i 9 2 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



they came, are comparatively few. Of decorative 

 species the Osmundas easily lead; being natives of 

 swampy or at least moist ground, they should have a 

 like situation, and yet so strong are their roots and crown 

 of leaves that they will flourish for years after the 

 moisture that has fed them has been drained and the 

 shading overgrowth cut away, even though dwarfed 

 in growth and coarsened in texture. Thus people seeing 

 them growing under these conditions in open fields and 

 roadside banks mistake their necessities. 



The Royal fern (Osmunda regalis} positively demands 

 moisture; it will waive the matter of shade in a great 

 degree, but water it must have. 



The Cinnamon fern, that encloses the spongelike, 

 brown, fertile fronds in the circle of green ones, gains its 

 greatest size of five feet in roadside runnels or in 

 springy places between boulders in the river woods ; yet 

 so accommodating is it that you can use it at the base of 

 your knoll if a convenient rock promises both reasonable 

 dampness and shelter. 



The third of the family (Osmunda Claytonia) is known 

 as the Interrupted fern, because in May the fertile black 

 leaflets appear in the middle of the fronds and inter- 

 rupt the even greenness. This fern will thrive in merely 

 moist soil and is very charming early in the season, but 



