WINTER FERN-HUNTING 



the top of the ridge where some sunlight 

 slips in. Yet in its densest part the 

 Christmas fern revels and throws up 

 fronds that seem to catch some of their 

 dark beauty from the deep green twi- 

 light of the place. In the spring these 

 stand in varying degrees of erectness, but 

 autumn seems to bring a change in the 

 cellular structure of the lower part of the 

 stipe and weaken it so that the fronds fall 

 flat upon the earth. They lose none of 

 their firm texture or color, however, and 

 be the temperature ever so low or the 

 snow ever so deep they undergo no fur- 

 ther change till the next spring fronds 

 are well under way. Sometimes even 

 in mid-summer you may find the fronds 

 of the year before, somewhat fungi- 

 encumbered and darkened with age, but 

 still green. 



No other fern grows in the denser 

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