72 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
The cinnamon fern, interrupied fern, and royal fern 
although frequenters of moist situations, continue to 
grow well in my fern garden. The fronds, however, 
fail to grow to the length which they attain in the wild 
state; and the cinnamon fern seems to suffer most in 
this respect.. Three cinnamon ferns, two large plants 
and a small one, found a home in my fern garden ia 
May, 1912. During the following years the older plants 
siarted their spring growth, the fertile fronds coming 
first, from April 21 to May 1. The sierile fronds ap- 
peared a week to ten days later. The fertile fronds are 
surrounded by the sterile ones, but a careful investiga- 
tion will show that the fertile fronds actually arise from 
the outer circle while the sterile fronds, by strongly curv- 
ing outward at their bases from the central part of the 
plant, appear to arise around the outside. The spore 
cases, at first light cinnamon, but soon turning cinna- 
mon-brown, ripened from May 20 to May 25, all the 
spores had fallen by the beginning of June, and withm 
a few days, by the end of the first week in June, the 
fertile fronds began to wither, soon bending or curving 
over in humble recognition of duty well performed; but 
some traces of them could still be found late in August 
In July, 1911, I planted two interrupted ferns on the 
bed and one along the wall of a side porch. Those 0? 
the fern bed began growing in spring from April 15 
April 21, but the one along the porch, standing in the 
natural soil and in a more exposed situation, usually 
came about a week later. By May 15 or 20, the cinn® 
mon-brown sporangia were ripe and all the spores wer 
shed within a week. The fruiting pinnae at once beg’? 
to wither, but remained hanging, limp and brown, til 
Sepiember or later. As in the cinnamon fern, the first 
sree are fertile and the sterile ones come about a week 
inter, Each year some, and one year nearly all, of pai 
fertile froads of the plant at the porch have no sierile | 
