30 FERNS 



The man who considers a fern "a thing 

 with a backbone and side members like a 

 feather," is apt to be skeptical when assured 

 that this "bush" is but a fern after all. 

 Nature has a special arrangement for the 

 fructification of each member of the genus, 

 but the fruited panicle which crowns Osmunda 

 spectabilis is the most graceful of all, and a 

 plausible excuse for the misleading name of 

 "royal flowering fern," which has been 

 borrowed from its European prototype O. 

 regahs. 



The amateur will have no difficulty in 

 naturalising it. Although a native of swamps 

 and river banks, it grows also on uplands, 

 where it loses some grace and gains rigidity 

 enough to look "bushy." But it is always 

 beautiful, often growing to a height of four 

 or five feet in cultivation. 



AN INTRACTABLE BUT HANDSOME SPECIES 



The sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis) is 

 another fern valuable for lasting freshness 



