THE ROYAL FERN 93 



light, while their narrow form enables them to insinuate them- 

 selves among other vegetation which may compete with the 

 hartstongue for light and air. 



The Royal Fern (Osmunda regalis) excels the bracken in 

 regard to size, its large but graceful leaves being sometimes ten 

 feet high and a yard broad. About half of this length is re- 

 presented by the stout bare leaf-stalk. This fine fern is becoming 

 scarcer every year in many districts, and has been practically 

 exterminated in some places, though it still flourishes abundantly 

 in remote and boggy localities where greedy and stupid persons 

 cannot get at it. It grows in low-lying parts of the country, 

 rarely over 300 feet above the sea, occurring in bogs, beside 

 streams, and in swampy woods. In a few places it has been 

 exterminated by drainage operations, showing that it requires a 

 thoroughly moist habitat. It is equally unable to withstand cold, 

 for the first frosts kill the leaves. The leaf is twice-divided, the 

 leaflets being oblong and bright yellowish- green. The upper 

 leaflets resemble the fertile leaves of the hard fern, having no green 

 tissue, and bearing crowded masses of brown spore-cases which 

 are larger than in most other ferns, and open by a vertical slit. 



The Moonwort (Botrychium Lunaria) and the Adderstongue 

 (Ophioglossum vulgatum) are sharply distinguished from our other 

 ferns in having the leaf divided into two parts, one part being a 

 frond and the other bearing the spore-cases. In both plants 

 only one leaf comes up from the stem each year, each leaf taking 

 several years to develop, and not showing the coiled form so 

 characteristic of other ferns. The adderstongue grows in moist 

 meadows, and is widely distributed in Britain, and often abun- 

 dant but easily overlooked. The leaf is from 3 to 12 inches 

 long, and is divided into a broad thin frond and a cylindrical- 

 stalked spike. The frond is rather like a plantain leaf ; the 

 spike shows two rows of spore-cases embedded in its tissue, and 

 each spore-case opens by a transverse slit. The moonwort grows 

 in dry pastures up to 3000 feet, and is usually smaller than 

 the adderstongue. The frond is divided into paired leaflets, 

 roughly half-moon shaped, while the spike is also divided, and 

 bears grape-like clusters of spore-cases. Both these plants are 

 difficult to cultivate, and their spores do not germinate readily. 



