244 ^^^^^'^ 



Christmas Fern. — Evergreen Rock Fern. — Aspidinm (Polystichum) 

 acrosiichoides, (Swz.) 



This handsome dark glossy fern is abundant in our northern town- 

 ships ; it is of a full deep shining green, lanceolate in outline, the height 

 varying in some of the old plants from one to two feet ; the upper portion 

 of the fruiting frond is contracted, and closely covered with the confluent 

 fruit dots ; the whole of these narrowed pinnae have a fine brown felted 

 appearance from the abundance of the indusia. The edges of the pin- 

 nK are strongly revolute, which gives a hard and rigid look to the frond ; 

 but these contracted pinnce only occupy about a third of the leaf. They 

 are long scythe-shaped, auricled, or very destinctly lobed, the margins 

 sometimes toothed and tipped with fine silvery hairs. But there is a 

 great diversity in this fine evergreen Polystichum ; the edges in the 

 younger barren fronds are often quite smooth, while in others they are 

 bluntly notched, or again finely serrated, and fringed with shining hairs; 

 before unrolling the fronds are densely clothed with white silvery scales, 

 which give a soft w^oolly look to the rolled up frond ; but the white 

 scales disappear very soon, or take a browner hue as the plant increases. 

 I consider A. acrosiichoides is much finer as an ornamental fern than 

 A. Lonchitis ; this last is much coarser in texture, the pinnules are short and 

 sharply cut at the edges, and grow along the whole length of the rachis 

 from root to apex, the sori are small, round, dark and do not contract 

 the edge as in A. acrosiichoides : the whole plant is more upright, stiffer, 

 and wanting the rich, smooth, glossy surface of the Evergreen Rock Fern 

 of our woodlands. There are several handsome species of the genus 

 enumerated by the British botanist, but they do not appear to have our 

 handsome Christmas Fern in England. 



Hairy Woodsia. — Woodsia Ilvensis, (R. Br.) 



We must not seek for this pretty fern in our rich Woodlands, it is 

 a rock-loving plant, and chiefly found in the black-friable soil that lies in 

 the crevices of rocks, into which its black fibrous roots can easily 

 penetrate. It may also be seen in grassy places near water, but always in 

 rocky localities. 



From a thick clump of matted black roots arise a number of rather 

 slender stipes, terminated by narrow lanceolate fronds of a leathery 

 texture, and deep green colour ; the pinnules are closely sessile to the 

 mid-rib, the pinnre also closely adhering to the rachis ; the fruit dots 

 are abundant on the slender tapering fertile fronds, covering the obtuse, 

 about three-lobed, pinnules with the pale brown hairy indusia, which are 

 early disrupted, and form thin pointed scales, surrounding the fruit dot, 

 almost resembling the persistent calyx of a, flowering plant. 



