148 BALL THE INDIGENOUS FERNS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 



common generally along our road sides : how that the boldest dark 

 shade is seen side by side with suddenly and almost inperceptibly 

 blended lights, which, to an almost transparent whitish green, touch 

 up the tips of the tufts when Sol's rays are nearly horizontal ! I 

 say Who has not ? and yet I must own that to admire nature and to 

 thoroughly appreciate its beauties, is as truly a matter of education 

 as it is to become proficient in mathematics. But no one can fail 

 to see that the foregrounds in our landscapes derive many of their 

 charms from the presence of ferns. And in many instances this is 

 so with the distance as well, where, as is not unfrequently the case, 

 the brightly tinted light green of the Osmunda Claytoniana adds a 

 pleasing feature to many a moistened hillside. Amongst other ferny 

 delights, but to be rarely met with in Nova Scotia, may be men- 

 tioned the beautiful symmetrical growth of the Struthiopteris 

 Germanica, with its fronds all of equal size arranged in a perfect 

 circle, sufficiently stiff and perpendicular to enable the plant to 

 make a bold stand, and yet plumosely graceful so as to give it 

 elegance, and tall enough to make it necessary to seek the kind 

 friendship of a close neighbouring log or boulder, that by mounting 

 you may get the best view, almost directly downward, of this 

 beautiful plant. 



With these introductory remarks I will proceed to give a list of 

 such of the Nova Scotia ferns, as have up to this date (*) been 

 found, making such notices as may dictate themselves, but taking 

 some care not to repeat again what has already been published by 

 Dr. Asa Gray in his Manual, and by Dr. Lawson in his Synopsis 

 of Canadian Ferns. This latter work was published before the days 

 of Confederation, and consequently does not touch upon Nova Scotia 

 Ferns specially. 



Ferns are the " Order Filices", belonging to the Class Acrogens, 

 and to the Second Series, which consists of the Cryptogams or 

 Flowerless Plants. Up to the present time as many as 31 genera 

 have been discovered as Indigenous. 



(*) April, 1876. 



