The Sporing of the Fern 



267 



are but seven species in all, and their largest and 

 most important member is barely two feet tall, 

 while sixty-five species of the Leptosporangiateae 

 are found north of the southern boundary of Vir- 

 ginia, and even in Canadian forest-clearings some 

 of them grow breast-high. 



As we go southward the Leptosporangiateae in- 

 crease in number and in size, till in tropical woods 

 the tall shafts of the tree-ferns rise like the columns 

 of a great cathedral and the long fronds curve 

 upward from their tops like springing gothic 

 arches. One who has seen these truly " cathedral 

 woods" is quite disabused of the prevalent but 

 mistaken notion that the fern family as a whole 

 has " fallen on evil days" (Fig. 74). 



FIG. 74. Spores of a club-moss (Lycofodium complanatum). 

 (Much magnified.) 



