WILDWOOD WAYS 



were obscured and hidden by the other 

 green things of the wood. I know I 

 tramped within a few feet of them again 

 and again last summer without noticing 

 them, yet to-day they caught my eye a 

 long way off, and held it in admiration 

 even after a long and close inspection. 



Farther down in the very swamp, laid 

 flat along the sphagnum and oftentimes 

 frozen to it, were fronds of the crested 

 shield-fern and the patches of these 

 tolled me far from my find and it was 

 only on coming back for another look 

 that I discovered the prettiest thing about 

 it. That was, near by and half sheltered 

 by tips of the elder fronds, young plants 

 of the same variety, just advancing from 

 the prothallus stage and having one or 

 two miniature fronds like those of the 

 parent plant but not more than two or 

 three inches long. 



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