WILDWOOD WAYS 



Yet not one form of fern life was visible 

 in this once thronged wood. Like the 

 ostrich ferns they had poured their own 

 fern-seed on their heads and whispered 

 the correct incantation at the coming of 

 the first chill wind. I am inclined to 

 think it all happened in a jiffy, when hap- 

 pen it did, for I have been back and forth 

 through that part of the wood all the 

 fall and I cannot recall the day on which 

 they were first missing. It seems as if I 

 would have noticed their gradual crum- 

 bling and decay. 



The same is true of the clumps of Os- 

 munda regalis that grew here and there 

 along the pond shore. Rightly named 

 " regalis " they stood in royal beauty 

 four or five feet tall and leaning over the 

 water's edge admired the bipinnate grace 

 of their fronds, while the tallest stalks 

 v bore aloft the clusters of spore cases that 



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