, +or the lowest triangular. Divisions oblong, obtuse, finely serrate or +cut-toothed, those nearest the rachis sometimes separate. Fruit-dots large, +round, half way between the midvein and the margin. Indusium smooth, naked, +with a shallow sinus. + +The short sterile fronds, though spreading out gracefully, are conspicuous +only in winter; while the fertile fronds, tall, narrow and erect, are found +only in summer. + +It is one of our handsomest evergreen ferns and even the large sori, with +their dark spore cases and white indusia, are very attractive. The fertile +pinnae have a way of turning their faces upward toward the apex of the frond +for more light. In moist land, Canada to Kentucky. + +Var. _Clintonianum_. Clinton's Wood Fern. Resembles the type, but is in +every way larger. Divisions eight to sixteen pairs. Fruit-dots near the +midvein, the sides of the sinus often overlapping. South central Maine to +New York and westward. "Rare in New England attaining its best development +in western sections." (Dodge.) Mt. Toby, Mass., Hanover, N.H. July. Fine +for cultivation. + +[Illustration: Crested Shield Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_ (Reading, Mass., +Kingman)] + +[Illustration: The Crested Shield Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_] + +[Illustration: Clinton's Wood Fern. _Aspidium cristatum_, var. +_Clintonianum_ (Gray Herbarium)] + +CRESTED MARGINAL FERN + +_Aspidium cristatum X marginale_ + + +Both the crested fern and Clinton's fern appear to hybridize with the +marginal shield fern with the result that the upper part of the frond is +like _marginale_ and the lower like _cristatum_, including the veining and +texture. + +This form was discovered by Raynal Dodge, verified by Margaret Slosson and +described by Geo. E. Davenport, who had a small colony under cultivation in +his fern garden at Medford, Mass., and to him the writer and other friends +are indebted for specimens. + +Found occasionally throughout New England and New Jersey. Other supposed +hybrids have been found between the marginal shield and the spinulose fern +and its variety _intermedium_, and with Goldie's fern; also between the +crested fern, including Clinton's variety and each of the others mentioned; +and, in fact, between almost all pairs of species of the wood ferns, +although we do not think they have been positively verified. Still other +species of ferns are known to hybridize more or less, as we saw in the case +of Scott's spleenwort. + +[Illustration: Crested Marginal Fern. A Hybrid. _Aspidium Cristatum X +marginale_ (Fernery of Geo. E. Davenport)] + +[Illustration: _Aspidium cristatum X marginale_ One of the very best for +cultivation] + +(5) BOOTT'S SHIELD FERN + +_Aspidium Boottii_. THELYPTERIS BOOTTII + +_Dryopteris Boottii. Nephrodium Boottii_ + +Fronds one to three feet high, oblong-lanceolate, bipinnate, the upper +pinnae lanceolate, the lower triangular with spinulose teeth. Sori in rows +each side of the midvein, one to each tooth and often scattering on the +lower pinules. Indusium large, minutely glandular, variable. + +This fern has been thought to be a hybrid between the crested and spinulose +ferns, but is now regarded as distinct. Like the crested fern its fertile +fronds wither in autumn, while its sterile blades remain green throughout +the winter. It differs from it, however, by being twice pinnate below, and +from the typical spinulose fern by its glandular indusium; but from the +intermediate variety it is more difficult to separate it, as that also has +indusiate glands. The collector needs to study authentic specimens and +have in mind the type, with its rather long, narrow blade as an aid to the +verbal description, and even then he will often find it an interesting +puzzle. Shaded swamps throughout our area. + +[Illustration: _Aspidium Boottii_] + +(6) SPINULOSE SHIELD FERN + +_Aspidium spinulosum. THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA + +Dryopteris spinulosa. Nephrodium spinulosum_ + +Stipes with a few pale brown deciduous scales. Fronds one to two and +one-half feet long, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate. Pinnae oblique to +the rachis, the lower ones broadly triangular, the upper ones elongated. +Pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnae often elongated, especially the +lower pair, the pinnule nearest the rachis being usually the longest, at +least in the lowest pinnae. Pinnules variously cut into spinulose-toothed +segments. Indusium smooth, without marginal glands. + +The common European type, but in this country far less common than its +varieties. They all prefer rich, damp woods, and because of their +graceful outline and spiny-toothed lobes are very attractive. They can be +transplanted without great difficulty, and the fern garden depends upon +them for its most effective lacework. + +Var. _intermedium_ has the scales of the stipe brown with darker center. +Fronds ovate-oblong, often tripinnate. Pinnae spreading, oblong-lanceolate. +Pinnules pinnately cleft, the oblong lobes spinulose-toothed at the apex. +Margin of the indusium denticulate and beset with minute, stalked glands. +In woods nearly everywhere--our most common form. Millions of fronds of +this variety are gathered in our northern woods, placed in cold storage and +sent to florists to be used in decorations.[A] As long as the roots are not +disturbed the crop is renewed from year to year, and no great harm seems to +result. Canada to Kentucky and westward. + +[Footnote A: _Horticulture_ reports that twenty-eight million fern leaves +have been shipped from Bennington, Vt., in a single season; and that nearly +$100,000 were paid out in wages.] + +[Illustration: Spinulose Shield Fern. _Aspidium spinulosum_ (Maine, 1877, +Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)] + +[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. _intermedium_] + +[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. AMERICANUM] + +A tripinnate form of this variety discovered at Concord, Mass., by Henry +Purdie, has been named var. CONCORDIANUM. It has small, elliptical, +denticulate pinnules and a glandular-pubescent indusium. + +Var. AMERICANUM (=_dilatatum_, syn.). Fronds broader, ovate or +triangular-ovate in outline. A more highly developed form of the typical +plant, the lower pinnae being often very broad, and the fronds tripinnate. +Inferior pinnules on the lower pair of pinnae conspicuously elongated. A +variety preferring upland woods; northern New England, Greenland to the +mountains of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and northward. + + + + +THE BLADDER FERNS. _Cystopteris_ + + "Mark ye the ferns that clothe these dripping rocks, + Their hair-like stalks, though trembling 'neath the shock + Of falling spraydrops, rooted firmly there." + + +The bladder ferns are a dainty, rock-loving family partial to a limestone +soil. (The Greek name _cystopteris_ means bladder fern, so called in +allusion to the hood-shaped indusium.) + +(1) THE BULBLET BLADDER FERN + +_Cystopteris bulbifera. Filix bulbifera_ + +Fronds lanceolate, elongated, one to three feet long, twice pinnate. Pinnae +lanceolate-oblong, pointed, horizontal, the lowest pair longest. Rachis and +pinnae often bearing bulblets beneath. Pinnules toothed or deeply lobed. +Indusium short, truncate on the free side. Stipe short. + +[Illustration: Bulblet Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris bulbifera_ (Willoughby, +Vt., 1904, G.H.T.)] + +[Illustration: Bulblet Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris bulbifera_] + +One of the most graceful and attractive of our native ferns; an object of +beauty, whether standing alone or massed with other growths. It is very +easily cultivated and one of the best for draping. "We may drape our homes +by the yard," says Woolson, "with the most graceful and filmy of our common +ferns, the bladder fern." This fern and the maidenhair were introduced into +Europe in 1628 by John Tradescant, the first from America. + +It delights in shaded ravines and dripping hillsides in limestone +districts. While producing spores freely it seems to propagate its species +mainly by bulblets, which, falling into a moist soil, at once send out a +pair of growing roots, while a tiny frond starts to uncoil from the heart +of the bulb. Mt. Toby, Mass., Willoughby Mountain, Vt., calcareous regions +in Maine, and west of the Connecticut River, Newfoundland to Manitoba, +Wisconsin and Iowa; south to northern Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas. + +(2) THE COMMON BLADDER FERN + +_Cystopteris fragilis. Filix fragilis_ + +Stipe long and brittle. Fronds oblong-lanceolate, five to twelve +inches long, twice pinnate, the pinnae often pinnatifid or cut-toothed, +ovate-lanceolate, decurrent on the winged rachis. Indusium appearing acute +at the free end. Very variable in the cutting of the pinnules. + +The fragile bladder fern, as it is often called, and which the name +_fragilis_ suggests, is the earliest to appear in the spring, and the +first to disappear, as by the end of July it has discharged its spores and +withered away. Often, however, a new crop springs up by the last of August, +as if Nature were renewing her youth. In outline the fragile bladder fern +suggests the blunt-lobed Woodsia, but in the latter the pinnae and pinnules +are usually broader and blunter, and its indusium splits into jagged lobes. +Rather common in damp, shady places where rocks abound. In one form or +another, found nearly throughout the world though only on mountains in the +tropics. + +[Illustration: Fragile Bladder Fern, Fruited Portion] + +[Illustration: Fragile Bladder Fern. _Cystopteris fragilis_ (Wakefield, +Mass.)] + + + + +KEY TO THE WOODSIAS + +Stipes not jointed: + Indusium ample, segments broad, frond without hairs. + Obtuse Woodsia. + Pinnae hispidulous, with white jointed hairs beneath. + Rocky Mountain Woodsia. + Fronds bright green, pinnae glabrous, oblong. + Oregon Woodsia. + Fronds dull green, lanceolate, glandular beneath. + Cathcart's Woodsia. +Stipes obscurely jointed near the base: + Fronds more or less chaffy, pinnae oblong to ovate, + crowded. Rusty Woodsia. + Fronds linear, smooth, pinnae deltoid or orbicular. + Smooth Woodsia. + Fronds lanceolate, a few white scales beneath; pinnae + deltoid-ovate. Alpine Woodsia. + + + + +THE WOODSIAS + +Small, tufted, pinnately divided ferns. Fruit-dots borne on the back of +simply forked, free veins. Indusium fixed beneath the sori, thin and often +evanescent, either small and open, or early bursting at the top into +irregular pieces or lobes. (Named for James Woods, an English botanist.) + +(1) RUSTY WOODSIA. _Woodsia ilvensis_ + +Fronds oblong-lanceolate, three to ten inches high, rather smooth above, +thickly clothed underneath with rusty, bristle-like chaff. Pinnate, the +pinnae crowded, sessile, cut into oblong segments. Fruit-dots near the +margin often confluent at maturity. Indusium divided nearly in the center +into slender hairs which are curled over the sporangia. Stipes jointed an +inch or so above the rootstock. + +[Illustration: Rusty Woodsia, _Woodsia ilvensis_] + +The rusty Woodsia is decidedly a rock-loving fern, and often grows on +high cliffs exposed to the sun; its rootstock and fronds are covered with +silver-white, hair-like scales, especially underneath. These scales turn +brown in age, whence the name, rusty. As the short stipes separate at the +joints from the rootstock, they leave at the base a thick stubble, which +serves to identify the fern. Exposed rocks, Labrador to North Carolina and +westward. Rather common in New England. Said to be very abundant on the +trap rock hillocks about Little Falls, N.J., where it grows in dense tufts. + +(2) NORTHERN WOODSIA. ALPINE WOODSIA + +_Woodsia alpina. Woodsia hyperborea_ + +Fronds narrowly lanceolate, two to six inches long, smooth above, somewhat +hairy beneath, pinnate. Pinnae triangular-ovate, obtuse, lobed, the lobes +few and nearly entire. Fruit-dots rarely confluent. Indusium as in _Woodsia +ilvensis_. + +[Illustration: Details of Northern Woodsia. _Woodsia alpina_] + +Thought by some botanists to be a smooth form of _Woodsia ilvensis_. It +was discovered in the United States by Horace Mann, in 1863, at Willoughby +Lake, Vt. Twenty years or more later it was collected by C.H. Peck in the +Adirondacks, who supposed it to be _Woodsia_ _glabella_. In 1897 it was +rediscovered at Willoughby Lake by C.H. Pringle. New York, Vermont, Maine, +and British America. Rare. + +[Illustration: Northern Woodsia, _Woodsia alpina_ (From Waters' "Ferns," +Henry Holt & Co.)] + +(3) BLUNT-LOBED WOODSIA. _Woodsia obtusa_ + +Fronds broadly lanceolate, ten to eighteen inches long, nearly twice +pinnate, often minutely glandular. Pinnae rather remote, triangular-ovate +or oblong, pinnately parted into obtuse, oblong, toothed segments. +Veins forked. Fruit-dots on or near the margin of the lobes. Indusium +conspicuous, at length splitting into several spreading, jagged lobes. + +[Illustration: Blunt-lobed Woodsia. _Woodsia obtusa_] + +This is our most common species of Woodsia and it has a wider range than +the others, extending from Maine and Nova Scotia to Georgia and westward. +On rocky banks and cliffs. The sori of this species have a peculiar beauty +on account of the star-shaped indusium, as it splits into fragments. Var. +_angusta_ is a form with very narrow fronds and pinnae. Highlands, New York. +The type grows in Middlesex County, Mass., but is rare. + +(4) SMOOTH WOODSIA. _Woodsia glabella_ + +Fronds two to five inches high, very delicate, linear, pinnate. Pinnae +remote at the base, roundish-ovate, very obtuse with a few crenate lobes. +Stipes jointed, straw-colored. Hairs of the indusium few and minute. + +[Illustration: Smooth Woodsia. _Woodsia glabella_ (Willoughhy Mountain, Vt. +G.H.T.)] + +On moist, mossy, mostly calcareous rocks, northern New England, Mount +Mansfield, Willoughby, and Bakersfield Ledge, Vt., Gorham, N.H., also +Newfoundland, New York, and far to the northwest. Not very common. It +differs from the alpine species by the absence of scales above the joint. +As the name implies, the plant is smooth, except for the chaffy scales at +or near the rootstock, which mark all the Woodsias, and many other ferns, +and which serve as a protective covering against sudden changes in extremes +of heat and cold. + +(5) OREGON WOODSIA. _Woodsia oregana_ + +Fronds two to ten inches high, smooth, bright green, glandular beneath, +narrowly lance-oblong, bipinnatifid. Pinnse triangular-oblong, obtuse, +pinnatifid. Segments ovate or oblong, obtuse, crenate, the teeth or margin +nearly always reflexed. Indusium minute, concealed beneath the sorus, +divided into a few beaded hairs. + +Like the obtuse Woodsia this fern has no joint near the base of the stipe, +but is much smaller and has several points of difference. Limestone cliffs, +Gaspe Peninsula, southern shore of Lake Superior, Colorado, Oregon to the +northwest. Its eastern limit is northern Michigan. + +(6) ROCKY MOUNTAIN WOODSIA. _Woodsia scopulina_ + +Fronds six to fifteen inches long [smooth], lanceolate, pinnatifid. Pinnae +triangular-ovate, the lowest pair shortened. Under surface of the whole +frond hispidulous with minute, white hairs and stalked glands. Indusium +hidden beneath the sporangia, consisting mostly of a few hair-like +divisions. + +In crevices of rocks, mountains of West Virginia, Gaspe Peninsula, Rocky +Mountains, and westward to Oregon and California. + +(7) CATHCART'S WOODSIA. _Woodsia Cathcartiana_ + +Fronds eight to twelve inches high, lanceolate, bipinnatifid, finely +glandular-puberulent. Pinnse oblong; the lower distant segments oblong, +denticulate, separated by wide sinuses. + +Rocky river banks, west Michigan to northeast Minnesota. + + + + +DENNSTAEDTIA. _Dicksonia_ + +Fruit-dots small, globular, marginal, each on the apex of a vein or fork. +Sporangia borne on an elevated, globular receptacle in a membranous, +cup-shaped indusium which is open at the top. + +(Named in honor of August Wilhelm Dennstaed.) + +HAYSCENTED FERN. BOULDER FERN + +DENNSTAEDTIA PUNCTILOBULA[A] + +_Dicksonia punctilobula. Dicksonia pilosiuscula_ + +[Footnote A: We again remind our readers that the Latin names in small +capitals represent the newer nomenclature.] + +Fronds one to three feet high, minutely glandular and hairy, +ovate-lanceolate, pale green, very thin and mostly bipinnate. Primary +pinnae in outline like the frond; the secondary, pinnatifid into oblong and +obtuse, cut-toothed lobes. Fruit-dots minute, each on a recurved toothlet, +usually one at the upper margin of each lobe. Indusium fixed under the +sporangia, appearing like a tiny green cup filled with spore cases. + +[Illustration: Hayscented Fern. _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_ (Sudbury, Mass. +G.E.D.)] + +[Illustration: Forked Variety of Hayscented Fern] + + +[Illustration: Hayscented Fern. _Dennstaedtia punctilobula_] + +While _Dennstaedtia_ is the approved scientific name of this species, the +name _Dicksonia_ has come to be used almost as commonly as hay scented fern +or boulder fern. It is one of our most graceful and delicate species, its +long-tapering outline suggesting the bulblet bladder fern. It delights to +cluster around rocks and boulders in upland fields and pastures and in the +margin of rocky woods. It is sweet-scented in drying. A fine species for +the fernery and one of the most decorative of the entire fern family. +The effect of the shimmering fronds, so delicately wrought, flanked by +evergreens, is highly artistic. Fine-haired mountain fern, pasture fern, +and hairy _Dicksonia_ are other names. Canada to Tennessee and westward. + +Var. _cristata_ has the fronds more or less forked at the top. + +[Illustration: Pinnule and Sori] + +[Illustration: Mass of Sensitive Fern] + + + + +THE SENSITIVE AND OSTRICH FERNS + +_Onoclea_. PTERETIS. _Matteuccia_. _Struthiopteris_ + +(Last three names applied to Ostrich Fern only.) + +It is a question whether the sensitive and ostrich fern should be included +in the same genus. They are similar in many respects, but not in all. The +sensitive fern has a running rootstock, scattered fronds, and netted veins; +while the ostrich fern has an upright rootstock, fronds in crowns, and +free veins. + +[Illustration: Sensitive Fern. Gradations from Leaf to Fruit. +_Obtusilobata_ Form] + +(1) SENSITIVE FERN. _Onoclea sensibilis_ + +Fronds one to three feet high, scattered along a creeping rootstock, +broadly triangular, deeply pinnatifid, with segments sinuately lobed or +nearly entire. Veins reticulated with fine meshes. The fertile fronds +shorter, closely bipinnate with the pinnules rolled up into berry-like +structures which contain the spore cases. (The name in Greek means a closed +vessel, in allusion to the berry-like fertile segments.) The sensitive +fern is so called from its being very sensitive to frost. The sterile and +fertile fronds are totally unlike, the latter not coming out of the ground +until about July, when they appear like rows of small, green grapes or +berries, but soon turn dark and remain erect all winter, and often do not +discharge their spores until the following spring. The little berry-like +structures of the fertile frond represent pinnules, bearing fruit-dots, +around which they are closely rolled. As Waters remarks, "Most ferns hold +the sori in the open hand, but the sensitive fern grasps them tightly in +the clenched fist." + +Var. _obtusilobata_ is an abortive form with the fertile segments only +partially developed. The illustration shows several intermediate forms. + +[Illustration: Sori of Sensitive Fern] + +[Illustration: Sensitive Fern. _Onoclea sensibilis_] + +[Illustration: Sensitive Fern, Fertile and Sterile Fronds on one +Stock _Onoclea sensibilis_ (From the collection of Mr. and Mrs. L.P. +Breckenridge)] + + +[Illustration: Ostrich Fern. _Onoclea Struthiopteris_. Fertile Fronds] + +(2) OSTRICH FERN + +_Onoclea struthiopteris_. PTERETIS NODULOSA + +_Struthiopteris Germanica_. _Matteuccia struthiopteris_ + +Fronds two to eight feet high, growing in a crown; broadly lanceolate, +pinnate, the numerous pinnae deeply pinnatifid, narrowed toward the +channeled stipe. Fertile fronds shorter, pinnate with margins of the pinnae +revolute into a necklace form containing the sori. + +[Illustration: Ostrich Fern. Sterile Fronds (New Hampshire)] + +The rootstocks send out slender, underground stolons which bear fronds the +next year. Sterile fronds appear throughout the summer, fertile ones in +July. Seen from a distance its graceful leaf-crowns resemble those of the +cinnamon fern. An intermediate form between the fertile and sterile fronds +is sometimes found, as in the sensitive fern. This handsome species +thrives under cultivation. For grace and dignity it is unrivaled, and for +aggressiveness it is, perhaps, equaled only by the lady fern. For the +climax of beauty it should be combined with the maidenhair. The ostrich +fern is fairly common in alluvial soil over the United States and Canada. + +[Illustration: Sori and sporangia of Ostrich Fern] + + + +II + +THE FLOWERING FERN FAMILY + +_OSMUNDACEAE_ + +This family is represented in North America by three species, all of which +belong to the single genus. + +OSMUNDA + +The _osmundas_ are tall swamp ferns growing in large crowns from strong, +thickened rootstocks; the fruiting portion of the fertile frond much +contracted and quite unlike the sterile. Sporangia large, globular, +short-stalked, borne on the margin of the divisions and opening into two +valves by a longitudinal slit. Ring obscure. (From Osmunder, a name of the +god Thor.) + +(1) FLOWERING FERN, ROYAL FERN + +_Osmunda regalis. Osmunda regalis_, var. SPECTABILIS + +Fronds pale green, one to six feet high; sterile part bipinnate, each pinna +having numerous pairs of lance-oblong, serrulate pinnules alternate along +the midrib. Fruiting panicle of the frond six to twelve inches long, brown +when mature and sometimes leafy. + +A magnificent fern, universally admired. Well named by the great +Linnaeus, _regalis_, royal, indeed, in its type of queenly beauty. The +wine-colored stipes of the uncoiling fronds shooting up in early spring, +lifting gracefully their pink pinnae and pretty panicles of bright green +spore cases, throw an indescribable charm over the meadows and clothe even +the wet, stagnant swamps with beauty nor is the attraction less when the +showy fronds expand in summer and the green sporangia are turned to brown. +The stout rootstocks are often erect, rising several inches to a foot +above the ground, as if in imitation of a tree fern. The poet Wordworth +hints at somewhat different origin of the name from that given here. + + "Fair ferns and flowers and chiefly that tall fern + So stately of the Queen Osmanda named." + +[Illustration: Royal or Flowering Fern _Osmunda regalis_] + +The royal fern may be transplanted with success if given good soil, +sufficient shade and plenty of water. Common in swamps and damp places. +Newfoundland to Virginia and northwestward. + +[Illustration: Sori of _Osmunda regalis_ (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt +& Co.)] + +(2) INTERRUPTED FERN. CLAYTON'S FERN + +Osmunda Claytoniana + +Fronds pinnate, one to five feet high. Pinnae cut into oblong, obtuse lobes. +Fertile fronds taller than the sterile, having from one to five pairs of +intermediate pinnae contracted and bearing sporangia. + +[Illustration: Interrupted Fern. _Osmunda Claytoniana_] + +The fronds have a bluish-green tint; they mature their spores about the +last of May. The sterile fronds may be distinguished from those of the +cinnamon fern by not having retained, like those, a tuft of wool at the +base of each pinna. Besides, in Clayton's fern the fronds are broader, +blunter and thinner in texture, and the segments more rounded; the fronds +are also more inclined to curve outwards. They turn yellow in the fall, at +times "flooding the woods with golden light," but soon smitten by the early +frosts they wither and disappear. The interrupted fern is rather common in +damp, rocky woods and pastures; Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to North +Carolina and Missouri. Although fond of moisture it is easily cultivated +and its graceful outlines make it worthy of a prominent place in the +fern garden. Var. _dubia_ has the pinnules of the sterile frond widely +separated, and the upper-middle ones much elongated. Southern Vermont. + +[Illustration: Interrupted Fern with the Fertile Pinnules Spread Open] + +(3) CINNAMON FERN. BRAKES + +_Osmunda cinnamomea_ + +Fronds one to six feet long, pinnate. Pinnae lanceolate, pinnatifid with +oblong, obtuse divisions. Fertile pinnae on separate fronds, which are +contracted and covered with brown sporangia. + +[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Leaf Gradations] + +[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Gradations from Sterile to Fertile Fronds] + +[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _frondosa_] + +Each fertile frond springs up at first outside the sterile ones, but is +soon surrounded and overtopped by them and finds itself in the center of +a charming circle of green leaves curving gracefully outwards. In a short +time, however, it withers and hangs down or falls to the ground. The large, +conspicuous clusters of cinnamon ferns give picturesqueness to many a +moist, hillside pasture and swampy woodyard. In its crosier stage it is +wrapped in wool, which falls away as the fronds expand, but leaves, at the +base of each pinna, a tiny tuft, as if to mark its identity. + +[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _incisa_ (Maine)] + +Many people in the country call the cinnamon fern the "buckhorn brake," and +eat with relish the tender part which they find deep within the crown at +the base of the unfolding fronds. This is known as the "heart of Osmund." +The fern, itself, with its tall, recurving leaves makes a beautiful +ornament for the shady lawn, and like the interrupted fern is easy to +cultivate. The spores of all the _osmundas_ are green, and need to +germinate quickly or they lose their vitality. Common in low and swampy +grounds in eastern North America and South America and Japan. May. Some +think it was this species which was coupled with the serpent in the old +rhyme, + + "Break the first brake you see, + Kill the first snake you see, + And you will conquer every enemy." + +[Illustration: Osmunda cinnamomea, var. _glandulosa_ (From Waters's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + +Var. _frondosa_ has its fronds partly sterile below and irregularly fertile +towards the summit. + +Var. _incisa_ has the inner pinnules of some of the pinnae more or less +cut-toothed. + +Var. _glandulosa_ has glandular hairs on the pinnae, rachis and even the +stipes of the sterile frond. This is known only on the coastal plain from +Rhode Island to Maryland. + + + + +III + +CURLY GRASS FAMILY + +SCHIZAEACEAE + +CURLY GRASS. _Schizaea pusilla_ + + +Small, slender ferns with linear or thready leaves, the sterile, one to +two inches high and tortuous or "curled like corkscrews"; fertile fronds +longer, three to five inches, and bearing at the top about five pairs of +minute, fruited pinnae. Sporangia large, ovoid, sessile in a double row +along the single vein of the narrow divisions of the fertile leaves, and +provided with a complete apical ring. (_Schizaea_, from a Greek root meaning +to split, alluding to the cleft leaves of foreign species.) + +[Illustration: Curly Grass. _Schizaea pusilla_] + +The curly grass is so minute that it is difficult to distinguish it when +growing amid its companion plants, the grasses, mosses, sundews, club +mosses, etc. The sterile leaves are evergreen. Pine barrens of New Jersey, +Grand Lake, Nova Scotia, and in New Brunswick. Several new stations for the +curly grass have recently been discovered in the southwest counties of Nova +Scotia by the Gray Herbarium expedition, mostly in bogs and hollows of +sandy peat or sphagnum. + +[Illustration: Sporangia of Curly Grass] + +CLIMBING FERN. HARTFORD FERN + +_Lygodium palmatum_ + + "And where upon the meadow's breast + The shadow of the thicket lies." + BRYANT. + +Fronds slender, climbing or twining, three to five feet long. The lower +pinnae (frondlets) sterile, roundish, five to seven lobed, distant in pairs +with simple veins; the upper fertile, contracted, several times forked, +forming a terminal panicle; the ultimate segments crowded, and bearing +the sporangia, which are similar to those of curly grass, and fixed to a +veinlet by the inner side next the base, one or rarely two covered by each +indusium. (From the Greek meaning like a willow twig [pliant], alluding to +the flexible stipes.) + +[Illustration: Climbing Fern. _Lygodium palmatum_] + +Fifty years ago this beautiful fern was more common than at present. There +was a considerable colony in a low, alluvial meadow thicket at North +Hadley, Mass., not far from Mt. Toby, where we collected it freely in 1872. +Many used to decorate their homes with its handsome sprays, draping it +gracefully over mirrors and pictures. It was known locally as the Hartford +fern. Greedy spoilers ruthlessly robbed its colonies and it became scarce, +at least in the Mt. Toby region. In Connecticut a law was enacted in 1867 +for its protection and with good results. But as Mr. C.A. Weatherby states +in the American Fern Journal (Vol. II, No. 4), the encroachments of tillage +(mainly of tobacco, which likes the same soil), are forcing it from its +cherished haunts, thus jeopardizing its survival. Doubtless an aggressive +agriculture is in part responsible for its scarcity in the more northern +locality. It is still found here and there in New England, New York and New +Jersey; also in Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, but is nowhere common. +The fertile portion dies when the spores mature, but the sterile frondlets +remain green through the winter. A handsome species for the fernery in the +house or out of doors. + + + + +IV + + +ADDER'S TONGUE FAMILY + +_OPHIOGLOSSACEAE_ + +Plants more or less fern-like consisting of a stem with a single leaf. In +_Ophioglossum_ the leaf or sterile segment is entire, the veins reticulated +and the sporangia in a simple spike. In _Botrychium_ the sterile segment is +more or less incised, the veins free, and the sori in a panicle or compound +or rarely simple spike. Sporangia naked, opening by a transverse slit. +Spores copious, sulphur-yellow. + +ADDER'S TONGUE. _Ophioglossum vulgatum_ + +Rootstock erect, fleshy. Stem simple, two to ten inches high, bearing +one smooth, entire leaf about midway, and a terminal spike embracing the +sporangia, coherent in two ranks on its edges. (Generic name from the Greek +meaning the tongue of a snake, in allusion to the narrow spike of the +sporangia.) + +In moist meadows or rarely on dry slopes. "Overlooked rather than rare." +New England states and in general widely distributed. July. Often grows +in company with the ragged orchis. The ancient ointment known as "adder's +speare ointment" had the adder's tongue leaves as a chief ingredient, and +is said to be still used for wounds in English villages. + + "For them that are with newts or snakes or adders stung, + He seeketh out a herb that's called adder's tongue." + +[Illustration: Adder's Tongue. _Ophioglossum vulgatum_] + +Var. _minus_, smaller; fronds often in pairs. The sterile segment +yellowish-green, attached usually much below the middle of the plant. Sandy +ground, New Hampshire to New Jersey. + +Var. _Engelmanni_. (Given specific rank in Gray.) Has the sterile segment +thicker and cuspidate, the stipe slender and the secondary veins forming +a fine network within the meshes of the principal ones. Virginia and +westward. + +Var. _arenarium_. (From the Latin, _arena_, meaning sand, being found in +a sandy soil.) Probably a depauperate form of _Ophioglossum vulgatum_ and +about half as large. A colony of these ferns was discovered growing in poor +soil at Holly Beach, New Jersey. + + + + +KEY TO THE GRAPE FERNS + +(_Botrychium_) + +Plant large, fruiting in June, sterile part much divided: + Rattlesnake Fern. +Plant smaller: + Fruiting in autumn, sterile part long-stalked, triangular. + Common Grape Fern. + Fruiting in summer: + Plant fleshy, sterile part mostly with lunate segments. + Moonwort. + Plant less fleshy, segments not lunate: + Sterile part short-stalked above the middle of the stem. + Matricary Fern. + Sterile part stalked usually below middle of stem. + Little Grape Fern. + Sterile part sessile near the top of the stem. + Lance-leaved Grape Fern. + + + +GRAPE FERNS + +_Botrychium_ + +Rootstock very short, erect with clustered fleshy roots; the base of the +sheathed stalk containing the bud for the next year's frond. Fertile frond +one to three pinnate, the contracted divisions bearing a double row of +sessile, naked, globular sporangia, opening transversely into two valves. +Sterile segment of the frond ternately or pinnately divided or compound. +Veins free. Spores copious, sulphur yellow. (The name in Greek means a +cluster of grapes, alluding to the grape-like clusters of the sporangia.) + +(1) MOONWORT. _Botrychium Lunaria_ + +Very fleshy, three to ten inches high, sterile segment subsessile, borne +near the middle of the plant, oblong, simple pinnate with three to eight +pairs of lunate or fan-shaped divisions, obtusely crenate, the veins +repeatedly forking; fertile segment panicled, two to three pinnate. + +[Illustration: Moonwort _Botrychium Lunaria_] + +[Illustration: Moonwort. _Botrychium Lunaria_. Details] + +The moonwort was formerly associated with many superstitions and was +reputed to open all locks at a mere touch, and to unshoe all horses that +trod upon it. "Unshoe the horse" was one of the names given to it by the +country people. + + "Horses that feeding on the grassy hills, + Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels, + Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home + Their maister musing where their shoes be gone." + +In dry pastures, Lake Superior and northward, but rare in the United +States. Willoughby, Vt., where the author found a single plant in 1904, and +St. Johnsbury, Vt. Also New York, Michigan and westward. + +In England said to be local rather than rare. Sometimes called Lunary. + + "Then sprinkled she the juice of rue + With nine drops of the midnight dew + From Lunary distilling." + DRAYTON. + +(2) LITTLE GRAPE FERN. _Botrychium simplex_ + +Fronds two to four inches high, very variable. Sterile segment +short-petioled, usually near the middle, simple and roundish or pinnately +three to seven lobed. Veins all forking from the base. Fertile segments +simple or one to two pinnate, apex of both segments erect in the bud. + +In moist woods and fields, Canada to Maryland and westward; Conway and +Plainfield, Mass., Berlin and Litchfield, Conn. Rare. According to Pringle +it is "abundantly scattered over Vermont, its habitat usually poor soil, +especially knolls of hill pastures." May or June. + +(3) LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN + +_Botrychium lanceolatum_ + +BOTRYCHIUM ANGUSTISEGMENTUM + +Frond two to nine inches high, both sterile and fertile segments at the +top of the common stalk. Sterile segment triangular, twice pinnatifid, the +acute lobes lanceolate, incised or toothed, scarcely fleshy, resembling +a very small specimen of the rattlesnake fern. Fertile segment slightly +overtopping the sterile, two to three pinnate and spreading. + +One of the constant companions of the rattlesnake fern. New England to Lake +Superior. July. + +[Illustration: Little Grape Fern _Botrychium simplex_] + +[Illustration: Lance-leaved Grape Fern _Botrychium lanceolatum Botrychium +angustisegmentum_] + +(4) MATRICARY FERN + +_Botrychium ramosum. Botrychium matricariaefolium_ + +Fronds small, one to twelve inches high. Sterile segment above the middle, +usually much divided. Fertile segment twice or thrice pinnate. Apex of both +segments turned down in the bud, the sterile overtopping and clasping the +fertile one. + +[Illustration: The Matricary Fern _Botrychium ramosum_] + +The matricary fern differs from the preceding in ripening its spores about +a month earlier, in having its sterile frond stalked, besides being a +taller and fleshier plant. It may also be noted that in the lance-leaved +species the midveins of the larger lobes are continuous, running to the +tip; whereas in the matricary fern the midveins fork repeatedly and are +soon indistinguishable from the veinlets. The two are apt to grow near each +other, with the rattlesnake fern as a near neighbor. June. + +NOTE. In 1897 A.A. Eaton discovered certain _Botrychia_ in a sphagnum +swamp in New Hampshire, to which he gave the specific name of _Botrychium +tenebrosum_. The plants were very small, not averaging above two or three +inches high, with the sterile blade sessile or slightly stalked. Many +botanists prefer to place this fern as a variety of the matricary, but +others regard it as a form of _Botrychium simplex_. Borders of maple +swamps, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York. + +(5) COMMON GRAPE FERN + +_Botrychium obliquum_. _Botrychium ternatum_, var. +_obliquum_ + +BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM, var. OBLIQUUM + +Rootstock short, its base including the buds of succeeding years. Fronds +two to twelve inches or more high. Leafy or sterile segment triangular, +ternate, long-petioled, springing from near the base of the plant, and +spreading horizontally. From the main leafstock grow several pairs of +stalked pinnae, with the divisions ovate-oblong, acutish, crenate-serrulate, +obliquely cordate or subcordate. Fertile segment taller, erect, about three +times pinnate, maturing its fruit in autumn. Occasionally two or three +fertile spikes grow on the same plant. In vernation the apex of each +segment is bent down with a slight curve inward. + +[Illustration: Common Grape Fern. _Botrychium obliquum_] + +New England to Virginia, westward to Minnesota and southward. + +_Botrychium obliquum_, var. _dissectum_. Similar to the type, but with +the divisions very finely dissected or incisely many-toothed, the most +beautiful of all the grape ferns. There is considerable variety in the +cutting of the fronds. Maine to Florida and westward. + +_Botrychium obliquum_, var. _oneidense_. Ultimate segments oblong, rounded +at the apex, crenulate-serrate, less divided than any of the others and, +perhaps, less common. Vermont to Central New York. + +_Botrychium obliquum_, var. _elongatum_. Divisions lanceolate, elongated, +acute. + +[Illustration: _Botrychium obliquum_ var. _oneidense_] + +Note: A Botrychium not uncommon in Georgia and Alabama, named by Swartz +B. lunarioides, deserves careful study. It is known as the "Southern +Botrychium." + +[Illustration: _Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum_] + +(6) TERNATE GRAPE FERN + +_Botrychium ternatum_, var. _intermedium_ + +_Botrychium obliquum_, var. _intermedium_ + +Leaf more divided than in _obliquum_ and the numerous segments not so +long and pointed, but large, fleshy, ovate or obovate (including var. +_australe_), crenulate, and more or less toothed. + +Sandy soil, pastures and open woods. More northerly in its range--New +England and New York. Var. _rutaefolium_. More slender, rarely over six or +seven inches high; sterile segment about two inches broad, its divisions +few, broadly ovate, the lowest sublunate. The first variety passes +insensibly into the second. + +[Illustration: Ternate Grape Fern _Botrychium ternatum_ var. _intermedium_ +(Reduced)] + +[Illustration: Ternate Grape Fern _Botrychium ternatum_ var. _intermedium_ +(Two stocks, reduced)] + +(7) RATTLESNAKE FERN. _Botrychium virginianum_ + +Fronds six inches to two feet high. Sterile segment sessile above the +middle of the plant, broadly triangular, thin, membranaceous, ternate. +Pinnules lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments oblong or +lanceolate and scarcely or not at all spatulate. Fertile part long-stalked, +two to three pinnate, its ultimate segments narrow and thick, nearly +opaque in dried specimens. Mature sporangia varying from dark yellow-brown +to almost black. Open sporangia close again and are flattened or of a +lenticular form. In rich, deciduous woods, rather common and widely +distributed. + +[Illustration: Rattlesnake Fern. _Botrychium virginianum_ (From Waters's +"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)] + +Prince Edward Island, Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas, and north to +Newfoundland and Labrador. + +Var. _gracilis_. A form much reduced in size. + +Var. LAURENTIANUM. A conspicuous variety having thick and heavy sterile +fronds less finely divided than the type, with the segments crowded to +overlapping. Pinnules shorter than the type, tending to be ovate, outer +segments strongly spatulate. Fertile spike relatively short and stout, +strongly paniculate when well developed. Ultimate segments flat, folaceous, +one mm. wide. Mostly confined to the limestone district near the Gulf of +St. Lawrence, Labrador, Newfoundland, Quebec, Maine, and Michigan. + +Var. INTERMEDIUM. Segments of sterile fronds ultimately much spatulate, +previously ovate, not overlapping. Segments of fertile fronds ultimately +narrowly flattened. (For this and the other varieties see Rhodora of +September, 1919.) Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, +northern New York, Illinois, and Missouri. + +Var. EUROPAEUM. Fertile frond less finely dissected than in type. Ultimate +segments more obtuse than in type; has but very slight tendency towards the +spatulate form of the two previous varieties. Pinnules lanceolate, strongly +decurrent so that the pinnae are merely pinnatifid. In coniferous forests +of Canada, and confined to calcareous regions. Quebec, New Brunswick, New +Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ontario, Montana, and British Columbia. Said +to be rare even in Europe. + + + + +V + +THE FILMY FERN FAMILY + + +_HYMENOPHYLLACEAE_ + +The filmy ferns are small, delicate plants with membranaceous, finely +dissected fronds from slender, creeping rootstocks. Sporangia sessile on +a bristle-like receptacle. There are about one hundred species, mostly +tropical, only one of which grows as far north as Kentucky. + +[Illustration: Filmy Fern _Trichomanes Boschianum_ (From Waters' "Ferns", +Henry Holt & Co.)] + +FILMY FERN. BRISTLE FERN + +_Trichomanes Boschianum. Trichomanes radicans_ + +Rootstocks creeping, filiform, stipes ascending, one to three inches +long, thin, very delicate, pellucid, much divided, oblong-lanceolate, +bipinnatifid. Rachis narrowly winged. Sporangia clustered around the +slender bristle, which is the prolongation of a vein, and surrounded by a +vase-like, slightly two-lipped involucre. + +On moist, dripping sandstone cliffs, Kentucky to Alabama. Often called the +"Killarney fern," as it grows about the lakes of Killarney in Ireland. + +[Illustration: Fruiting Pinnules of Filmy Fern (From Waters's "Ferns." +Henry Holt & Co.)] + +[Illustration: Ostrich Fern] + +[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern] + +[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern] + +[Illustration: Lady Fern Crosiers] + +[Illustration: Fiddleheads or Crosiers of Christmas Fern] + + + + +NOTED FERN AUTHORS + +BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES + + +[The works of these authors are listed under "Fern Literature" in the +following pages.] + +EATON, DANIEL CADY. Born at Gratiot, Mich., September 12, 1834. His +grandfather was Amos Eaton, noted botanist and author. Studied botany under +his friend, Prof. Asa Gray, who had studied with Prof. John Torrey, who in +turn was a pupil of Amos Eaton. Daniel C. was professor of botany in +Yale College, for more than thirty years. A man of graceful and winsome +personality, an authority on ferns, and widely known by his writings. His +masterpiece was "The Ferns of North America" in two large, quarto volumes, +beautifully illustrated. He died June 29, 1895. + +CLUTE, WILLARD NELSON. Born at Painted Post, N.Y., February 26, 1869. +Education informal; common schools, university lectures and private study. +Manifested early a keen interest in birds and flowers. Was founder and +first president of the American Fern Society. Collected in Jamaica more +than three hundred species of ferns. Has written extensively on the ferns +and their allies, besides publishing several standard volumes. His great +distinction is in founding and editing the _Fern Bulletin_ through its +twenty volumes, when he combined this publication with _The American +Botanist_, which is now on its twenty-eighth volume, the whole a prodigious +achievement of great scientific value. + +[Illustration: Noted Writers on Ferns W.N. CLUTE, D.C. EATON, F.T. PARSONS, +G. DAVENPORT, J. WILLIAMSON, L.M. UNDERWOOD, W.R MAXON, A.A. EATON, C.E. +WATERS, R. DODGE] + +UNDERWOOD, LUCIUS MARCUS. Born at New Woodstock, N.Y., October 26, 1853. +Spent early life on a farm. Was graduated from Syracuse University in 1877. +After teaching several years in his alma mater and elsewhere, he became +Professor of Botany in Columbia University. He contributed numerous +articles to the _Torrey Bulletin_, _Fern Bulletin_, and other scientific +journals. His scholarly book, "Our Native Ferns and Their Allies," +continued unexcelled through six editions. He died November 16, 1907. + + +DAVENPORT, GEO. EDWARD. Born in Boston, August 3, 1833. A promoter and +officer of the Middlesex Institute. An accurate and diligent student of the +ferns, his numerous articles were published in the _Fern Bulletin_, in the +_Torrey Bulletin_, _Rhodora_, and in separate monographs. He was a leading +authority on the pteridophyta, and collected a large and choice herbarium +of the native ferns, which he donated to the Massachusetts Horticultural +Society. By his gentle manners and kindly spirit he won many friends, all +of whom were proud to recognize his distinguished ability. He cultivated +many of our rare native ferns in his Fellsway home, at Medford, Mass., and +freely gave specimens to his friends. He died suddenly of heart failure, +November 29, 1907. + + +WATERS, CAMPBELL EASTER. Born in Baltimore County, Md., September 14, 1872. +Was graduated at Johns Hopkins University in 1895. Ph.D. in 1899. Was for +a time a close student of ferns, and issued his notable book, "Ferns," in +1903, containing his "Analytical Key Based on the Stipes." A chemist by +profession, he has pursued that branch of science for the last eighteen +years. His address is Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C. + +MAXON, WILLIAM RALPH. Born at Oneida, N.Y., February 27, 1877. Was +graduated at Syracuse University in 1898. Began as aid in cryptogamic +botany, United States National Herbarium, 1899, and is now associate +curator of the same. Has specialized in scientific work on the +pteridophyta, distinguishing himself by the excellence as well as by the +large number of his publications, the more important being "Studies of +Tropical American Ferns," Nos. 1 to 6. The _Fern Bulletin_, _Torrey +Bulletin_, _American Fern Journal_, _Fernwort Papers_, et al., have +profited from his expert and up-to-date knowledge. He is president of the +American Fern Society. + +PARSONS, FRANCES THEODORA. Born in New York, December 5, 1861. _Nee_ Smith. +Married Commander William Starr Dana of the United States Navy, who was +lost at sea. As Mrs. Dana, she published, "How to Know the Wild Flowers," +in 1893, and within ten years more than seventy thousand copies of the book +had been sold. "According to Season" appeared in 1894. In February, 1896, +she married Prof. James Russell Parsons, treasurer of the University of +the State of New York. In 1899 she published, "How to Know the Ferns." She +combined a thorough knowledge of her subject with an easy and graceful +style. + +DODGE, RAYNAL. Born at Newburyport, Mass., September 9, 1844. Civil War +veteran. Wounded at Port Hudson, June 28, 1863. A machinist by trade. A +careful observer and student of nature, he discovered _Aspidium simulatum_ +at Follymill, Seabrook, N.H., in 1880. (Whittier's "My Playmate," verse +9.) He discovered also the hybrid _Aspidium cristatum x Marginale_. He +published his little book, "Ferns and Fern Allies of New England," in 1896. +Died October 20, 1918. + +EATON, ALVAH AUGUSTUS. Born at Seabrook, N.H., November 20, 1865. Studied +at the Putnam School in Newburyport, but was largely self-educated. He +took up teaching for several years, spending three years in California. +Returning East, he became a florist and began to write for various fern +journals, giving special attention to the fern allies. He prepared the +genera _Equisetum_ and _Isoetes_ for the seventh edition of "Gray's +Manual." He proved the keenness of his observing powers by discovering +several ferns new to the United States. Died at his home in North Easton, +Mass., September 29, 1908. + +WILLIAMSON, JOHN. Born in Abernathy, Scotland, about the year 1838. He came +to Louisville, Ky., to live in 1866. A wood-carver by trade, he could work +skillfully in wood or metal, and after a time established a brass foundry. +His friend, George E. Davenport, writes of him: "He caught as by some +divine gift or inspiration the innermost life and feelings of the wild +flowers and ferns, and his marvelously accurate needle transfixed them with +revivifying power on paper or metal." His "Ferns of Kentucky," issued in +1878, was the first handbook on ferns published in the United States. He +died June 17, 1884, in the mountains of West Virginia, whither he had gone +for his health. + + + + +FERN LITERATURE + + +AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL. 1910. The American Fern Society. (Annual +subscription, $1.25.) + +BELAIRS, NONA. Hardy Ferns. Smith, Elder and Co. London, 1865. + +BRITISH FERN GAZETTE. + +BRITTEN, JAMES. European Ferns. Colored Plates. Cassell & Co. London. +Quarto. + +BUTTERS, F.K. Athyrium. Study of the American Lady Ferns. Rhodora, +September, 1917. + +CAMPBELL, D.H. Structure and Development of the Mosses and Ferns. Macmillan +& Co. 1905. Ed. 2. + +CLUTE, WILLARD N. Our Ferns in Their Haunts. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New +York, 1901. + +Fern Collector's Guide. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New York, 1902. + +The Fern Allies. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New York, 1905. + +The Fern Bulletin. Founder and Editor. 20 vols. 1893-1912. + +Combined with The American Botanist. Joliet, Ill. 1912. + +CONARD, HENRY S. Structure and History of Hayscented Fern. Washington, +1908. + +COOK, M.C. Fern-book for Everybody. E. Warne & Co. London. + +DAVENPORT, GEO. E. Catalog of Davenport Herbarium, Massachusetts +Horticultural Society. 1879. Numerous Monographs and Notes on New England +ferns in Torrey Bulletin, Fern Bulletin, and Rhodora. The following +monographs are in single booklets by Massachusetts Horticultural Society. +Aspidium cristatum x marginale, Aspidium simulatum, Aspidium spinulosum and +its Varieties, Botrychium ternatum and its Varieties, Notes on Botrychium +simplex. + +DODGE, RAYNAL. The Ferns and Fern Allies of New England--very small volume, +now out of print. W.N. Clute & Co. 1904. + +DRUERY, CHARLES T. British Ferns and Their Varieties. Routledge & Son. +London. + +EASTMAN, HELEN. New England Ferns and Their Common Allies. Houghton Mifflin +& Co. Boston, 1904. Out of print. + +EATON, DANIEL C. The Ferns of North America. 2 vols. 1879-80. S.E. Cassino, +Salem. Drawings by J.H. Emerton and C.E. Faxon. + +EATON, A.A. Specialist in Fern Allies. Prepared Equisetum and Isoetes for +Gray's Manual, 7th ed. 1908. + +GILBERT, BENJ. D. List of North American Pteridophytes. 1901. Utica, N.Y. + +HERVEY, ALPHAEUS B. Wayside Flowers and Ferns. Page & Co. Boston, 1899. + +HEMSLEY, ALFRED. Book of Fern Culture. John Lane. London, 1908. + +HIBBARD, SHIRLEY. The Fern Garden. Groombridge & Sons. 5 Paternoster Row, +London. 1869. + +HOOKER, SIR W.J. Genera Filicum. Large 8vo. London, 1842. Contains fine +plates which include all American genera. Costs about $25. + +Species Filicum. 5 vols. 8vo. London, 1846-64. Vol. II contains seventeen +and Vol. Ill contains two plates of American ferns with descriptions of +more species. Cost about $50. + +HOOKER, SIR W.J., & BAKER. Synopsis Filicum 2d ed. 1874. 8vo. Describes +all ferns then known, including the American species. Has also figures +illustrating each genus. Costs about $10. + +LOWE, EDWARD J. Ferns British and Exotic. 9 vols. 8vo. Bell & Daldy. +London, 1868. 550 plates, some very poor. Some American ferns are +represented. "The descriptions," says John Robinson, "are worthless, and +the synonymy is often incorrect." + +MAXON, WILLIAM R. A List of Ferns and Fern Allies of North America, north +of Mexico, etc. National Museum, 23:619-651. 1901. + +Numerous Monographs and Notes on American Ferns in current magazines. + +Studies of Tropical American Ferns. United States National Herbarium, +17:541+. + +Pteridophyta (excepting Equisitaceae and Isoetaceae) of the northern +United States, Canada and the British Possessions. In Britton and Brown, +Illustrated Flora, etc., ed. 2, pp. 1-54. 1913. New York. + +MEEHAN, THOMAS. Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States. Boston, +1878-9. + +MOORE, THOMAS. Nature-printed British Ferns. 2 vols. London, 1859. + +PARSONS, FRANCES T. How to Know the Ferns. Charles Scribner's Sons. New +York, 1899. + +PRATT, ANNE. The Ferns of Great Britain and Their Allies. F. Warne & Co. +London. No date. + +REDFIELD, JOHN. Geographical Distribution of the Ferns of North America. +Torrey Bulletin, VI, 1-7. (1875). + +RHODORA. Journal of the New England Botanical Club. January, 1899, to date. + +ROBINSON, JOHN. Ferns in Their Homes and Ours. S.E. Cassino. Salem, 1878. +Out of print. + +SACHS, JULIUS. Text Book of Botany. (Translated.) Macmillan & Co. London. +8vo. + +SLOSSON, MARGARET. How Ferns Grow. Henry Holt & Co. New York. 1906. Out of +print. + +SMALL, JOHN K. Ferns of Tropical Florida. New York, 1918. + +SMITH, JOHN. Historia Filicum. London, 1875. Amply illustrated, reliable. + +STEP, EDWARD. Wayside and Woodland Ferns. F. Warne & Co. London, 1908. + +TIDESTROM, IVAR. Elysium Marianum. Washington, D.C. + +UNDERWOOD, LUCIEN M. Our Native Ferns and Their Allies. Henry Holt & Co. +Edition 6. 1900. Valuable. Out of print. + +WATERS, CAMPBELL E. Ferns. Henry Holt & Co. 1903. Out of print. Scarce. + +WEATHERBY, C.A. Changes in the Nomenclature of the Gray's Manual of Ferns. +Important article in the Rhodora of October, 1919. + +WILLIAMSON, JOHN. Ferns of Kentucky. J.P. Morton & Co. Louisville, Ky. +1878. + +Fern Etchings. J.P. Morton & Co. 1879. Both out of print. + +WOOLSON, GRACE A. Ferns and How to Grow Them. Doubleday, Page & Co. New +York, 1909. + +WRIGHT, MABEL O. Flowers and Ferns in Their Haunts. Macmillan & Co. New +York, 1901. + +[Illustration: + "Fringing the stream at every turn, + Swung low the waving fronds of fern." + WHITTIER.] + + + + +TIMES OF THE FRUITING OF FERNS + + + "Ah! well I mind the calendar + Faithful through a thousand years + Of the painted race of flowers."--EMERSON. + +Compiled from Dodge's "Ferns and Fern Allies of New England" + +May 25. Little Grape Fern. Interrupted Fern. +May 30. Cinnamon Fern. +June 5. Ostrich Fern. +June 10. Frondosa variety of Cinnamon Fern. +June 15. Matricary Grape Fern. +June 20. Royal Fern. Interrupted Fern. +June 25. Rattlesnake Fern. +June 30. Oak Fern. Spinulose Wood Fern and Varieties. +July 5. Fragile Bladder Fern. Christmas Fern. +July 10. Long Beech Fern. Crested Shield Fern. Boott's + Shield Fern. +July 15. Moonwort. Virginia Chain Fern. Adder's + Tongue. Crested Marginal Shield Fern. +July 20. Slender Cliff Brake. Blunt-Lobed Woodsia. +July 25. Purple Cliff Brake. Bulblet Bladder Fern. + Mountain Spleen wort. +July 30. Goldie's Shield Fern. Marginal Shield Fern. + Clinton's Wood Fern. +August 5. Wall Rue. Walking Fern. Lady Fern. +August 10. Alpine Woodsia. Smooth Woodsia. Common + Polypody. Maidenhair Fern. Fragrant + Shield Fern. Scott's Spleenwort. Braun's + Holly Fern. +August 15. Rusty Woodsia. Silvery Spleen wort. Lance-leaved + Grape Fern. +August 20. Ebony and Maidenhair Spleenworts. Hayscented + Fern. New York Fern. +August 25. Broad Beech Fern. +August 30. Marsh Fern. +September 5. Bracken or Brake. +September 10. Climbing Fern. Narrow-leaved Spleenwort. +September 15. Massachusetts Fern. Green Spleenwort. Sensitive + Fern. Ternate Grape Fern. +September 30. Narrow-leaved Chain Fern. + + + +GLOSSARY + +ACUMINATE. Gradually tapering to a point. +ACULEATE. Prickly. Beset with prickles. +ACUTE. Sharp pointed, but not tapering. +ADVENTITIOUS. Irregular, incidental. Growing out + of the usual or normal position. +ANASTOMOSING. Connected by cross veins and forming + a network as in the Sensitive + ferns. +ANNULUS. A jointed, elastic ring surrounding + the spore cases in most ferns. +ANTHERIDIA. The male organs on a prothallium. +APEX The top or pointed end of leaf or frond. + (plu. APICES). +ARCHEGONIA. The female organs on a prothallium. +AREOLA. A space formed by intersecting + veins; a mesh. +AURICLE. An ear-shaped lobe at the base. +ARTICULATE. Jointed; having a joint or node. +AXIL. The angle formed by a leaf or + branch with the stem. +BI (Latin, Two, twice, doubly. + _bis_, + twice). +BLADE. The expanded, leafy portion of a frond. +BULBLET. A small bulb, borne on a leaf or in + its axil. +CAUDATE. With a slender, tail-like appendage. +CAUDEX. A trunk or stock of a plant; especially + of a tree fern. +CHAFF. Thin, dry scales of a yellowish-brown + color. +CHLOROPHYLL. The green coloring matter of plants. +CILIATE. Fringed with fine hairs. +CIRCINATE. Coiled downward from the apex, as + in the young fronds of a fern. +CLAVATE. Club-shaped. +COMPOUND. Divided into two or more parts. +CONFLUENT. Blended together. +CORDATE. Heart-shaped. +CRENATE. Scalloped with rounded teeth; said of margins. +CROSIER. An uncoiling frond. +CUNEATE. Wedge-shaped. +CUSPIDATE. Hard pointed, tipped with a cusp. +DECIDUOUS. Falling away when done growing--not evergreen. +DECOMPOUND. More than once compounded or divided. +DECURRENT. Running down the stem below the + point of insertion, as the bases of some pinnae. +DECUMBENT. Not erect; trailing, bending along + the ground, but with the apex ascending. +DEFLEXED. Bent or turned abruptly downward. +DENTATE. Toothed. Having the teeth of a + margin directed outward. +DICHOTOMOUS. Forking regularly in pairs. +DIMORPHOUS. Of two forms; said of ferns whose + fertile fronds are unlike the sterile. +EMARGINATE. Notched at the apex. +ENTIRE. Without divisions, lobes, or teeth. +FALCATE. Scythe-shaped, slightly curved upward. +FERTILE. Bearing spores. +FILIFORM. Thread-like; long, slender, and terete. +FILMY. Having a thin membrane; gauzy; + said of the filmy fern fronds. +FLABELLATE. Fan-shaped; broad and rounded at + the summit and narrow at the base. +FROND. A fern leaf or blade; may include + both stipe and blade, or only the + latter--called also lamina. +GLABROUS. Smooth; not rough or hairy. +GLAND. A small secreting organ, globular or + pear-shaped; it is often stalked. +GLAUCOUS. Covered with a fine bloom, bluish-white + and powdery, in appearance + like a plum. +HASTATE. Like an arrowhead with the lobes + spreading. +IMBRICATE. Overlapping, like shingles on a roof. +INCISED. Cut irregularly into sharp lobes. +INDUSIUM. The thin membrane covering the + sori in some ferns. +INVOLUCRE. In ferns, an indusium; in filmy + ferns, cup-shaped growths encircling + the sporangia. +LAMINA. A blade; the leafy portion of a fern. +LACINIATE. Slashed; cut into narrow, irregular + lobes. +LANCEOLATE. Lance-shaped; broadest above the + base and tapering to the apex. +LOBE. A small rounded segment of a frond. +MIDRIB. The main rib or vein of a segment, + pinnule, pinna, or frond; a midvein. +MUCRONATE. Ending abruptly in a short, sharp + point. +OBLONG. From two to four times longer than + broad and with sides nearly parallel. +OBTUSE. Blunt or rounded at the end. +OIDES. A Greek ending, meaning _like_, or + _like to_, as polypodioides--like to a + polypody. +OOeSPHERE. The egg-cell in fern reproduction--becoming + the ooespore when fertilized. +OVATE. Egg-shaped with the broader end + downward. +PALMATE. Having lobes radiating like the + fingers of a hand. +PANICLE. A loose compound cluster of flowers + or sporangia with irregular stems. +PEDICEL. A tiny stalk, especially the stalk of + the sporangia. +PELLUCID. Clear, transparent. +PERSISTENT. Remaining on the plant for a long + time, as leaves through the winter. +PETIOLE. The same as stalk or stipe. +PINNA. One of the primary divisions of a frond. +PINNATE. Feather-like; with the divisions of + the frond extending fully to the rachis. +PINNATIFID. Having the divisions of the frond + extend halfway or more to the + rachis or mid vein. +PINNULE. A secondary pinna. In a bipinnate + frond one of the smaller divisions + extending to the secondary midvein. +PROCUMBENT. Lying on the ground. +PROTHALLIUM. (Or prothallus.) A delicate, cellular, + leaf-like structure produced + from a fern spore, and bearing the + sexual organs. +PTERIDOPHYTA. A group of flowerless plants embracing + ferns, horsetails, club mosses, etc. +PUBESCENT. Covered with fine, soft hairs; downy. +RACHIS. The continuation of the stipe + through the blade or leafy portion + of the fern. +REFLEXED. Bent abruptly downward or backward. +RENIFORM. Kidney-shaped. +REVOLUTE. Rolled backward from the margin or apex. +ROOTSTOCK. (Or rhizome.) An underground + stem, from which the fronds are produced. +SCAPE. A naked stem rising from the ground. +SEGMENT. One of the smaller divisions of a + pinnatifid frond. +SERRATE. Having the margin sharply cut into + teeth pointing forward. +SERRULATE. The same only with smaller teeth. +SESSILE. Without a stalk. +SINUS. A cleft or rounded curve between two lobes. +SINUATE. With strongly wavy margins. +SORUS A cluster of sporangia; a fruit dot. +(plu. SORI). +SPATULATE. Shaped like a druggist's spatula or + a flattened spoon. +SPIKE. An elongated cluster of sessile sporangia. +SPINULOSE. Spiny; set with small, sharp spines. +SPORANGE (plu. A spore case. A tiny globe in which + SPORANGIA). the spores are produced. +STIPE. The stem of a fern from the ground + up to the leafy portion; the leaf stalk. +STOLON. An underground branch or runner. +SUBULATE. Awl-shaped. +TERNATE. With three nearly equal divisions. +TRUNCATE. Ending abruptly as if cut off. +TUFT. Things flexible, closely grouped into + a bunch or cluster. +VENATION. The veining of a frond or leaf. +VERNATION. The arrangement of leaves in the bud. +WHORL. A circle of leaves around a stem. +WINGED. Margined by a thin expansion of the rachis. + + + + +NOTE + + +The student should have some idea of the terms _genus_, _species_ and +_variety_, although they are not capable of exact definition. + +A _species_, or kind, is in botany the unit of classification. It embraces +all such individuals as may have originated in a common stock. Such +individuals bear an essential resemblance to each other, as well as to +their common parent in all their parts. E.g., the Cinnamon fern is a kind +or species of fern with the fronds evidently of one kind, and of a common +origin, and all producing individuals of their own kind by their spores or +rootstocks. When such individuals differ perceptibly from the type in the +shape of the pinnae, or the cutting of the fronds, we have _varieties_ as +_frondosum_, _incisum_, etc. Or if the difference is less striking the +word _form_ is used instead of variety, but in any given case opinions may +differ in respect to the more fitting term. + +A _genus_ is an assemblage of species closely related to each other, and +having more points of resemblance than of difference; e.g., the royal fern, +the cinnamon fern, and the interrupted fern are alike in having similar +spore cases borne in a somewhat similar manner on the fronds, and forming +the genus _Osmunda_. In like manner certain members of the clover +group--red, white, yellow, etc., make up the genus _Trifolium_. + +Thus individuals are grouped into species and species are associated into +genera, and the two groups are united to give each fern or plant its true +name, the generic name being qualified by that of the species; as in the +cinnamon fern _Osmunda_ (genus), _cinnamomea_ (species). + + + + +CHECK LIST OF THE FERNS OF NORTHEASTERN AMERICA + +In the following list the first name is usually the one adopted in the +text, and those that follow are synonyms. + +Names printed in small capitals are those of the newer nomenclature, now +adopted at the Gray Herbarium but not in the Manual. + +ADIANTUM L. +1. Adiantum Capillus-Veneris L. +2. Adiantum pedatum L. + Var. ALEUTICUM RUPR. + +ASPIDIUM SW. +3. Aspidium Boottii. Tuckerm. + Dryopteris Boottii. (Tuckerm.) Underw. + THELYPTERIS BOOTTII. (Tuckerm.) Nieuwl. +4. Aspidium cristatum. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris cristata. (L.) A. Gray. + THELYPTERIS CRISTATA. (L.) Nieuwl. +5. Aspidium cristatum var. Clintonianum. D.C. Eaton. + Dryopteris cristata var. Clintoniana. (D.C. Eaton.) Underw. + THELYPTERIS CRISTATA var. CLINTONIANA. (D.C. Eaton.) Weatherby. +6. Aspidium cristatum x marginale. Davenp. +7. Aspidium Filix-mas. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris Filix-mas. (L.) Sw. + THELYPTERIS FILIX-MAS. (L.) Nieuwl. +8. Aspidium fragrans. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris fragrans. (L.) Schott. + THELYPTERIS FRAGRANS. (L.) Nieuwl. +9. Aspidium Goldianum. Hook. + Dryopteris Goldiana. (Hook.) A. Gray. + THELYPTERIS GOLDIANA. (Hook.) Nieuwl. +10. Aspidium marginale. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris marginalis. (L.) A. Gray. + THELYPTERIS MARGINALIS. (L.) Nieuwl. +11. Aspidium noveboracense. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris noveboracensis. (L.) A. Gray. + THELYPTERIS NOVEBORACENSIS. (L.) Nieuwl. +12. Aspidium simulatum. Davenp. + Dryopteris simulata. Davenp. + THELYPTERIS SIMULATA. (Davenp.) Nieuwl. +13. Aspidium spinulosum. (O.F. Muell.) Sw. + Dryopteris spinulosa. (O.F. Muell.) Kuntze. + THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA. (O.F. Muell.) Nieuwl. +14. Aspidium spinulosum var. intermedium. (Muhl.) D.C. Eaton. + Dryopteris spinulosa var. intermedia. (Muhl.) Underw. + THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. INTERMEDIA. (Muhl.) Nieuwl. +15. Aspidium spinulosum var. concordianum. (Davenp.) Eastman. + THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. CONCORDIANA. (Davenp.) Weatherby. +16. Aspidium spinulosum var. dilatatum. (Hoff.) Gray. + Dryopteris spinulosa var. dilatata. (Hoff.) Underw. + THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. AMERICANA. (Fisch.) Weatherby. +17. Aspidium thelypteris. (L.) Sw. + Dryopteris thelypteris. (L.) A. Gray. + THELYPTERIS PALUSTRIS. Schott. + +ASPLENIUM L. + +18. Asplenium Bradleyi. D.C. Eaton. +19. Asplenium platyneuron. (L.) Oakes. + Asplenium ebeneum. Ait. +20. Asplenium ebenoides. R.R. Scott. +21. Asplenium montanum. Willd. +22. Asplenium parvulum. Mart, and Gal. + Asplenium resiliens. Kze. +23. Asplenium pinnatifidum. Nutt. +24. Asplenium Ruta-muraria. L. +25. Asplenium Trichomanes. L. +26. Asplenium viride. Huds. + +ATHYRIUM. ROTH + +27. ATHYRIUM ACROSTICHOIDES. (Sw.) Diels. + Asplenium acrostichoides. Sw. + Asplenium thelypteroides. Michx. +28. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. (Michx.) Milde. + Asplenium angustifolium. Michx. + Asplenium pycnocarpon. Spreng. +29. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTUM. (Willd.) Presl. + Athyrium filix-femina. American Authors not Roth. + Asplenium filix-femina. American Authors not Bernh. +30. ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES. (Michx.) Desv. + +BOTRYCHIUM. SW. + +31. Botrychium lanceolatum. (Gmel.) Angstroem. + BOTRYCHIUM ANGUSTISEGMENTUM. (Pease and Moore.) Fernald. +32. BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM. Spreng. + Botrychium obliquum var. dissectum. (Spreng.) Clute. +33. Botrychium obliquum. Muhl. + BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM var. OBLIQUUM. (Muhl.) Clute. +34. Botrychium lunaria. (L.) Sw. +35. Botrychium ramosum. (Roth.) Aschers. + Botrychium matricariaefolium. A. Br. + Botrychium neglectum. Wood. +36. Botrychium simplex. E. Hitchcock. +37. Botrychium ternatum. (Thunb.) Sw. Var. intermedium. D.C. Eaton. + Botrychium obliquum var. intermedium. (D.C. Eaton.) Underw. +38. Botrychium virginianum. (L.) Sw. + +CAMPTOSORUS. LINK + +39. Camptosorus rhizophyllus. (L.) Link. + +CHEILANTHES. SW. + +40. Cheilanthes alabamensis. (Buckley.) Kunze. +41. Cheilanthes Feei. Moore. + Cheilanthes lanuginosa. Nutt. +42. Cheilanthes lanosa. (Michx.) Watt. + Cheilanthes vestita. Sw. +43. Cheilanthes tomentosa. Link. + +CRYPTOGRAMMA.R. BR. +44. Cryptogramma densa. (Brack.) Diels. + Pellaea densa. (Brack.) Hook. +45. Cryptogramma Stelleri. (Gmel.) Prantl. + Pellaea gracilis. (Michx.) Hook. +46. Cryptogramma acrostichoides. R. Br. + +CYSTOPTERIS. BERNH. +47. Cystopteris bulbifera. (L.) Bernh. + Filix bulbifera. (L.) Underw. +48. Cystopteris fragilis. (L.) Bernh. + Filix fragilis. (L.) Underw. + +DENNSTAEDTIA L'HER. +49. DENNSTAEDTIA PUNCTILOBULA. (Michx.) Moore. + Dicksonia pilosiuscula. Willd. + +LYGODIUM SW. +50. Lygodium palmatum. (Bernh.) Sw. + +NOTHOLAENA.R. BR. +51. Notholaena dealbata. (Pursh.) Kunze. + Notholaena nivea var. dealbata. (Pursh.) Davenp. + +ONOCLEA L. +52. Onoclea sensibilis. L. +53. Onoclea Struthiopteris. (L.) Hoff. + Struthiopteris Germanica. Willd. + Matteuccia Struthiopteris. (L.) Todaro. + PTERETIS NODULOSA. (Michx.) Nieuwl. + +OPHIOGLOSSUM. (TOURN.) L. + +54. Ophioglossum vulgatum. L. + Ophioglossum vulgatum var. minus. Moore. +55. Ophioglossum Engelmanni. Prantl. + +OSMUNDA.L. +56. Osmunda cinnamomea. L. +57. Osmunda Claytoniana. L. +58. Osmunda regalis. L. + OSMUNDA REGALIS var. SPECTABILIS. (Willd.) Gray. + +PELLAEA. LINK +59. Pellaea atropurpurea. (L.) Link. +60. Pellaea glabella. Mett. + +PHEGOPTERIS FEE +61. Phegopteris Dryopteris. (L.) Fee. + THELYPTERIS DRYOPTERIS. (L.) Slosson. +62. Phegopteris hexagonoptera. (Michx.) Fee. + THELYPTERIS HEXAGONOPTERA. (Michx.) Weatherby. +63. Phegopteris polypodioides Fee. + THELYPTERIS PHEGOPTERIS. (L.) Slosson. + Phegopteris Phegopteris. (L.) Underw. +64. Phegopteris Robertiana. (Hoff.) A. Br. + Phegopteris calcarea. Fee. + THELYPTERIS ROBERTIANA. (Hoff.) Slosson. + +POLYPODIUM.L. +65. Polypodium vulgare. L. +66. Polypodium polypodioides. (L.) Watt. + Polypodium incanum. Sw. + +POLYSTICHUM. ROTH + +67. Polystichum acrostichoides. (Michx.) Schott. + Aspidium acrostichoides. Sw. + Dryopteris acrostichoides. (Michx.) Kuntze. +68. Polystichum Braunii. (Spenner.) Fee. + Dryopteris Braunii. (Spenner.) Underw. + Aspidium aculeatum var. Braunii. Doel. +69. Polystichum Lonchitis. (L.) Roth. + Aspidium Lonchitis. Sw. + Dryopteris Lonchitis. Kuntze. + +PTERIS.L. + +70. Pteris aquilina. L. + Pteridium aquilinum. (L.) Kuhn. + PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM. (Desv.) Maxon. + PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM var. PSEUDOCAUDATUM. (Clute.) Maxon. + +SCHIZAEA.J.E. SMITH + +71. Schizaea pusilla. Pursh. +72. Scolopendrium vulgare. J.E. Smith. + PHYLLITIS SCOLOPENDRIUM. (L.) Newman. + +TRICHOMANES.L. + +73. Trichomanes radicans. Sw. + Trichomanes Boschianum. Sturm. + +WOODSIA.R. BY. + +74. Woodsia glabella. R. Br. +75. Woodsia alpina. (Bolton.) S.F. Gray. + Woodsia hyperborea. R. Br. +76. Woodsia ilvensis. (L.) R. Br. +77. Woodsia Cathcartiana. B.L. Robinson. +78. Woodsia obtusa. (Spreng.) Torr. +79. Woodsia oregana. D.C. Eaton. +80. Woodsia scopulina. D.C. Eaton. + +WOODWARDIA.J.E. SMITH +81. Woodwardia virginica. Sm. +82. Woodwardia areolata. (L.) Moore. + Woodwardia angustifolia. Sm. + + + +THE PETRIFIED FERN + + In a valley, centuries ago, + Grew a little fern-leaf green and slender, + Veining delicate and fibers tender, + Waving when the wind crept down so low; + Rushes tall and moss and grass grew round it, + Playful sunbeams darted in and found it, + Drops of dew stole down by night and crowned it. + But no foot of man e'er came that way-- + Earth was young and keeping holiday. + + Monster fishes swam the silent main, + Stately forests waved their giant branches, + Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches, + Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain, + Nature reveled in grand mysteries; + But the little fern was not of these, + Did not slumber with the hills and trees, + Only grew and waved its wild, sweet way; + No one came to note it day by day. + + Earth, one time, put on a frolic mood, + Heaved the rocks and changed the mighty motion + Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean; + Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood, + Crushed the little fern in soft, moist clay, + Covered it and hid it safe away. + Oh, the long, long centuries since that day! + Oh, the changes! Oh, life's bitter cost! + Since the useless little fern was lost. + + Useless? Lost? There came a thoughtful man + Searching Nature's secrets far and deep; + From a fissure in a rocky steep + He withdrew a stone o'er which there ran + Fairy pencilings, a quaint design, + Leafage, veining, fibers clear and fine, + And the fern's life lay in every line! + So, I think, God hides some souls away, + Sweetly to surprise us the last day!--M.B. BRANCH. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fern Lover's Companion, by George Henry Tilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FERN LOVER'S COMPANION *** + +***** This file should be named 11365.txt or 11365.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/3/6/11365/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Leonard D Johnson and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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