266 THE WALKING FERN AND HART'S-TONGUE. 



see the plant moving about, when he went to collect it 

 for the first time. 



The odd little fronds, spreading about in circular tufts 

 from a small black rootstock, and seldom rising far above 

 the surface of the mossy rock, present a picture that 

 will linger long in the memory. At base the fronds 

 are heartshaped or eared, and above taper to a long 

 slender tip. Sometimes they may reach a length of four- 

 teen inches, though they perhaps never appear as long to 

 the eye as they really are, owing to its failure to make 

 proper allowance for the prolonged apex. The sporan- 

 gia are borne in oblong or linear sori, mostly on the broad 

 basal portion of the frond. Some of these are parallel 

 to the midrib and others oblique to it. Those near the 

 midrib are usually single but the outer ones are likely to 

 be double or to connect with others at the ends, forming 

 curious patterns, apparently without order, but which 

 upon examination are found to follow the veins. The 

 early fronds are short, blunt-ended and usually do not bear 

 sori, being devoted to purely vegetative functions. 



The most interesting characteristic of this species is 

 found in the way in which its fronds arch over until they 

 touch the earth where they root and form new plants. 

 Some of our other ferns occasionally produce plants in 

 this way, but in this species it is a settled habit. The new 

 plants grow up, repeating the process of walking and soon 

 the original plant is surrounded by quite a colony of its 

 offspring produced without the intervention of spores. 

 The connections between them are slow to die, and it is 

 not unusual to find three or four generations linked to- 

 gether. Occasionally, also, the basal lobes are elongated 

 like the tips and may produce plants in the same way. 



The walking fern ranges from the far north to Georgia 



