118 THE MARSH FERN TRIBE. 
Ak Ee wer dwelling place, it is also found 
ee in the wet woodlands, along 
OE ec streams and in damp mea- 
ore dows. It avoids actual water but 
en soft watery mud is its delight. In 
as ical open places it grows as thickly as 
ye grass, often to the exclusion of 
maf Y f other vegetation, and seems to 
¥ . 3 court the sun if it can obtain a 
TaN supply of moisture. 
ll ry pan) Early in spring, before other 
marsh plants have come up, the 
TIER A slender crosiers of the marsh fern 
raster eee nate ’ begin to push above the black soil. 
AUER, They are not flattened laterally as 
; Ne: are the crosiers of most ferns but 
f shaped like little green spheres, 
ARRON Rao, These attractive looking objects 
Wy i nodding at the tops of the long 
CUPS Nien Mogae stipes in the swampy wastes, are 
era 
on so characteristic of the species 
that one may frequently identify 
the plant from the crosiers alone. 
The slender, cord-like rootstock 
creeps about freely just beneath the surface 
and produces fronds throughout the sum- 
mer. The early ones develop very quickly 
and may 
often be Mg 
seen with fy 
the lower 
VENATION. 
MARSH FERN, pinne ful- ; : 
Aspidium Thelypteris. ly spread while the upper are still coiled. 
