GENUS XVII. 
OSMUNDA, Linrueus. 
BOYAL ! l-.i:\. 
GEN. CHAR. Fructification naked, densely clustered 
on contracted rachiform portions of the frond, forming an 
irregular terminal panicle. Spore-cases large reticulated 
subglobose, stalked, two-valved, opening vertically. Veins 
forked ; venules direct, free. 
The name is of uncertain derivation. There is a legend 
that it commemorates Osmund a waterman of Loch 
Tyne, whose wife and fair-haired daughter were hidden 
among Osmundas during an incursion of the Danes. 
Osmund is a Saxon word for domestic peace, from os 
house, and mund peace. 
1. Osmunda regalis, Linnaeus. Royal Fern, 
Flowering Fern, or Osmund Royal. Fronds bipinnate; 
pinnules oblong nearly entire, dilated and somewhat 
auricled at the base ; spore-cases arranged in a clustered 
terminal panicle. 
OSMCNDA BEGALIS, Lmnasus : Sm. Eng. FL iv., 314: Eng. Bot. 
209: Hook and Am. Fl. 578: Bab. Man. 417: Florigr. Brit, iv., 
3ti : Newm. 332 : Franc. 63. 
The Royal Fern is the most stately of the British 
species. Its tufted caudex which attains a large size, 
and in damp shady situations, a height of two feet and 
