228 FERiVS. 



The stipes of Pellcea atropurpurea are of a fine dark purplish 

 colour very smooth and finely polished, a few broad loose scales appear 

 at their junction with the rhizome, and, when very young, along the stipes, 

 but these soon drop away. The fibrils are black and wiry. In colour this 

 fern is of a dull dark green, very pale underneath. The fronds are leathery 

 in texture. Divisions of the frond broadly linear or oblong, blunt at the 

 end ; simply pinnate, but the lower pairs often eared or bluntly lobed. 

 The sori abundant, forming a continuous line ; edge of the pinnae rolled 

 back so as to form an indusiate cover to the crowded sori. The lower 

 pair of pinn?e are often deflexed so as to give a somewhat heart-shaped 

 form to the frond. The evergreen fronds remain persistent through the 

 Winter, but many of them turn rusty-brown towards the Fall. I should 

 think this plant rather rare ; it is nowhere to be seen in my own neigh- 

 bourhood, though possibly it may be met with in limestone ridges near 

 rapid water in other localities than Niagara and Hamilton. 



Chain Y'E.^^—Woodwardia Virgiiiica, (Sm.) 



This tall handsome fern is found only in wet Peat bogs where it 

 throws up its large stiff fronds in the month of July. 



The fertile and sterile fronds are alike in form, being as a rule from 

 two to three feet high; pinnate, with numerous lanceolate pinnatifid pinnae; 

 the segments long. The fertile fronds bear an abundance ot fruit and 

 have a very handsome appearance. The fruit dots are oblong and 

 linear, and are arranged in chain-like rows parallel with the mid-rib, and 

 close to it. At first they are all distinct and separate, but after maturity 

 they all touch and the chain-like appearance is lost. This fern is rare 

 in most parts of Canada. From the nature of its habitat it is not an 

 easy fern to cultivate. The root-stock is large, yellow and creeping 

 beneath the mosses and other bog plants, amidst which it grows. 



Lady Fern — Asplenititn filix-fcemtna, (Bernh.) 



There is something of poetical beauty in the familiar name, Fady 

 Fern, which will always possess attractions for those who associate its 

 drooping, tender loveliness, with shades and streamlets, woodland glens, 

 and dingles in Britain How naturally do the wild, sweet lines of Scott 

 return to one's memory, when we name the Lady Fern. How, in 

 imagination, do we 



" Hie to haunts, right seldom seen, 

 Lovely, lonesome, cold, cold, and green ; 

 Where the Lady-fern grows strongest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest. 



