A GOLDEN SHRUBBERY. 5; 



inflated, though it really resembles a hood more than a 

 sac or bladder. These ferns appear quite early in the 

 spring, growing in close tufts, and are 

 found in shaded ravines and rocky 

 places everywhere. Their delicate 

 fronds, two or three times di- 

 vided, form feathery masses of 

 green so light and airy in effect 

 that we are surprised, on a 

 near inspection, to see what a 

 weight of fruitage they bear. 

 At maturity the entire under 

 side of fertile fronds is brown 

 with ripened sporangia. 

 Cystopteris fi-a,i^rilis 

 fig. (7), the more com- 

 mon of the two species, 

 is a small fern, its foli- 

 ated part seldom ex- 

 ceeding seven or eight 

 inches in length, but 

 borne on a slender stalk 

 fully as long, which 

 holds the graceful frond 

 well up to view. As 

 denoted by its name, it 

 is very frail, and is 

 known in some sections 

 as the " brittle fern." 

 The sister species, t . 

 bidbifera, has a narrow, elongated frond, often two or 

 more feet in length, and trailing on the ground as it 

 grows. Tiny bulbs are sometimes formed along the 

 underside of its central rib and on the mid-veins of the 

 main divisions, hence the appellation describing it as 

 bulbiferus ; but these bulbs are frequently wanting. 



In the genus asplenium, the medicinal spleenworts, 

 there are some beautiful small ferns, not so well known 

 as the larger species, being rather rare or local in their 

 range. The rarest and the smallest of all is the charm- 

 ing little "wall-rue," Asplenium Ruta-muraria {fig, 6), 

 which grows only from 2 to 4 inches tall. This fern is 

 very scarce, and occurs in widely separated sections of 



7.— Cystopteris fragi 

 (Without tt)e stalk.) 



country, I being occasionally found on limestone ledges 

 from Vermont and Massachusetts far westward. It seems 

 to be most frequent in the mountains of Pennsylvania. 



More plentiful, but still not common, save here and 

 there in some favored location, is the ' ' maidenhair spleen- 

 wort," Asplenium trichomanes (fig. 8), a dainty fern, 

 with fronds only half an inch wide, and, at the most, but 

 7 or 8 inches long. This, too, is a rock-loving species, 

 and revels in moisture, making its home on damp, moss- 

 grown ledges, and draping the walls of cool grottoes or 



the wet brinks of cas- 

 cades and waterfalls. 



ts frond somewhat re- 

 sembles the branches 

 of an adiantum. 



Another species not 

 found everywhere, but 

 more general in its range 

 of distribution, and much 

 more abundant than the 

 two ferns last described, is 

 the ebony-fern, Asplenium 

 cbeneum. There is a form 

 of this which grows from 

 12 to 15 inches tall, but the 

 ordinary type is considera- 

 bly smaller. It is found in 

 Fig. 8.-ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES. Open, hillside woods, and 

 may often be seen along 

 fences and rocky roadsides. It has an upright, narrow 

 frond, with a polished black stalk and rachis, and is 

 rather stiff in its habit of growth, but it is unusual in 

 form and quaintly pretty. See fig. 9, on the next page. 

 Connecticut. Frances Wilson 



A GOLDEN SHRUBBERY 



OF BRIGHT-LEAVED PLANTS 



HE most attractive feature of our home, 

 near the banks of the Potomac, in West 

 Virginia, iis a grove of grand old oaks, a 

 few magnificent tulip-trees as large as 

 the oaks, and several picturesque tupe- 

 los, or sour gums, that are especially 

 beautiful in autumn. These old giants 

 are slowly dying out. Down by the front gate there 

 was, a few years ago, a hundred yards or more of vacant 

 space covered with level greensward. 



In the spring of i88g we became interested in land- 



scape-gardening, and determined to appropriate this spot 

 for a shrubbery. A number of golden-leaved plants, 

 sent us that year by a firm that advertised 50 desirable 

 shrubs for a certain sum, determined the character of 

 the new undertaking, which has since borne the name of 

 the "golden shrubbery." 



This mass of shrubbery is hidden from view by the 

 rising ground between it and the house. Walking down 

 either of the two driveways which wind through the 

 grove, one comes upon the yellow-leaved group as a final 

 surprise. The stone wall which bounds it on the south 



