AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 

 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 



plant is very graceful and pleasing. When growing 

 in shaded places it is often conspicuous by reason 

 of its bright pink or reddish stalks, which contrast 

 effectively with the delicate green of the foliage. 

 But in later summer, judging by my own experience, 

 the Lady Fern loses much of its delicacy. Many 

 of its fronds become disfigured and present a rather 

 blotched and coarse appearance. 



This seems strange in view of the fact that the 

 plant is called by Lowe, a well-known English writer, 

 the " Queen of Ferns," and that it is one of the few 

 ferns to which we find reference in literature. Scott 

 pays it the compliment, rarely bestowed upon ferns, 

 of mentioning it by name : 



" Where the copse wood is the greenest, 

 Where the fountain glistens sheenest, 

 Where the morning dew lies longest, 

 There the Lady Fern grows strongest." 



In English works devoted to ferns I find at least 

 two poems, more remarkable for enthusiasm than 

 for poetic inspiration, in its honor. I quote a portion 

 of the one which occurs in Miss Pratt's " Ferns of 

 Great Britain and Their Allies " : 



" But seek her not in early May, 



For a Sibyl then she looks, 

 With wrinkled fronds that seem to say, 



' Shut up are my wizard books ! ' 

 Then search for her in the summer woods, 



Where rills keep moist the ground, 

 Where Foxgloves from their spotted hoods. 



Shake pilfering insects round ; 



122 



