70 The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



late Dr. Fletcher when he heard of my finding the Narrow- 

 leaved Spleenwort asked whether the Goldie's occurred in its 

 neighbourhood, his own experience and that of other botanists 

 having been to find the two together. This is not, however, a 

 universal rule, for the two colonies of this fern found bv me 

 south of Ottawa had no Goldie's Fern anywhere near them. 



The Goldie's Shield Fern is certainly a magnificent plant, 

 and when first unfolded at the end of May peculiar by its light 

 yellow-green colour and noble proportions. The frond is re- 

 markably wide and more solid in texture than any other Shield 

 Fern that approaches it in size, unless perhaps the Marginal 

 Shield Fern. The Goldie's Fern is often 5 feet or more in height 

 and can hold its own for mere stature with the Osmundas and 

 the Ostrich Fern. Its width is always noticeable ; I have gathered 

 in September fresh fronds put up evidently after the fruiting 

 season; the frond itself (on a long stout stipe) would vary from 

 8 to 10 inches in length and the width across from tip to tip of 

 the lowest pair of pinnae was often an inch or more in excess of 

 the length. Large ferns, say 5 feet high, have an extreme length 

 of pinna of 8 inches; this would make a rhachis nearly a foot 

 and a half wide, if the pinnae stood at right angles to the main 

 stem; occasionally they are so placed but as a rule they incline 

 upwards at an angle; the shape of the pinna is peculiar, being 

 slightly curved like a scythe as in the Holly Fern ; the curving 

 is often more plainly seen in the pinnule which is a pinna in 

 miniature; the pinnules have a crenate or sinuous margin and 

 taper to a point. The sori which are not verv large lie rather 

 nearer the midrib than the outer edge of the pinnule. 



Another fern common in this wood is the Christmas Fern 

 (Polystichum or Aspidium acrostichoides), an evergreen like the 

 Prickly and the Marginal Shield Ferns. It has a somewhat 

 peculiar habit of fruiting; the sori form on the upper part of the 

 frond only, usually down from the apex to less than half way; 

 these fruiting pinnae are strongly contracted, so that the green 

 frond seems to pass from leafy below to a bare-looking narrowed 

 and rigid spike. 



The only other species of Polystichum found in Ontario is 

 the Holly Fern (Polystichum Lonchitis) ; it is fairly common in 

 the limestone region about Owen Sound and the Bruce peninsula; 

 smaller than the Christmas Fern it has no bare stipe, the pinnae 

 starting from the verv base ; the pinnae and the frond as a whole 

 are falcate (scythe-shaped) and there is no contraction in fruiting. 



All about the sloping meadows that surround the wood, as 

 well as in it, you find thickets of the Marsh Shield Fern {Aspidium 

 Thelypteris), and, somewhat sparsely growing in the middle of 



