34 THE OSMUND FERNS. 



IV. THE OSMUND FERNS. 



That tall Fern 

 So stately y of the queen Osmunda named: 

 Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode 

 On Gras7nere''s beach, than Naiad by the side 

 Of Grecian brook. Wordsworth. 



Description. — Excursions in the old mossy damp woods^ 

 in the month of May, are generally rewarded by a rich dis- 

 play of these large, majestic Ferns already in fruit. They 

 grow in circular clumps springing from a thick subterra- 

 nean stem, or root-stock. As in the Polypods, the fronds 

 constitute the aerial region. They are very smooth, often 

 3-5 feet in height, and a yard in width. 



Clayton's Osmunda, shown in the cuts, bearing its fruit 

 in the middle of the frond, is earliest ripe, and therefore 

 the first to be analyzed. 



Analysis. — The Root is of many fibers, with branches 

 innumerable, short, spreading at right angles (divaricate) ^ 

 filling the soil. 



The Stein is wholly subterranean, a thick blackish rhi- 

 zome of loose texture and partly woody, living many years 

 {pere^mial). 



The J^ro?id is twice divided; first into many distinct 

 pinnae, arranged in pairs along the lengthened stipe or 

 racliis (Gr. back-bone); then each pinna is cut into oblong 

 lobes or segments. This twofold division is termed pinnate- 

 pinnatifid or Mpinnatifid. 



The venation, like that of Polypod, is pinni-veined and 

 fork-veined (2). 



Ye^malion. — When starting from the ground in early 

 spring, each frond is a coil rolled from the top inward and 

 downward, gradually unfolding, scroll-like, as it grows (5). 



