ASPIDIUM ACROSTICHOIDES. CHRISTMAS SHIELD-FERN. 15I 



the cuticle, but in some the pressure and final rupture is not 

 equal on all sides, as it is in Aspidmm, and hence we have 

 many other forms of indusia, such as moon-shaped and the like, 

 which are taken into account in the determination of genera. 



Mr. Williamson, in his " Ferns of Kentucky," calls Aspidium 

 acrostichoidcs the " Christmas Shield-Fern " ; and this name is 

 very characteristic, as our species is certainly better known by 

 the people generally at the Christmas season than any other 

 fern native to our country. In places where this fern abounds it 

 is often the only green thing which shows here and there above 

 the snow, and then it gives a peculiarly rich appearance to a wood- 

 land winter scene. Its gayest season, however, is October and 

 November. Along the Wissahickon, near Philadelphia, where it 

 is peculiarly rich and abundant, it often forms the chief clement in 

 that famous wild scenery. It is not unfrequent to find places here 

 where in the past the ground has been washed out into numer- 

 ous little hills and hollows; but the ferns, with other plants, have 

 taken such complete possession of these places as to clothe their 

 sides, and indeed the whole surface, entirely, leaving only a little 

 brown earth or an occasional rock to crop out here and there, 

 all else being one luxuriant mass of vegetation. The rich 

 brown under surfaces of the fertile fronds make a pleasant con- 

 trast with the green of their upper surfaces, but the chief aid 

 in the beautiful picture comes from the fallen crimson, orange, 

 or yellow autumn leaves of the deciduous trees under which the 

 Christmas Shield-Fern loves to grow. To these are often added 

 the pretty scarlet berries of the Mitchella i^epens, or Partridge 

 Berry, and, if the observer can time his visit right, the golden 

 rays of the setting sun. An eight-mile walk on the Wissahickon, 

 taken one autumn evening especially to see an extra beautiful 

 exhibit of the Christmas Shield-Fern, is one of the many pleasant 

 recollections of the writer's life. 



No doubt such little spots of beauty as those just described 

 are common in many other places, for this fern is rather widely 

 distributed over the eastern portion of the United States. It 



