220 THE CHAIN FERNS 
close to them. Then their separation is very simple and 
one marvels at nature’s versatility in making two species 
so alike and yet so unlike. Their resemblances are con- 
fined entirely to the sterile fronds, their differences are 
everywhere. The chain fern fruits on the backs of the 
fronds; the cinnamon fern in a club-shaped spike: the 
one has a slender rootstock and the fronds rise singly ; 
in the other the rootstock is thick and the fronds grow 
in crowns. Even the beginner, therefore, has no excuse 
for confusing them. 
The rootstock of the chain fern is about a quarter of 
aninch in diameter. It creeps extensively in the mud 
Woodwardia Virginica, A fruiting pinna. 
and ooze of its boggy haunts and sends up its fronds at 
intervals all summer. These often reach a height of 
five feet with stipes nearly as long as the blades. The 
latter are oblong-ovate and pinnate with oblong-lanceo- 
late, acute pinne cut three-fourths of the way to the 
midrib into slightly falcate, obscurely crenate, bluntish 
pinnules. Although rather thick in texture, they do 
not survive the winter. There is no perceptible differ- 
ence in the form of fertile and sterile fronds. The oblong 
sori are borne on the apical portion, one series in a double 
row, near to and parallel with the midvein of each 
