THE OSMUNDAS. 
MONG ferns as among flowering plants, there 
Aare certain species that so persistently force 
themselves upon our attention as to make it 
almost impossible not to know them. The 
’ members of the Osmunda family belong to 
; this class. From the time their stout woolly 
crosiers peep fromthe ground in spring until 
their pinnz are mingling with the falling leaves of au- 
tumn, they are among the most conspicuous of our 
native species. In everything the family runs to ex- 
tremes. Their rootstocks are the largest, their crosiers 
the woolliest, their fronds the tallest and their fruit the 
earliest. They are also as common as conspicuous. 
Every farmer and wanderer countryward is familiar 
with their graceful forms, although he may have no 
other name for them than “brakes.” 
The Cinnamon Fern. 
The best‘known of the Osimundas is doubtless the 
cinnamon fern (Osmunda cinnamomea). It grows in 
nearly every piece of boggy ground in the Eastern States, 
neighbouring with the coarse herbage of the wild helle- 
bore and skunk’s cabbage, but is at its best in shaded 
swamps and wet open woodlands where it forms jungles of 
almost tropical luxuriance. Frequently it takes large 
