46 FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



height, are of a delicate, somewhat pale green, and grow 

 in circular clumps. In April the young leaves are very 

 pretty, curled round into circles and protected from 

 early rains and winds by the shaggy scales, which, in 

 their more advanced stage, clothe the lower part of the 

 stalk in abundance, gradually lessening in size and 

 number towards the higher portion of the frond. Their 

 green sprays are fully open by the time that the Haw- 

 thorn tree is decked with its snowy wreaths of May 

 flowers ; but if the spring has been cold, many a young 

 shoot was nipped by the winds, though, as several 

 survive, and many new ones make their appearance later, 

 the midsummer sun shines on their luxup:iance, while 

 their masses of fructification of rich rust-brown colour 

 lie on their under-surfaces. The fronds are generally 

 about ten or twelve in a circle, and most are fertile ; 

 though in some clumps of the plant all prove barren, 

 and then they are of a fuller green tint, and often taller 

 and broader than the fertile leaves : in no case, however, 

 is the Male Fern of a deep dark-green hue. The frond 

 is broadly lanceolate, but slightly narrowed downward, 

 and may be described as twice-pinnate, though the 

 upper portion of the frond is pinnatifid, and, in the 

 pinnae, those pinnules only which are nearest the main 

 stem are quite distinct from each other. All the pinnae 

 are slender and tapering, the pinnules of a bluntly 

 oblong form, and serrated at the edge ; and all, except 

 the lowest ones, united to each other at the base. 

 The mid-vein of each pinnule is slightly winding, 

 having alternate lateral veins, either simple or forked, or 

 dividing into three branches at different parts of the 



