OSMUNDA. 143 



Irish lakes, eight, ten, or twelve feet high, noble and 

 majestic almost beyond conception. In the lovely lake 

 scenery of Killarney this plant is very prominent ; and we 

 need not be surprised at the rapturous descriptions which 

 have been given of its arching fronds, dipping in the crystal 

 lakes, and sheltering, with its broad green pinnse, the nu- 

 merous aquatic birds which seek its canopy from the prying 

 eyes of pleasure-hunting tourists. When young the fronds 

 have generally a reddish stipes, and a glaucous surface, 

 which at a later period becomes lost. These fronds are 

 annual, growing up in spring, and perishing in the autumn. 

 The form of the mature fronds is lanceolate ; they are bi- 

 pinnate, the pinnse lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, with pin- 

 nules of an oblong-ovate form, somewhat auricled at the 

 base especially on the posterior side, bluntish at the apex, 

 and saw-edged along the margin. Some fronds are en- 

 tirely barren, and these differ from the fertile ones only in 

 having the leafy pinnules continued all the way to the apex, 

 instead of having the apex contracted, and bearing the 

 spore-cases. It is not always, however, that the spore- 

 cases when present are produced at the apex of the frond ; 

 abnormal developments are not uncommon, and in these 

 cases any portion of the pinnules may be seen converted 



