FERNS. 



'■SS 



are again forked in parallel lines to the margin. The fructification 

 consists of the upper pinn?e, changed from a leafy to a soriferous state, 

 and forming a panicle of spikelets, covered over with spore cases attached 

 to the veins of the altered pinnules. 



The spore cases are sub-globose, reticulated, two valved, opening 

 vertically, these valves being supposed to originate in the epidermis of 

 the frond." 



In its faded state, when touched by the withering power of 

 Autumnal frost, the Osmunda is not less beautiful in its warm buff- 

 colour, and with its darkened plumy crests consisting of the ripened 

 panicle of sporangia which are borne aloft on the summits of the 

 main stems. I have seen a grove of Osmundas towering above that 

 remarkable plant, the Sarracenia purpurea, with its dark crimson-veined 

 hollow cup and ewer-shaped lip. The Pitcher Plant itself, springing 

 from the midst of a deep bed of creamy peat-mosses, the myriads of soft 

 leaves and rose-tinted capsules of which were alone a sight to charm the 

 eye of the lover of nature, not less lovely because untouched by 

 artificial culture, and fresh in all their native grace and beauty, adorning 

 the waste places of the earth, wild and free from God's hand.* 



Water Fern — Interrupted Fern — Osvnaida Clayto)iiana (L.) 



Water Fern is the name by which this fern is known among country 

 people, from its being indicative of hidden sprir^gs. Where these ferns 

 are found, even on high ground, there is every chance of water existing 

 below the surface, so the old settlers used to say : a more satisfactory 

 way of discovering springs than the far-famed mystery of the Wych- 

 hazel wand of the well-diggers which many persons put implicit faith in. 



The old name Osiiiie/ida intemipta, or Interrupted Fern, given by 

 Michaux and older Botanists, is so expressive of the peculiar character 

 of this remarkable plant, that I like to preserve it, as it has a distinctive 

 reference to the arrangement of the pinnEe, which is peculiar to this fern, 

 and by which it can be recognized by any observer of the plant. 



The fronds, when they first appear above the ground in May, are 

 densely clothed with light-brown woolly hairs ; as they unroll, the fertile 

 contracted pinn?e are seen, Hke a cluster of brownish-green caterpillars 

 ranged in pairs, from three to four or five, occupying the middle of the 



At the right hand eoriier of Fairy Lalce, in a piece of Wliite Peat JIoss, Sphwinum cymbifolium, 

 already desnribed, tliis fern towered up far higher tlian the head of the writer, and above that of the 

 boatman, H. Stone, wlio was a man above tlie middle height. 



At the side of a Water-course near Rice I^ake, fronds of 0. Claytoniuna, above the height of 

 the lady who gathered thcni, were brought tome, and she was five feet six inches. 



WoinUmrdin ]"nginiiii is also a tall fern; on a rocky ravine at the north side of Eagle Mount, 

 on the Uumones side of iStoncy Lake, there is a large tliicket of this fern, in which were growing 

 many fronds, which exceeded in measurement the stature of my companion,, who was a person 

 very little under six feet. These examples show that the above statement of the height of tlie 

 Osmundu reijaUs was rio exaggeration, though jiossiTiiy above the average. 



