THE HARD FEKN. 



proper. This Fern grows in varying degrees of 

 luxuriance, according to soil and situation. We 

 have seen magnificent specimens in lovely 

 Devonshire in damp woods, and on the moist 

 banks of brawling streams, growing to a length 

 of nearly a yard. This Fern has two perfectly 

 distinct kinds of frond : the one barren, the other 

 seed-bearing; the latter being always narrower 

 than the former. The barren fronds are lance- 

 shaped, or perhaps it would be better to say they 

 are strap-shaped, but tapering more or less from 

 their centres to their bases and to their apices. 

 One simple midrib in continuation of the 

 stipes clothed on each side with a row of leaf- 

 lets, not quite separated from each other, but 

 joined by a narrow, straight, leafy wing, which 

 runs along the entire length of the midrib on 

 both of its sides. The leaflets are somewhat 

 narrow and blunt-pointed ; the whole frond 

 having very much of a comb-like appearance. 

 The fertile fronds are taller than the barren ones, 

 and grow up from the centre of the tufts formed 

 by the latter. In these fertile fronds the leaflets 

 are much narrower than those of the barren 



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