CAMPTOSORUS RHIZOPHYLLUS. 

 WALKING-LEAF. 



NATURAL ORDER, FILICES. 



CAMPTOSORUS RHizorHYlXUS, Link. — Fronds auriculate-cordate at the base, lanceolate, with 

 a long slender acumination which often takes root at the apex. Frond two to nine inches 

 long, and half of an inch to an inch wide, evergreen, sometimes bifid with two acuminations ; 

 stipe one to four inches long, slightly margined above, smooth. Sori often half an inch 

 in length. (Darlington's ^/(3ra Cestrica. See also Gx'A.f?, Alamial of the Botany of the 

 Northern United States, Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, and [as Anti- 

 gramma rhizophyUa'\ Wood's Class-Book of Botany. Also 'EiiXori'?, Ferns of Xorth A7ner- 

 ica and Williamson's Ferns of Kentucky.') 



HOSE who are fond of wild Nature, and who love to take 

 her just as she is, fresh from her Maker's hands, often 

 have to thank their favorite poets for beautiful thoughts which 

 seem to deeply engrave the scene on the memory, and which 

 enable them to recall the pleasant picture at any future time. 

 We have just such an impression as we are writing these lines 

 on the Walking-leaf Fern, though the reality passed many years 

 ago. It was on the Lehigh river in Northern Pennsylvania, 

 and far from human habitations. The Pine trees interlaced their 

 branches, and little vegetation could exist in the shade beneath ; 

 only the trailing yew, and, everywhere on the huge scattered 

 rocks, the Walking-leaf fern. It seemed the very suggestion of 

 the invocation of the well-known English poet Thomson — 



" To Ilim, ye vocal gales. 

 Breathe soft whose spirit in your freshness breathes ; 

 Oh, talk of Him in solitary gloom ! 

 Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely-waving Pine 

 Fills the brown shade with a religious awe." 



It is indeed generally in these sombre, awe-inspiring, rocky 



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