Comptonia asplenifolia, a3 
branched, and attains the height of two, and from that to three, very 
seldom four feet. The stems are slender, branched, somewhat 
hairy, and are crowded with a profusion of lanceolate leaves, about _ 
three or four inches long, and half an inch broad; deeply cut into — 
roundish notches, down nearly to the middle-rib. The male cat- 
kins are about an inch or an inch and a quarter long, lateral, some- 
times erect, but most frequently horizontally curved, as represented 
in the plate. The female catkins are situated lower on the stems 
than the male, and seldom spe half an inch in length; are ovate, 
of a red colour. 
The fertile flowers produce little nuts of an ovate shape, flat- 
tened and margined at the base, obscurely striped, of a shining yel- 
Jowish colour at the top, and nearly white towards the bottom. 
These nuts are sessile, and nearly concealed by the persistent seg- 
ments of the corolla, which by this time are elongated and crowd- 
ed, and gives to the fruit the appearance of a burr. The root is 
ligneous, long, and horizontal, and often ees to the length of 
three or four feet. 
The whole plant is possessed of a strong, peculiar, resinous, 
and spicy scent, particularly observable when the leaves are bruised 
or pressed in the hand, or between the fingers. 
The Sweet-fern is very common throughout the United States. 
~ Bose remarks, that in Carolina the branches generally died at the 
