130 Ferns of Tamalpais. [ZOE 
- graceful form, and there seems an exquisite propriety in its common 
name, as one sees it fringing the cool streams, and mirroring itself in 
their brown depths. 
5. WoopwaRDIA RADICANS, popularly known as “ Chain-Fern ” 
from the interrupted chain-like appearance of its sori, is our largest 
fern, attaining a hight of seven or eight feet in this region. It re- 
quires a great deal of water, and usually sends up its great crown ot 
leaves along the water-courses; or, if found upon a hillside, it isa 
certain indication of subterranean springs. It is one of our most 
valuable ferns for decorative purposes. 
6. LOMARIA SPICANT, ‘‘ Deer-Fern,” also loves the water. It 
haunts springy, marshy spots, and may be easily known by its two 
kinds of fronds—the barren and the fertile—the pinnz of the latter 
narrowly contracted and thickly covered with its dark-brown spor- 
angia. It has been found in Wildwood Glen, near Sausalito, in a 
marshy spot high up on the hillside; in Tennessee Valley and in 
Bear Valley, near Olema. It is the only one of the species here 
enumerated which has not been reported from Tamalpais proper. 
7. ASPIDIUM ACULEATOM, which is a very cosmopolitan species, 
grows here, in its normal form, though very sparsely. I have found 
it but once, in a wooded cafion on the north slope of Tamalpais. 
Variety CALIFORNICUM, with its long narrow fronds, and pinnze 
cut but slightly above the middle, is more plentiful, growing along 
shaded streams at very low elevations. The gradations from this 
form to the next species, 4. munitum, are often very puzzling. 
8. ASPIDIUM MUNITUM isa wonderfully variable fern, changing 
its form and size with every change of habitat. Perhaps its most 
typical form is that from which it takes its popular name, the 
“ Sword Fern,” long,slender and plume-like. It grows in our wooded 
cafions luxuriantly, its great plumes giving an almost tropical air 
to the scene, : 
9. ASPIDIUM RIGIDUM var. ARGUTUM is one of our most com- 
mon species, growing everywhere in dry woods. It varies a good 
deal in size, but not so much in aspect, and its fronds havea strange _ 
fashion of bifurcating at times, which is rather interesting. : 
10. CYSTOPTERIS FRAGILIS, “ Bladder - Fern,’’ the most deli- : 
cate and fragile of our species, is of filmy texture and small size, 
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