8 STRUCTURE AND LIFE-HISTORY OF HAY-SCENTED FERN. 
SPOROPHYTE. 
The hay-scented fern occurs generally in open woods (fig. 1) or clear- 
ings or on roadside banks. It prefers well-drained, stony or sandy soil, 
and usually forms thick beds. In the Catskill Mountains of New York 
and in New England it grows on the cleared hillsides in dense patches 8 
to 15 m. in diameter. Its range is from New Brunswick to Alabama and 
Minnesota (Britton and Brown, 1896, 1:12). The leaves are from 50 to 90 
cm. high, lanceolate, and thrice pinnatifid. A light-green color and dense 
pubescence combine to give the fern a soft, feathery appearance. The 
glandular hairs exhale a delicate fragrance when brushed, which has been 
likened to new-mown hay; hence the common name.* The stems are found 
5 to 15 cm. beneath the surface of the soil—long, slender, much-branching 
rhizomes (fig. 3). These spread rapidly from year to year, and give rise 
to the densely matted beds of the fern. Roots of threadlike fineness arise 
plentifully from all parts of the rhizomes and ramify through the soil. 
THE ROOT. 
The roots are numerous, cylindrical, with copious, two-ranked branching. 
They extend more horizontally than vertically in the soil, and do not descend 
below 20 cm. from the surface. The color is black in mature portions, 
shading in the younger parts through reddish-brown and brownish-yellow 
to creamy white atthe apex. Although but 0.5mm. in diameter (maximum 
0.545 mm.; minimum 0.49 mm.; average 0.523 mm.), they are tough and 
wiry in texture. The rootlets (secondary roots) are about half as thick as 
the main roots. ‘Tertiary roots, similar to the secondary, frequently occur. 
Only rarely does a root arise from the base of a leaf, and then it is usually 
within 4 mm. of the center of the rhizome. 
TABLE 1.—Acropetal development of roots from stem. 
Length Distance 
of root. eg ee Branching. Collected. 
mm, mm, 
4-77 Boe No branches.........seseesceeeceenees Univ. of Pa., 8/6/04. 
6.40 3-2 No branches...........cccsssesceoeee Fallsington, Pa., 10/4/’03. 
3-2 4-5 One branch 4.7 mm. long, 1 Do. 
cm. from stem. 
4.78 6.40 Many branches.............cseeeee Do. 
From any part of the stem roots may come out, but more frequently 
from the lower side. A stem 5 cm. long, including the tip, showed eleven 
roots, inserted as showninfig.9. They arise in acropetal succession very 
*The names fine-haired fern, mountain fern, gossamer fern, and hairy Dicksonia are 
given by Clute (1901, p. 231), and sweet grass fern by Eastman (1904, p. 67). 
