TROIIP v , FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



by the plants are quite dry. I think it would be 

 fatal to the plant if much spray should fall on it 

 during the season of its active growth. When you 

 enter the shade and solitude of the haunts of this 

 fern, its presence is betrayed by its resinous odor ; 

 looking up the face of the cliff, usually mottled with 

 lichens and moss, you see it often far above your 

 reach hanging against the rock, masses of dead 

 brown fronds, the accumulations of many years, pre- 

 served by the resinous principle which pervades 

 them ; for the fronds, as they disport regularly 

 about the elongating caudex, fall right and left pre- 

 cisely like a woman's hair. Above the tuft of droop- 

 ing dead fronds, which radiate from the centre of 

 the plant, grow from six to twenty green fronds, 

 which represent the growth of the season, those of 

 the preceding year dying toward autumn." 



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