122 THE MARSH FERN TRIBE. 
FRUITING PINNA. 
before they are unfolded. The grass seems strewn with 
silver balls and as you reluctantly tread en them and 
brush by them, the scent is delicious.” 
Prof. Peck has described a variety fragrans of the 
New York fern which is principally distinguished by 
the odour, and later, Eaton made a variety suaveolens of 
which he says, “Fronds narrower, slightly more rigid, 
very sweet scented in drying, the under surface copiously 
sprinkled with minute glands.” This is apparently only 
a form which, exposed to the sun, has made some slight 
changes to adapt itself to the new conditions, as other 
ferns are known to do. 
The fertile fronds are produced a little later than the 
sterile and scarcely differ from them except that heavily 
fruiting fronds are slightly taller and narrower. As in 
all of the Aspidiums, the sori are round and covered with 
akidney-shaped indusium. In this species the indusium 
is dotted with little glands and the sori are rather small 
and borne in a double row on each pinnule near the 
margin. 
Young collectors frequently mistake this for the marsh 
fern, and indeed the early botanists were themselves in 
some doubt about it. Several gave it the specific name of 
thelypteroides because of its resemblance to Thelypteris,and 
others called it the variety Moveboracense of the latter. 
The two, however, are very distinct. Ifit is remembered 
that in Woveboracense the pinnae are always much 
decreased toward the base of the frond, it will not be 
