HEATH'S FERN PORTFOLIO. 
ROYAL YY.VCi:^—Osimmda regalis, 
^ f he royal fern — 'Osnmnda regalis — grows from two to twelve feet high, according 
to its more or less favourable position. Its roots are fibrous and wiry, and its 
fronds of two kinds, barren and fertile — start from a tufted rootstock or trunk, 
sometimes two feet high. The fronds are deciduous, light green, broadly lance-shaped, 
bi-pinnate or twice divided, the pinnce or first divisions lance-shaped, and the pinnules — 
the second and ultimate divisions — oblong and blunt-pointed, broad, and an inch, or more 
in length. The barren fronds are entirely leafy. The fertile ones, as shown in the present 
specimen, have their pinnules; — mostly in the upper part of the frond only — contracted, and 
upon them the nearly globular spore cases, brown when ripe, are crowded so thickly as 
to give the appearance of flowers. 
Habitats.— Banks of lakes and streams, in peaty, boggy soil, and in other low-lying or 
marshy places. 
Distribution.— The Azores, Algeria, Belgium, Brazil, British Islands, Canada, 
China, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Gothland, Holland, Hungary, India, Italy, 
Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, Natal, Newfoundland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, 
Switzerland, Transylvania, Turkey, and United States. 
It is obviously impossible to give within a moderate compass, a full {i.e. 
a complete) figure of one frond of Osmunda regalis: and the upper part only of 
a fertile frond is here given; but it is natural size and an absolute facsimile of 
the subject from which it is taken. The lower pinnce are longer than the upper 
ones. 
