GROUP I 



STERILE AND FERTILE FRONDS TOTiaLY UNLIKE) 

 FERTILE FRONDS NOT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE 



forms. This is specially liable to occur when some 

 injury has befallen the plant. 



3. CINNAMON FERN 



Osmunda cinnamomea 



Nova Scotia to Florida, in swampy places. Growing in a crown, 

 one to five feet high. 



Sterile fronds. — Broadly lance-shaped, once-pinnate ; pinna cut 

 into broadly oblong divisions that do 

 not reach the midvein, each pinna 

 with a tuft of rusty wool at its base 

 beneath. 



Fertile fronds. — 

 Quite unlike the ster- 

 ile fronds, growing 

 in the centre 

 of the crown 

 formed by the 

 sterile fronds 

 and usually 

 about the same 

 erect, with cinna- 

 mon-colored spore-cases. 



In the form of 

 little croziers, pro- 

 tected from the cold 

 by wrappings of 

 rusty wool, the fer- 

 tile fronds of the Cinnamon Fern appear every- 

 where in our swamps and wet woods during the 

 month of May. These fertile fronds, first dark- 

 green, later cinnamon-brown, are quickly followed 

 and encircled by the sterile ones, which grow in 

 a tall, graceful crown. The fertile fronds soon 



60 



