THE HART'S- TON QUE. 



shade of these, where there is always semi-twilight, the Hars't- 

 tongue elects to grow. 



The fronds have been likened to plantain leaves, but no one 

 should mistake these thick, glossy, green things for anything so 

 common. Here and there along the cliffs they appear, a dozen or 

 more leaves, half erect in a circular clump. So lightly are the 

 plants anchored in the yielding soil, that they may be easily lifted 

 out roots and all, without digging. We find ourselves wondering 

 how they manage to exist with such a precarious foothold ; but 

 the number of young plants to be seen testifies to their vigor. In 

 September the spores are ripe and then nearly every frond is 

 loaded on the under side with velvety-brown lines that look like 

 embroidery. So profusely do they fruit, that a , r spore-bearing 

 frond is noticeably heavier than a sterile one. 



Taken separately, the fronds can hardly be said to have much 

 beauty; but their odd shape will not fail to attract attention. 

 The short, chaffy stipe with its entire blade a foot or more long 

 and scarcely an inch and a half broad, seems an anomaly among 

 our common ferns The frond is usually broadest towards the 

 apex, and the base is heart-shaped. In growing plants the edges 

 are crisped and wavy, as if with a superabundance of tissue, giv- 

 ing the plant a very pretty effect. — Willard N. Clute, in Meehan's 

 Monthly. 



