116 The Feex Lover's Companion 



lifting the blades ten to fifteen inches abo^e the mud, 

 whence they spring. 



The fronds of the marsh fern are apt to be sterile in 

 deep shade. It may be readily distinguished from the 

 New York fern by its broad base, instead of tapering to 

 very small pinna': by its long stalk, lifting the blade up 

 into the sunlight, and by the revolute margins of the fertile 

 fronds, which have suggested for it the name of "snuff-box" 

 fern. It is separated from the Massachu.setts fern by its 

 forked veins. Common in marshes and damp woodlands; 

 Canada to Florida and westward. While the marsh fern 

 lo^■es moisture and shade it is sometimes found in dry, 

 open fields. Miss Lilian A. Cole, of L'nion, Me., reports a 

 colony as growing on land above the .swale in which Tway- 

 blade and Adder's Tongue are found, "around rock heaps 

 in open sunlight on clay soil, but homely and twisted," 

 as if a former wood.sy en^•ironment had been long since 

 cleared away while the deserted ferns persisted. 



(2) ^Iassachu.sett.s Fern 



Aspidium .■iimulatum. Thelypteeis simul.Ita 



Dryopterift simiilata. Xephrbdium simiilatinn 



Fronds pinnate, one to three feet long, oljlong-lanceo- 

 late, somewhat narrowed at the liase. Pinna- lanceolate, 

 deeply pinnatifid, the lower most often turned inward. 

 Veins simple. Indusium glandular. Sori rather large. 



Resembles the marsh fern, of which it was once thought 

 to be a variety. In some respects it is also like the New 

 York fern, and is in fact intermediate between the two, 



