CHAPTER XV 
VMeESRGINAL SHIELD: FERN 
Dryopteris marginalis. 
Rootstock caudiciform, stout, densely chaffy: scales large, 
light golden-brown or brown or rust-colored, lance-linear, acu- 
minate, entire or near apex slightly ciliate-toothed, sometimes 
appearing articulated from a transverse contraction: leaves ina 
crown: roots springing from rootstock or junctures of rootstock 
and petioles, singly or by twos. 
Leaves ascending, six to thirty-eight inches long, two to nine- 
teen inches broad, prostrated in autumn, gradually withering more 
or less during winter. 
Petioles shorter than blades; at base dark or reddish-brown, 
sometimes tinged with plum color, turgid; above more slender, 
pale-green or reddish-brown, stramineous when dried, furrowed 
on face, chaffy: scales thickly clothing base of petiole, those 
above fewer, light golden-blown or shining rust-colored, large 
and small mixed, lanceolate to linear, acuminate, subentire or 
ciliate-toothed, sometimes contracted like those of rootstock: 
fibrovascular bundles five to nine in base, five in apex, of petiole, 
roundish-strap-shaped; the two anterior largest, furrowed on 
sides or roundish-wedge-shaped in section. 
Blades ovate-oblong or ovate-lanceolate, bipinnate or sub- 
