IV F R TILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 

 IV SPORANGIA ON OR BENEATH A REFLEXED MARGIN 



23. HAY-SCENTED FERN 



Dicksonia pilosiuscula (D. punctilobula) 



Two to three feet high ; hill-sides, meadows, and thickets from 

 Canada to Tennessee. 



Fronds. Ovate-lance-shaped, long-tapering, pale-green, thin 

 and very delicate in texture, slightly glandular and hairy, usually 

 thrice-pinnatifid ; pinnce lance-shaped, pointed, repeating in minia- 

 ture outline of frond ; pinnules cut again into short and obtuse 

 lobes or segments ; fruit-dots each on an elevated globular recep- 

 tacle on a recurved toothlet; indusium cup-shaped, open at the 

 top. 



In parts of the country, especially from Connecti- 

 cut southward, the Hay-scented Fern is one of the 

 abundant plants. Though not essentially a rock- 

 loving plant, it rejoices in such rocky, upland 

 pastures as crown many of our lower mountain 

 ranges, " great stretches of grayish or sage-green 

 fields in which every bowlder and outcrop of rock 

 is marked by masses of the bright-green fronds 

 of Dicksonia, over which the air moves lazily, heavy 

 with the peculiar fragrance of this interesting fern." 

 Its singularly delicate, tapering, pale-green fronds, 

 curving gracefully in every direction, rank it among 

 our most beautiful and noticeable ferns. Often 

 along the roadsides it forms great masses of feath- 

 ery foliage, tempting the weary pedestrian or bi- 

 cycler to fling himself upon a couch sufficiently 

 soft and luxurious in appearance to satisfy a syba- 

 rite. But I can testify that the Hay-scented Fern 

 does not make so good a bed as it promises. 



Two years ago, during a memorably hot August, 



114 



