1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 73 



the same cause and are consequently very much alike. In both 

 species the fruiting spike is an ordinary frond modified to protect 

 the sporangia. In the Sensitive Fern the pinna of the fertile 

 spike appears as a midrib supporting on each side a row of sessile 

 or berry bead-like capsules, each lobe of the original pinna 

 having apparently rolled in on itself independently ; in the 

 Ostrich Fern the pinna shows as a long narrow pod, or more 

 exactly a mid-rib flanked on each side from base to apex by a 

 narrow more or less cylindrical roll or coil ; in this case the pin- 

 nules have not rolled in on themselves separately, but their 

 presence as distinct pinnules or lobes of the pinna is shown by 

 the coil being cut into segments at short intervals corresponding 

 to the pinnatifid notches of the unmodified pinna. The fruiting 

 fronds of both species develop in July and August ; the genus, as 

 we have it, is decidedly moisture-loving, the plants being every- 

 where familiar objects about wet meadows, swamps and thickets. 

 I say everywhere, but in the Algonquin Park within say 12 miles 

 of headquarters, the Ostrich Fern does not grow; the last time 

 I returned from the Park to Ottawa I spied none of it from the 

 train west of Golden Lake. The Sensitive Fern is reputed a 

 frequent victim of late spring frosts, but I have not found it so 

 "sensitive" in this respect as the Oak Fern, the Marsh Shield 

 Fern or the Cinnamon Fern. 



The Ostrich Fern is surely a fern pre-eminently handsome 

 and of tropical splendour; no doubt the Osmunda regalis attains 

 a greater height and is more massive, indeed it is often mistaken 

 for a shrub of some kind; but the Ostrich Fern can never be 

 taken for anything other than a fern, its pale green fronds are 

 unmistakable; so, indeed, are the fronds of the Cinnamon and 

 the Interrupted Ferns, which nearly surpass it in size, but what 

 all the Osmundas lack in the entire plant, the Ostrich Fern has 

 in matchless sort svmmetrv. The plant grows in a hollow 

 crown, a circlet of svmmetrical fronds, equidistant, uniform; the 

 fronds grow upwards and outwards for 3 or 4 feet and then curl 

 gracefully away from the centre, their tips curving back in a 

 beautiful arch, they look like giant shuttlecocks or green vases of 

 graceful outline and exquisite workmanship. From the centre 

 of this vase springs later a cluster of short stiff fruiting fronds. 

 I kept a plant of the Ostrich Fern in a large pot one spring ; for 

 a week or more, at the time of their greatest activity, the fronds 

 grew nearly 2 inches every 24 hours; by the end of June the 

 fronds were between 5 and 6 feet long. Not only is the whole 

 plant symmetrical, but each frond is a study in proportion. It 

 tapers very gradually to the base from near the top, where it 

 suddenly contracts into a narrow apex of little pinnae or pinnules. 



