652 



SKETCHES FROM FERN-LIFE. 



Fig. 



-Tip of Dicksonia Frond. 



veins, which are not usually apparent without a lens. 

 Some ferns, however, are so thin and delicate that a very 

 pretty view of the system of veining may be obtained by 

 holding their fronds in front of a strong light, Growing 

 without seed, fruiting without flow- 

 ers, and bearing their strange fruit- 

 age, not on branches but on their 

 leafy growth, we cannot but regard 

 these graceful plants as something of 

 a puzzle — " nature's lovely para- 

 dox" — at least until maturer 

 knowledge has revealed the secret 

 of their singular ger- 

 mination. They have 

 a charm of mystery 

 which fascinates the 

 mind, while the beauty 

 of their form enchants 

 the eye. 



Our American dick- 

 sonia reveals its close 

 relationship to the 

 tree-ferns by the man- 

 ner of fruiting pecu- 

 iar to the genus. To 

 make this apparent, it 

 is necessary to apply 

 the lens, the fruit-dots 

 being very small. On 

 the apex of a little vein, at each lobe of the cleft pinnule, 

 is a curious indusium in the shape of a cup, filled to 

 the brim with microscopic sporangia. A tooth of the 

 frond, turned over, supports the tiny cup, which is open 

 at the top, and by its position on the frond is turned 

 nearly upside down. The spore-cases, however, cannot 

 fall out, for they are attached to a globular receptacle 

 raised on the end of the vein and enclosed for security in 

 this odd indusium, the whole forming a kind of " cup- 

 and-ball " arrangement, such as may be seen on a larger 

 scale in the seed-pods of many flowering plants. The 

 simile will do for illustration, but it 

 should always be remembered that 

 the powdery spores of fern fruitage 

 are not seeds. They are more 

 nearly analogous to the fertilizing 

 pollen of flowers. The dicksonia 

 sends up its fronds from a slender, 

 wide-spreading rootstock, and 

 where it grows in masses, fills the 

 ground with a network of creeping 

 stems. The frond exhales a deli- 

 cate fragrance, likened to the scent 

 of new-mown hay. 

 Fig. 4.— Fruiting Lobe a very interesting large fern is 

 OF WooDWARDiA. jj^^ woodwardia, or chain-fern, so 

 called from the appearance of the rows of oblong fruit- 

 dots on each side of the mid-ribs of the pinnae. These 

 are connected in links by short veins, but in July, when 

 the spores are ripe, they run together in a confluent line, 



and the likeness to a chain is not so apparent. This fern 

 grows in swamps and wet places, and attains about the 

 same height as the dicksonia — two or three feet. It is 



Fig. 



howing- fruitag;e,) 



not, however, so common as the latter, especially at the 

 north, the genus woodwardia being inclined to favor a 

 warmer climate. The species illustrated, IVoodzuardia 

 Virgiyiica (figs. 4 and 5), may be found not infrequently 

 in the New England states, another rarer species, W. 

 angustifolia {IV. 0)ioclcoidc\< oi Willdenow), also oc- 

 curring in a few localities. 



Among the most widely distributed and the loveliest of 



Fig 6.— Asplenium Ruta-muraria (Wall-rue.; 



North American ferns are the two species of cystopteris, 

 or "bladder-ferns," so named because the indusium or 

 membranaceous covering of the fruit-dots is somewhat 



