rcnilD V FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; 

 UKUUl' V SPORANGIA IN LINEAR OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS 



" Where the water is pouring forever she sits, 

 And beside her the Ouzel, the Kingfisher flits ; 

 There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn, 

 In the shade of the rock stands the tall Lady Fern. 



" Noon burns up the mountain ; but here by the fall 

 The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall. 

 Hours speed as thoughts rise, without any concern, 

 And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern." 



25. SILVERY SPLEENWORT 



Asflenium thelypteroides {A, acrostichoides) 



Canada to Alabama and westward, in rich 

 woods. One to three feet high. 



Fronds. — Lance-shaped, tapering both 

 ways from the middle, once-pinnate ; pinna 

 linear-lanceolate, deeply cut into obtuse seg- 

 ments ; fruit-dots oblong ; indusium silvery 

 when young. 



The Silvery Spleenwort grows 

 in company with its kinsman, the 

 Narrow-leaved Spleenwort, and 

 ' also with many of the Aspidiums, such 

 as the Spinulose Shield Fern, the Ever- 

 green Wood Fern, the Christmas and 

 Goldie's Fern. I find it growing in large 

 patches in the rich woods, often near 

 water, either in boggy ground or on the 

 very edge of the clear, brown brook. 

 Sometimes it is difficult to detect a single 

 fertile frond in a group of plants covering many 



square feet of ground. This is probably owing 



124 



Entire frond 



