COLOR IN YOUNG FERN FRONDS. 



By C. F. Saunders. 



THE enjoyment which variety of color affords and which lends 

 so great a charm to the study of flowering plants, is not 

 entirely denied the fern lover. The brown or cinnamon- 

 colored fertile parts of the Osmundas — so marked as to have 

 earned for these in popular speech the name of flowering ferns— 

 are familiar to all. Then, too, the markings of the frond backs 

 of some species by the fruit dots— for instance, those of the com- 

 mon evergreen woodfern (Dryopieris marginalis) — are strik- 

 ingly beautiful in white and black and brown. The most pleasing 

 display of color, however, is probably that noticeable in the spring, 

 when the young fronds are uncoiling and when they are often 

 flushed with exquisite tints — evanescent, to be sure, but very real 

 while they last. The following notes, made last spring, may be 

 of interest to some reader. The species mentioned are all abun- 

 dant in the neighborhood of Philadelphia: 



Dry opt en's acrost ichoides (Christmas fern). The crosiers 

 are silvery-green, due to an abundant covering of white hairs. 



Adiantum pedatum (Maiden-hair). The uncoiling fronds are 

 a deep magenta, rather unpleasantly reminding one of new-born 

 mice. 



Onoclea sensibilis (Sensitive fern). The first appearance, 

 while sometimes green, is frequently tawny or reddish-brown, 

 frosted with a scattering of coarse white hairs or chaff. The 

 green pinme of the young fronds are often beautifully edged 

 around with a border of red, making, with the red stipes, a very 

 pretty effect. 



Pier is aquilina (Brake or Bracken), The crosiers of this 

 fern exhibit a tinge of rosin brown, glistening in the sunlight like 

 a garment of old gold. This color appears to reside entirely in a 

 covering of hairs which drop off as the fronds uncoil, leaving the 

 latter green. 



Jl^oodwardia areolata, a coast fern not uncommon in south- 

 ern New Jersey swamps, makes its bow to the new season in a 

 suit of reddish-brown. 



Woodwardia Virginica (Chain fern). These young fronds 

 are frequently of a delicate yellowish-brown or orange tawny tint, 

 deepening to a dull crimson at the margins of the pinme. The 

 young stipes are also crimson. As the plants of this species are 



