OSMUNDA. 201 



eight or ten feet high. The tufted stem by degrees 

 acquires height, so that in very old and luxuriant plants 

 there is a trunk formed from a foot to two feet in elevation. 

 From the crown of this trunk (whether that is seated close 

 to the ground, or elevated) grow the fronds, which are 

 seldom less than two feet high in weakly plants ; more 

 usually from three to four feet, and forming a mass of a 

 couple of yards across ; or sometimes, as upon the margins 

 of the Irish lakes, eight, ten, or tw^elve feet high, noble 

 and majestic almost beyond conception. In the lovely 

 lake scenery of Killarney this plant is very prominent ; 

 and we need not be surprised at the rapturous descriptions 

 which have been given of its arching fronds, dipping in 

 the crystal lakes, and sheltering, with its broad green 

 pinnae, the numerous aquatic birds which seek its canopy 

 from the prying eyes of pleasure-hunting tourists. When 

 young, the fronds have generally a reddish stipes, and a 

 glaucous surface, which at a later period becomes lost. 

 These fronds are annual, growing up in spring, and 

 perishing in the autumn. Their form when mature is 

 lanceolate ; they are bipinnate, the pinnte lanceolate or 

 ovate-lanceolate ; with pinnules of an oblong-ovate form, 

 somewhat auricled at the base, especially on the posterior 



