28 THE OSMUNDAS. 



powerless to do so at all. A single frond will produce 

 many millions of spores and although the conditions for 

 growth seem just right when they are shed, the com- 

 paratively small number of mature ferns indicate very 

 plainly that many dangers attend the sporeling. As soon 

 as the spores are shed, the fertile spikes wither and 

 have usually disappeared by the end of June. 



Under the frosts of autumn the pinnae of the sterile 

 fronds twist and curl, and turning brown, soon loosen 

 from the rachis. The latter remains erect and bare all 

 winter in marked contrast to some of the evergreen 

 species in which, although the fronds continue green, the 

 rachids early become unable to hold them erect. 



The rootstock of the cinnamon fern is doubtless larger 

 than that of any other American species. It is shaggy 

 with the persistent bases of the fronds of other years and 

 creeps along just at the surface of the soil, looking like a 

 great shoe-brush half buried in the mud. The strong 

 wiry roots are given off on all sides and many are obliged 



to penetrate the bases of one 

 or more stipes before en- 

 tering the earth. One end 

 of the rootstock is annually 

 renewed by fresh crowns of 

 fronds and the other as con- 

 stantly dies. If no injury 

 happens to the crown, there 

 seems nothing to prevent a 

 plant from living for centur- 

 ies. That some are very old, an examination of the root- 

 stock will show. A medium sized specimen often ex- 

 hibits the persistent bases of more than three hundred 

 fronds, to say nothing of those that have decayed and 

 disappeared. 



