vi FE R T * LE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 



V AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



46. FRAGRANT SHIELD FERN 



Aspidium fragrant (Dryopteris fragrans) 



Northern New England to Wisconsin and northward, on rocks. 

 Five to sixteen inches long, with very chaffy stalks having 

 brown, glossy scales. 



Fronds. Lance-shaped, tapering to a point, nearly twice-pinnate, 

 fragrant ; pinnce oblong-lanceolate, pinnatifid ; fruit-dots round, 

 large ; indusium large and thin. 



The Fragrant Shield Fern thrives in a coldei 

 climate than that chosen by many of its kinsmen. 

 Though found in the White Mountains, in the 

 Green Mountains (where it climbs to an elevation 

 of four thousand feet), in the Adirondacks, and in 

 other special localities of about the same latitude, 

 yet it is rare till we journey farther north. It loves 

 the crevices of shaded cliffs or mossy rocks, often 

 thriving best in the neighborhood of rushing brooks 

 and waterfalls. Frequently it seems to seek the most 

 inaccessible spots, as if anxious to evade discovery. 

 Mr. J. A. Bates, of Randolph, Vt, writes that he first 

 saw this little plant through a telescope from the 

 piazza of the Summit House on Mount Mansfield on 

 an apparently inaccessible ledge, the only instance in 

 my experience when the fern student has sought this 

 method of observation, suggesting " Ferns Through 

 a Spy-glass " as a companion volume to " Birds 

 Through an Opera-glass.*' But even the most care- 

 fully chosen spots are not safe from invasion, as Mr. 

 Bates tells us, for some unprincipled persons, having 



felled neighboring trees and constructed a rude lad- 



178 



