THE HARD FERN. 
proper. This Fern grows in varying degrees of 
luxuriance, 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 centres to their bases and to their apices. 
One simple midrib — in continuation of the 
stipes — clothed on each side with a row of leaf- 
lets, 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 formed 
by the latter. In these fertile fronds the leaflets 
are much narrower than those of the barren 
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