THE HARD FERN. 
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are generally not more than one-sixth the length 
of the frond proper. The Hard Fern grows in 
varying lengths, according to soil and situation. 
We have seen magnificent specimens in lovely 
Devonshire in damp woods, and on the moist 
banks of brawling streams, growing to a length 
of nearly a yard. This fern has two perfectly 
distinct kinds of frond ; the one barren, the other 
seed-bearing ; the latter being always narrower 
than the former. The barren fronds are lance- 
shaped, or perhaps it would be better to say 
they are strap-shaped, but tapering more or less 
from their base to their centre, and from their 
centre to their point. One simple midrib — in 
continuation of the stipes — clothed on each side 
with a uniform row of leaflets, not quite separated 
from each other, but joined by a narrow straight 
leafy wing, which runs along the entire length of 
the midrib on both of its sides. The leaflets are 
somewhat narrow and blunt-pointed ; the whole 
frond having very much of a comb-like appearance. 
The fertile fronds are taller than the barren 
ones, and grow up from the centre of the tufts 
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