526 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



liairy stalks 1ft. or more long, being seldom more tlian 1ft. in length and 

 4in. to 6in. in breadth. These fronds are furnished with from eight to twelve 

 pairs of leaflets, those of the barren fronds being the largest and closest, with 

 their margin entire (undivided) or slightly lobed, and sometimes auricled 

 (eared) at the base. The texture is soft and papery, and the rachis (stalk of 

 the leafy portion), as well as the under- surface, is either naked or slightly 

 hairy, sometimes glandular. The fertile leaflets are contracted, and the sori 

 (spore masses) are disposed close to the midvein. — Hooker, Species Filicum, 

 iv., p. 76. Nicholson, Dictionary of Gardening, ii., p. 441. Beddome, Ferns 

 of British India, t. 132. 



N. (Lastrea) Goldieanum — Las'-tre-a ; Gol-die-a'-num (Goldie's), Hooker. 



A very fine, hardy, North American species, which, according to Eaton, 

 is found growing in deep, rocky woods from Canada and Maine to Indiana, 

 Virginia, and Kentucky. Referring to this Fern, Eaton says (" Ferns of 

 North America," vol. i., p. 309) : " It was collected by Pursh on his visit 

 to America in the early part of this century, the precise locality not known — 

 in the Flora, he says, ' New Jersey to Virginia ' — and Avas by him referred 

 to Filix-mas. His specimens, preserved in the Herbarium at Kew, are partly 

 Goldieanum and partly cristatum. Mr. John Goldie's discovery was made 

 near Montreal in 1818, and the excellent figure in Hooker and Greville's 

 ' Icones Filicum ' was probably taken from one of his specimens, or perhaps 

 from live plants originally brought by him to the Botanic Garden at Glasgow." 

 We have it also on the same authority that this Fern is one of the finest and 

 largest of the species of the Eastern States, being sm-passed in these respects 

 only by the Osmundas and the Ostrich Fern, and that, although not one of 

 the commonest Ferns, it is very abundant in some localities. The fully- 

 developed fertile fronds, which, like the barren ones, are produced from 

 a creeping or slightly ascending rootstock of a very fleshy nature, several 

 inches long and nearly lin. thick, are 2ft. to 3ft. long, 1ft. or more broad, 

 and furnished with fifteen to twenty pairs of leaflets of a soft, papery 

 texture ; these leaflets are cut down nearly to the rachis (stalk) into 

 narrow-spear-shaped lobes, with notched edges. The fertile fronds are 

 produced late in the autumn, those forming the first growth being usually 

 barren and shorter than the others. Both kinds are borne on stalks about 



