2O2 THE FANTASIES OF FERNS 



Fern is very common, not only in wet meadows, 

 but along roadsides, or wherever water settles, or a 

 few stones afford a shelter from scythe and plow. 

 The fronds of this Fern have more the appearance 

 of the leaf of a flowering plant than any of its 

 kindred, save perhaps the Walking Fern. They are 

 broadly triangular, deeply cut and toothed, and of a 

 crisp, tender green in which the netted veining is 

 very conspicuous. These leaves, in open places, 

 seldom grow more than a foot or so in length, but 

 in rich bogs the fronds from old strong rootstocks 

 often rival the Osmundas in height if not in grace, 

 for the great basal breadth of the Sensitive Fern 

 gives it strength as massed color, but detracts from 

 the general effect. Like the Cinnamon Osmunda, 

 its fertile fronds are wholly separate, and shaped like 

 a contracted, sterile leaf, upon which green spore 

 globes are set so thickly as to be confluent. After 

 the spores are discharged, these spikes blacken and 

 remain over Winter, often being seen side by side 

 with the fruit of a second year. 



The Sensitive Fern, as well as the Marsh Shield 

 Fern, adds a great variety to the greens of mead- 

 ows that are cut once or twice a year, for after 

 the Summer mowing the young Ferns spring up, 

 following their creeping rootstocks hither and 



