64 WHERE TO FIND FERNS. 



long, and wiry. Rootstock, a thick, tufted cormus ; large, 

 in proportion to the size of the plant, and prolonged 

 into a visible, prominent, and above-ground stem, raised 

 sometimes to a height of two feet in large-sized, mature 

 plants. The rootstock of a fern, even when not con- 

 spicuously raised above the soil, is really its stem, 

 although it does not, in such cases, convey the popular 

 idea of one. The stem of Osnutnda regalis really 

 becomes, when of large size, a trunk, and thus more 

 nearly than any other British species approaches the 

 form and character of a tree-fern. Fronds of two kinds 

 barren and fertile not very numerous, deciduous, 

 robust-looking, golden green, broadly lance-shaped; very 

 distinctly bipinnate, pinnae lance-shaped, usually placed 

 in opposite pairs, though sometimes alternately, upon 

 the rachis; pinnules an inch, more or less, in length, 

 oblong, blunt-pointed, in opposite pairs or alternately 

 placed upon the secondary rachides or midstems of the 

 pinnae. In the fertile fronds the upper pinnae of the 

 fronds have their pinnules contracted to bear the spores. 

 Stipes about as long as the leafy part. Fructification 

 usually, but not always, confined to the upper parts of 

 the fertile fronds, where the pinnules are contracted and 

 bear the globular spore-cases densely crowded upon 

 their under sides so much so frequently, that the 

 pinnules appear like spikes of inflorescence of a rich, 

 yellowish-brown colour. 



HABITATS. Banks of rivers and lakes, especially in 

 positions close enough to the stream-edge to allow of 

 the roots touching the water ; marshy and boggy places, 

 especially where the soil consists largely of peat ; low- 

 lying islets, which are sometimes covered densely by 

 little else than plants of this species ; damp, low-lying 

 parts of woods ; the low-lying parts of moorlands upon 

 ground made marshy by the oozing of water from the 

 heights above ; damp meadows and fens, or other peaty 

 places periodically submerged. 



