The Ferx Lover's Companion 91 



The Lady Fern and its Kin 



L The Lady Ferns 



Fronds one to three feet high, broadly lanceohite, or 

 ovate-oblong, tapering towards the apex, bipinnate. 

 Pinna^ lanceolate, numerous. Pinnules oblong-lanceolate, 

 cut -toothed or incised. Fruit -dots short, variously curved. 

 Indusium delicate, often reniform, or shaped like a horse- 

 shoe, in some forms confluent at maturity. 



Widely distributed, common and varying greatly in 

 outline. The newer nomenclature separates the lady fern 

 of our section into two distinct species, which should be 

 carefully studied.* 



(1) The LTpLAND Lady Fern. Athyrium angustum 

 . 1 .tplcn iiim F'ili.r-fem in a 



The rootsfock or rhizome of the L'pland Lady Fern 

 here pictured shows how the thick, fleshy bases of the old 

 fronds conceal the rootstock itself. In the Lowland Lady 

 Fern the rootstock is but slightly concealed by old stipe 

 bases, and so may l)e distinguished from its sister fern. 



One design of such root.stocks is to store up food 

 (mostly starch), during the summer to nourish the young 

 plants as they shoot forth the next spring. The unde- 

 cayed })ases of the old stipes are also packed with starch 

 for the same purpose. 



* See monograph l:)y F. K. Butters in Rhodora C)f September, 1917. 



