VT FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



45. EVERGREEN WOOD FERN. MARGINAL SHIELD 



FERN 



Aspidium marginale (Dryopteris marginalis) 



Canada to Alabama, in rocky woods. A few inches to three feet 

 high, with more or less chaffy stalks having shining scales. 



Fronds. Ovate-oblong, smooth, thick, somewhat leathery, once 

 or twice-pinnate ; pinna lance-shaped or triangular-ovate, tapering 

 at the end, cut into pinnules ; pinnules oblong, entire, or toothed ; 

 fruit-dots large, round, close to the margin ; indusium large, con- 

 vex, persistent. 



Above the black leaf-mould in our rocky northern 

 woods rise the firm, graceful crowns formed by the 

 blue-green fronds of the Evergreen Wood Fern. 

 The plant bears a family likeness to the Crested 

 Shield Fern, but its conspicuously marginal fruit- 

 dots identify it at sight. 



It is interesting to read that it comes " nearer 

 being a tree-fern than any other of our species, the 

 caudex covered by the bases of fronds of previous 

 seasons, sometimes resting on bare rocks for four 

 or five inches without roots or fronds " (see Eaton, 

 p. 70). This peculiarity in the plant's growth is 

 often striking and certainly suggests the tree-ferns 

 of the green-house. 



Frequently in this species I notice what is more 

 or less common to nearly all ferns, the exquisite 

 contrast in the different shades of green worn by 

 the younger and older fronds and the charming 

 effect produced when the deep green of the centre 

 of a frond shades away in the most delicate manner 

 toward its apex and the tips of its pinnules. 



As its English title signifies, the Evergreen Wood 



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