are leaf- 

 like be- 

 low, and 

 are tipped 



above with their flower-like 

 fruit-clusters. 



Like its kinsmen, the Royal 

 Fern appears in May in our 

 wet woods and fields. The 

 delicate little croziers uncurl 

 with dainty grace, the plants 

 which grow in the open among 

 the yellow stars of the early 

 crow-foot, and the white clus- 

 ters of the spring cress 

 being so tinged with red 

 that they suffuse the 

 meadows with warm 

 color. 



Though one of our 

 tallest ferns, with us it 

 never reaches the ten or 

 eleven feet with which it is 

 credited in Great Britain. 

 The tallest plants I have 

 found fall short of six feet. 

 Occasionally we see large 

 tracts of land covered with 

 mature plants that lack a 

 foot or more of the two feet 

 gi'ven as the minimum height. This tendency to 



Royal Pern 



