VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR ; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



with more broadly triangular fronds, which wear, to 

 my mind, a brighter, fresher, more delicate green. 

 In the Long Beech Fern the two lower pairs of pin- 

 nae differ little in length and breadth, while in the 

 Broad Beech Fern the lowest pair are decidedly 

 larger and broader than the next pair. The wing 

 along the rachis formed by the basal segments of the 

 pinnae seems to me more conspicuous in the latter 

 than in the former. 



The range of the Broad Beech Fern extends far- 

 ther south than does that of its two kinsmen, neither 

 of which are found, I believe, south of Virginia. It 

 seeks also more open and usually drier woods. Its 

 leaves are fragrant. 



Williamson says that its fronds are easily decolor- 

 ized and that they form a " good object for double- 

 staining, a process well known to microscopists." 



51. OAK FERN 



Phegopleris Dryopteris 



Northeastern United States to Virginia, west to Oregon and 

 Alaska, usually in wet woods, with stalks six to nine inches long. 



Fronds. Usually longer than broad, four to nine inches long, 

 broadly triangular, the three primary divisions widely spreading, 

 smooth, once or twice-pinnate ; fruit-dots small, round, near the 

 margin ; indusium, none. 



So far as I remember, my first encounter with the 

 Oak Fern was in a cedar swamp, famous for its 

 growth of showy lady's-slippers. One July day 

 in the hope of finding in flower some of these 



iqo 





