WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 



fronds, on which the fruit-dots soon appear. Where 

 there is less moisture and more exposure we may 

 find the Rusty Woodsia, now belying its name by 

 its silvery aspect. At this same season in the bogs 

 and tjhickets we should look for the curious little 

 Adder's Tongue. 



By the first of June many of the ferns are well 

 advanced. On the hill-sides and along 

 the wood-path the Brake spreads its 

 single umbrella-like frond, now pale 

 green and delicate, quite unlike 

 umbrageous-looking plant of a 

 month later. Withdrawing into 

 the recesses formed by the past- 

 ure-rails the Lady Fern is in its 

 first freshness, without any sign 

 of the disfigurements it develops 

 so often by the close of the 

 summer. Great patches of 

 yellowish green in the wet 

 meadows draw atten- 

 tion to the Sensitive 

 Fern, which only at 

 this season seems to 

 have any claim to its ^"e"' bladder Fem 



title. The Virginia Chain Fern is another plant to 

 be looked for in the wet June meadows. It is one 

 of the few ferns which grows occasionally in deep 

 water. 



The Maidenhair, though immature, is lovely in its 

 fragility. Thoreau met with it on June 13th and 



19 



