HE boulder fern (Dicksonia pilosiuscula) 
is one of the most beautiful and dec- 
orative species of our entire fern 
flora. Whether growing in clumps 
in our lowland woods or spreading 
over large areas in mountain pas- 
tures and thickets, its shimmering 
fronds are sure to catch the eye. 
In many uplands the scenery cannot be properly men- 
tioned without taking this fern into account. Those 
who visit such places about midsummer will scarcely for- 
get the picture formed by the broad gray-green fields 
in which every boulder and rocky outcrop is outlined by 
the brighter green of its fronds. Its predilection 
for rocky fields is very marked. It seems never to grow 
more thriftily than when clustering in little colonies 
about some half buried rock fragment. By this trait, 
alone, one can often identify the fern with certainty at 
distances of half a dozen miles or more. 
The rootstock creeps extensively near the surface of 
the earth and frequently branches. Fronds are produced 
all summer and form dense, tangled clumps. The stipe 
often gives off a runner near its junction with the root- 
stock and this also produces fronds, being in fact a sort of 
secondary rootstock. In strong plants the blade is often 
twenty-five inches or more in length and ten inches wide 
at the base from whence it gradually tapers to the apex, 
