11 



corner of a house. They are flourishing today, dominating the 

 place and leaving no room for weeds to grow. The only other 

 plant among them is a sturdy Jack-in-the-Pulpit which was 

 probably planted when they were. The soil was suitable as the 

 house is on the edge of a wood. Every year the ferns grow a crop 

 of spores in the middle of the frond. The sporangia are mature 

 in May but there are quantities of brown spores to be had in 

 August. The forty years does not mean the age of the ferns for 

 the clumps were large when transplanted. They are huge now 

 and the fronds suggest palm leaves, the connecting rootstock is 

 four inches thick. 



From the porch to the drive was a boardwalk. Onoclea sensi- 

 hilis grew under this and peeped up between the boards. There 

 is no record of their planting but topsoil was brought from the 

 nearby woodland to make the terrace and the fern roots prob- 

 ably came with it. Sheltered by the boardwalk which also 

 conserved moisture a number of sensitive ferns appeared. The 

 grass and lawn mower finished the rest. Now the boards are 

 gone, the path is little used and the ferns are dwarfed and im- 

 poverished. They miss the weekly drenching when the laundry 

 tubs were emptied. Thirty-five years is not bad for age, how- 

 ever. Three different fern gardeners have told me that they did 

 not know how they acquired 0. sensihilis. Like Topsy it just 

 grew. It is no trouble and satisfactory in the fern bed. It some- 

 times holds its spores until the following year thus prolonging 

 its power of reproduction. The sterile fronds turn pale after 

 even a light frost; the fertile stand upright through the winter. 



One enthusiastic fern transplanter reports a dozen kinds 

 "all doing nicely." Among them are the Ostrich Fern, Royal 

 Fern, Chain Fern, and Crested Shield Fern. Her Adiantum 

 with its dark stipe and black roots sends up fresh fronds all 

 summer "year after year." Another discriminating fern lover 

 set out Pellaea atropiirpurea next the wall of the house, bolstered 

 it with a piece of coral and pieces of limestone rock and has 

 enjoyed it for eleven years. Her walking fern survived long 

 enough to root from the tip twice. The New York Fern and 

 the Lady Fern, though re-transplanted, are fifteen years old. 

 The Royal Fern is twenty-five; the Dennstaedtia has twenty 

 transplanted years. 



Osmunda regalis is not so easy to grow as its plebeian rela- 



