CROUP V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LtAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR-, 

 SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT - DOTS 



the shelves of shaded rocks, again climbing ex- 

 posed hill-sides, where its fresh beauty is always a 

 surprise. 



The fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort usually face 

 the sun, even if so doing necessitates the twisting 

 of its stalk. 



29. MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT 



Asplenium Trichomanes 



Almost throughout North America. A small rock fern, four to 

 twelve inches long, with purplish - brown and shining, thread- 

 like stalks. 



Fronds. Linear in outline, somewhat rigid, once-pinnate ; 

 pinna roundish or oval, unequal-sided, attached to rachis by a 

 narrow point, entire or toothed ; fruit-dots short, oblong, narrowed 

 at the ends, three to six on each side of the midrib ; sporangia 

 dark -brown when ripe ; indusium delicate. 



In childhood the delicate little fronds and dark, 

 glistening, thread-like stalks of the Maidenhair 

 Spleenwort seemed to me a token of the mysterious, 

 ecstatic presence of the deeper 

 woods, of woods where dark 

 hemlocks arched across the 

 rock-broken stream, where the 

 spongy ground was carpeted 

 with low, nameless plants with 

 white-veined or shining leaves 

 F.nii.pinn. and coral . like berries, where 



precious red-cupped mosses covered the fallen tree- 

 trunks and strange birds sang unknown songs. 

 Perhaps because in those days it was a rare plant 



136 



