THE FANTASIES OF FERNS IQI 



"Oh, you are eager forward, march! Take a 

 few steps, stand by that great rock and look down. 

 Is not this place in truth haunt of the Ferns ? " 



Around the feet and below on the river edge, 

 grow the great fronds of the Osmundas, or Flow- 

 ering Ferns, so called because their fruit is borne on 

 partly or wholly separate stalks 

 from the green leafage. There 

 are three of these, swamp 

 Ferns, growing in de- 

 cided crowns, with 

 fronds often six 

 feet in length, the 

 largest of their 

 tribe as we know 

 it in New Eng- 

 land. They are all 

 landscape Ferns 

 beside, upon which 

 we must depend 

 in late Spring and 

 Summer for the dense jun- 

 gle-like effects in woods 

 and shaded road -edges, which the 

 Brake, with its much-divided, 



