68 The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



It belongs to a group whose sporangia are all secured by 

 being clamped in under the recurved edge of the frond. The 

 type and commonest representative of the group is the Bracken, 

 which when fully fruiting shows its pinnules strongly contracted. 

 There are two other genera in the group, the Cliff Brake (Pellaea) 

 and the Rock Brake (Crypto gramma). 



Along with the Maidenhair, but in deeper shade where no 

 grass or herbage disputes its right to the peat and leaf-mould, 

 especially under cedars and hemlocks, the Oak Fern is abundant. 

 It also is a fern of peculiar charm and part of its pleasing appear- 

 ance is due to a quality it shares with the Maidenhair; its grovvth 

 is in two planes, the frond itself spreading more or less hori- 

 zontally out from the top of the erect stem, which is tall and 

 slender in proportion to the whole plant, dull-green above, 

 brownish near the base. The frond is triangular and in appear- 

 ance tripartite, the lowest pair of pinnae being far larger and 

 more compound than those further up the rhachis; the foliage 

 of the frond has sometimes the appearance of a bluish-grey 

 bloom on the under surface. It is not unlike a miniature 

 bracken to look at. 



The Beech Fern (2 species) is of the same genus and has 

 similar characteristics; its growth also is in more than one plane, 

 the very long upright stipe having a (proportionately) short 

 frond at the top, this frond not entirely in the same line of 

 growth as the stipe, and the lowest pair of pinnae (which are 

 usually far the largest) carried forward and deflected like a pair 

 of spurs at an angle to the rest of the frond. The Broad Beech 

 Fern I have never found, but it is abundant near Owen Sound; 

 the Narrow Beech Fern does not occur near Port Hope, btit I 

 have found it near Perth, at Lanark and in North Burgess; in 

 the Algonquin Park it is exceedingly common, growing in great 

 patches in the damp shaded woods and found even, in stunted 

 form, far up the precipitous rock faces of railway cuttings and 

 natural cliffs. The chief generic mark is that the sori or clusters 

 of sporangia wdiich are small and dark-brown are destitute of 

 covering (indusium). 



There is one other genus belonging to the same group, the 

 Polypody or Rock Fern; I had to wait till I visited the Rideau 

 before I saw this common fern, for it insists on rock; I have no 

 doubt it is abundant as near us as Rice Lake. It has verv large 

 naked sori of a rich light gold colour. 



The next two genera in the list of ferns have a distinct 

 indusium protecting the sporangia clusters, the Spleenwort and 

 the Shield Fern. Easily the most common of the former and 

 with the widest range of habitat is the Lady Fern. It is about 



