ROYAL OR FLOWERING FERN. 63 



There is no great difficulty in cultivating this fern, if 

 it be removed carefully without disturbing the roots, 

 which should be dug up in a good quantity of their 

 native soil, and then planted in loamy ground, and 

 kept well watered and cooL 



ROYAL OR FLOWERING FERN. 



OSMUNDA REGALIS. 



[Linnaeus, and generally adopted] 



(Fig. 29.) 



THIS, the most stately of the British ferns, well de- 

 serves its name, and is, from its appearance, readily 

 distinguished from all others. Its flowery panicle 

 crowns the otherwise leafy fronds, and rises three, or 

 even four feet high, and sometimes attaining a height 

 of eight or ten feet. In old plants the stem assumes 

 the appearance of a trunk, and from the crown of this 

 trunk grow the fronds, which are bipinnate; the 

 pinnae lanceolate or ovate lanceolate ; the pinnules 

 oblong and nearly egg-shaped. They are somewhat 

 ear-shaped at the base, and mostly opposite. The 

 upper portion of the frond is so densely covered with 

 the brown clusters of capsules as to look like a spike 

 of small flowers. The barren frond is entirely leafy. 



