49 



15. AsPiDiuM ACROSTiCHoiDES Sv/artz. 

 Christmas Fern. 



It is found abundantly near the first pond on tlie road to tlac Che- 

 bacco liouse, Essex : also in Beverly woods ; near the turnpike and 

 floating bridge; Audover; Danvers, etc. This is a rigid, evergreen 

 species, and is very abundant north and south; one of the best for 

 decorative purposes, as it keeps well. There is some variation to the 

 cutting of the fronds, and one is called var. incisum. The peculiar 

 fruiting of tills fern distinguishes it from all others of our species, 

 hence the name acrostichoides, for the fruit dots becoming confluent, 

 the pinnae curl, and the whole looks as if one mass of spore cases, as 

 it is with the genus Acrostichum, hence resembling Acrostichum, or 

 Acrostichoides. 



16. AspiDiUM Thelypteris Swartz. 



Marsh Fern. 



Formerly this fern was confused with A. Noveboracense, but the 

 conspicuously reduced pinnae of the latter, as well as the lighter color, 

 should have been noticed as distinguishing points; it is also quite 

 difi"ereut in the fruiting. Found in every meadow and by every road- 

 side as well as in deep woods and in bogs. Perfect specimens can be 

 found in full fruit from six inches to Jive feet high, and from one inch 

 to one foot wide. Where it grows exposed to the sun tlie pinnse are 

 curled up and quite angular, while in tlie shade they are less fruited, 

 wide spreading and more delicate, 



17. AsPiDiuM NovEBOKACENSE Swartz. 

 New York Fern. 



More delicate than the last, not revolute when well fruited, and 

 growing in less wet places. Common in the woods. By the latter 

 part of September this and the Dicksonia become, under favorable 

 circumstances, pure white, and form a very beautiful addition to the 

 decorating ferns for winter. 



18. AspiDiuM SPiNULOSUM Swartz. 

 PricJclij Toothed Wood Fern. 



This is the typical form of a most protean species, varying from 

 plants perfectly fruited only six inches high to heavy forms four feet 

 high ; and in width from six inches on a plant four feet high to more 

 than a foot on a plant but two feet high. And here is not all ; the 

 variations in cutting are as great as those of height and width. We 



