rPnilP VI fERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 UKUUf VI i^np USUALLY SIMILAR j FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



they have fragrant pyrola and pipsissewa for com- 

 pany, and where the long, melancholy note of the 

 peewee breaks the silence. 



This plant is easily distinguished from the Marsh 

 Fern by the noticeable tapering at both ends of its 

 frond, and by the flat instead of reflexed margins to 

 the lobes of the fertile pinnas. 



38. MARSH FERN 



Aspidium Thelypieris {Dryopieris Tkelypteris) 



New Brunswick to Florida, in wet woods and swamps. One tc 

 nearly three feet high. 



Fronds. — Lance-shaped, slightly downy, once-pinnate, fertile 

 fronds longer-stalked than the sterile ; pinna, the lower ones hardly 

 smaller than the others, cut into oblong, entire lobes, which are ob- 

 tuse in the sterile fronds, but appear acute in the fertile ones from 

 the strongly revolute margins ; veins once or twice forked ; fruit- 

 dots small, round, half-way between midvein and margin, or nearer 

 margin, soon confluent ; indusium small. 



In our wet woods and open swamps, and occasion- 

 ally in dry pastures, the erect, fresh-green fronds of 

 the Marsh Fern grow abundantly. The lowest pin- 

 nas are set so high on the long slender stem as to 

 give the fern the appearance of trying to keep dry, 

 daintily holding its skirts out of the mud as it were. 



The plant's range is wide. As I pick my way 

 through marshy inland woods, using as bridges the 

 fallen trunks and interlacing roots of trees, its bright 

 fronds standing nearly three feet high, crowd about 

 me. Close by, securing, like myself, a firmer foot- 

 hold by the aid of the trees' roots, I notice the flat, 



160 



