— Sr — 



this station can claim first rank, either as regards Dumber or 

 abundance of species, but beauty is all about us, standing, as it 

 were 



" With arms outstretched and eager face ablaze, 

 Yearning to be but understood and loved." 

 Cambridge, Ohio. 



HELPS FOR THE BEGINNER. 



II. — The Sensitive Fern. 



WHOEVER has crossed a swampy meadow, or boated and 

 botanized on the streams in the territory east of the 

 Mississippi river has doubtless seen the Sensitive fern 

 {Onoclea sensib£l£s) t although he may not have recognized it as 



such. It is a rank species 

 with broad coarse leaves 

 that scarcely look like 

 those of a fern and which 

 are not in the least sensi- 

 tive. It is exceedingly 

 common in all wet places, 

 and no one should have 

 trouble in finding speci- 

 mens. 



The fertile fronds are 

 very different from the 

 sterile. Instead of being 

 flat and green, they are 

 tightly rolled round the 

 sori, each lobe of the 

 frond forming a small 

 berry -like object like 

 those in our illustration. 

 They do not appear until 

 rather late in the season, 

 so late, in fact, that it 

 does not seem advan- 

 tageous for them to shed 

 their spores until the 



Onoclea sensibilis, a fertile and sterile next spring. They are 



frond. held fast above the snow 



all winter and liberated 

 when the soil is suitable for their germination. These fruiting 



