THE BOULDER FERN. 



| HE boulder fern (JDicksonia pilosiuscula) 

 is one of the most beautiful and dec- 

 orative species of our entire fern 

 flora. Whether growing in clumps 

 in our lowland woods or spreading 

 over large areas in mountain pas- 

 tures and thickets, its shimmering 

 fronds are sure to catch the eye. 

 In many uplands the scenery cannot be properly men- 

 tioned without taking this fern into account. Those 

 who visit such places about midsummer will scarcely for- 

 get the picture formed by the broad gray-green fields 

 in which every boulder and rocky outcrop is outlined by 

 the brighter green of its fronds. Its predilection 

 for rocky fields is very marked. It seems never to grow 

 more thriftily than when clustering in little colonies 

 about some half buried rock fragment. By this trait, 

 alone, one can often identify the fern with certainty at 

 distances of half a dozen miles or more. 



The rootstock creeps extensively near the surface of 

 the earth and frequently branches. Fronds are produced 

 all summer and form dense, tangled clumps. The stipe 

 often gives off a runner near its junction with the root- 

 stock and this also produces fronds, being in fact a sort of 

 secondary rootstock. In strong plants the blade is often 

 twenty-five inches or more in length and ten inches wide 

 at the base from whence it gradually tapers to the apex. 



