134 The Fern Lover's Companiox 



Rocky hillsides in rich woods, rather common through- 

 out our area. The heavy rootstock rises slightly above 

 the ground and is clothed at the crown with shaggy, brown 

 scales. Its rising caudex, often creeping for several inches 

 over bare rocks, suggests the habit of a tree fern. In 

 early spring it sends up a graceful circle of large, hand- 

 some, l)luish-green blades. The stipes are short and 

 densely chaffy. No other wood fern endures the winter so 

 well. The fronds burdened with snow lop over among the 

 withered leaves and continue green imtil the new ones 

 shoot up in the spring. It is the most valuable of all the 

 wood ferns for cultivation. 



(2) The M.vle Ferx 



A.^p'uUiim FUi.r-mas. Thelypteris filix-mvs 



Drj/opfcris F\Ii.r-rnag. Xephrhdiinn Fili.r-ma.'i 



Fronds lancefilate, pinnate, one to three feet high grow- 

 ng in a crown from a shaggy rootstock. Pinnte lanceo- 

 ate, ta])ering from base to a])ex. Pinnules oblong, obtuse, 

 serrate at the apex, obscurely so at the sides, the basal 

 ncisely lobed, distant, the iqjper confluent. Fruit-dots 

 arge, nearer the midvein than the juargin, mostly on the 

 ower half of each fertile .segment. 



The male fern resembles the marginal .shield fern in 

 outline, but the fronds are thinner, are not evergreen, and 

 the sori are near the midvein. Its use in medicine is of 

 long standing. Its rootstock produces the well-known 

 filix-inas of the pharmacist. This has tonic and astringent 

 properties, but is mainly prescribed as a vermifuge, which 

 is one of the names gi^•en to it. In Europe it is regarded 



