either plant is in fruit there is no excuse for this mistake, as the
cinnamon-colored spore-cases of the former appear in May, while the
dark-green fertile fronds of the latter do not ripen till July. When
the fruiting fronds are absent the forked veinlets (Plate III, _a_) of
the Cinnamon Fern contrast with the simple veinlets of the other plant
(Plate II, _a_). Then, too, the pinnæ of the Cinnamon Fern bear tufts
of rusty wool at the base beneath, the remnants of the woolly garments
worn by the young fronds.
The plant is a superb one when seen at its best. Its tall sterile
fronds curve gracefully outward, while the slender fruit-clusters
erect themselves in the centre of the rich crown. In unfavorable
conditions, when growing in dry meadows, for instance, like all the
Osmundas, and indeed like most growing things, it is quite a different
plant. Its green fronds become stiff and stunted, losing all their
graceful curves, and its fruit-clusters huddle among them as if
anxious to keep out of sight.
_Var. frondosa_ is an occasional form in which some of the fruiting
fronds have green, leaf-like pinnæ below. These abnormal fronds are
most abundant on land which has been burned over.
The Cinnamon Fern is a member of the group of Osmundas, or "flowering
ferns," as they are sometimes called, not of course because they
really flower, but because their fruiting fronds are somewhat
flower-like in appearance. There are three species of _Osmunda_:
the Cinnamon Fern, _O. cinnamomea_; the Royal Fern, _O. regalis_;
and the Interrupted Fern, _O. Claytoniana_. All three are beautiful
and striking plants, producing their spores in May or June, and
conspicuous by reason of their luxuriant growth and flower-like fruit
clusters.
The Osmundas are easily cultivated, and group themselves effectively
in shaded corners of the garden. They need plenty of water, and thrive
best in a mixture of swamp-muck and fine loam.
4. CURLY GRASS
_Schizæa pusilia_
Pine barrens of New Jersey.
_Sterile fronds._--Hardly an inch long, linear, slender,
flattened, curly.
_Fertile fronds._--Taller than the sterile fronds (three
or four inches in height), slender, with from four to six
pairs of fruit-bearing pinnæ in September.
Save in the herbarium I have never seen this very local little plant,
which is found in certain parts of New Jersey. Gray assigns it to "low
grounds, pine barrens," while Dr. Eaton attributes it to the "drier
parts of sphagnous swamps among white cedars."
[Illustration: PLATE IV
CURLY GRASS]
In my lack of personal knowledge of _Schizæa_, I venture to quote from
that excellent little quarterly, the _Fern Bulletin_, the following
passage from an article by Mr. C. F. Saunders on _Schizæa pusilla_ at
home:
"S. pusilla was first collected early in this century
at Quaker Bridge, N. J., about thirty-five miles east
of Philadelphia. The spot is a desolate-looking place
in the wildest of the 'pine barrens,' where a branch of
the Atsion River flows through marshy lowlands and cedar
swamps. Here, amid sedge-grasses, mosses, Lycopodiums,
Droseras, and wild cranberry vines, the little treasure
has been collected; but, though I have hunted for it more
than once, my eyes have never been sharp enough to detect
its fronds in that locality. In October of last year,
however, a friend guided me to another place in New Jersey
where he knew it to be growing, and there we found it. It
was a small open spot in the pine barrens, low and damp.
In the white sand grew patches of low grasses, mosses,
Lycopodium Carolinianum, L. inundatum, and Pyxidanthera
barbulata, besides several smaller ericaceous plants and
some larger shrubs, such as scrub-oaks, sumacs, etc.
Close by was a little stream, and just beyond that a bog.
Although we knew that the Schizæa grew within a few feet of
the path in which we stood, it required the closest sort
of a search, with eyes at the level of our knees, before
a specimen was detected. The sterile fronds (curled like
corkscrews) grew in little tufts, and were more readily
visible than the fertile spikes, which were less numerous,
and, together with the slender stipes, were of a brown
color, hardly distinguishable from the capsules of the
mosses, and the maturing stems of the grasses which grew
all about. Lying flat on the earth, with face within a few
inches of the ground, was found the most satisfactory plan
of search. Down there all the individual plants looked
bigger, and a sidelong glance brought the fertile clusters
more prominently into view. When the sight got accustomed
to the miniature jungle quite a number of specimens were
found, but the fern could hardly be said to be plentiful,
and all that we gathered were within a radius of a couple
of yards. This seems, indeed, to be one of those plants
whose whereabouts is oftenest revealed by what we are wont
to term a 'happy accident,' as, for instance, when we are
lying stretched on the ground resting, or as we stoop at
lunch to crack an egg on the toe of our shoe. I know of
one excellent collector who spent a whole day looking for
it diligently in what he thought to be a likely spot,
but without success, when finally, just before the time
for return came, as he was half crouching on the ground,
scarcely thinking now of Schizæa, its fronds suddenly
flashed upon his sight, right at his feet. The sterile
fronds of Schizæa pusilla are evergreen, so that the
collector may, perhaps, most readily detect it in winter,
selecting days for his search when the earth is pretty
clear of snow. The surrounding vegetation being at that
time dead, the little corkscrew-like fronds stand out more
prominently."
GROUP II
FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, THE FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE THE
REST OF THE FROND
5. ROYAL FERN. FLOWERING FERN
_Osmunda regalis_
New Brunswick to Florida, in swampy places. Two to five feet high,
occasionally taller.
_Sterile fronds._--Twice-pinnate, _pinnæ_ cut into oblong
pinnules.
_Fertile fronds._--Leaf-like below, _sporangia_ forming
bright-brown clusters at their summits.
Perhaps this Royal or Flowering Fern is the most beautiful member of
a singularly beautiful group. When its smooth, pale-green sterile
fronds, grown to their full height, form a graceful crown which
encircles the fertile fronds, it is truly a regal-looking plant. These
fertile fronds are leaf-like below, and are tipped above with their
flower-like fruit-clusters.
[Illustration: Royal Fern]
Like its kinsmen, the Royal Fern appears in May in our wet woods and
fields. The delicate little croziers uncurl with dainty grace, the
plants which grow in the open among the yellow stars of the early
crow-foot, and the white clusters of the spring cress being so tinged
with red that they suffuse the meadows with warm color.
Though one of our tallest ferns, with us it never reaches the ten or
eleven feet with which it is credited in Great Britain. The tallest
plants I have found fall short of six feet. Occasionally we see
large tracts of land covered with mature plants that lack a foot or
more of the two feet given as the minimum height. This tendency to
depauperization one notices especially in dry marshes near the sea.
[Illustration: PLATE V
ROYAL FERN
_a_ Pinnule of Royal Fern
_b_ Showing veining]
To the Royal Fern the old herbalists attributed many valuable
qualities. One old writer, who calls it the "Water Fern," says:
"This hath all the virtues mentioned in other ferns, and is much
more effective than they both for inward and outward griefs, and is
accounted good for wounds, bruises, and the like."
The title "flowering fern" sometimes misleads those who are so
unfamiliar with the habits of ferns as to imagine that they ever
flower. That it really is descriptive was proved to me only a few
weeks ago when I received a pressed specimen of a fertile frond
accompanied by the request to inform the writer as to the name of the
flower inclosed, which seemed to him to belong to the Sumach family.
The origin of the generic name _Osmunda_ seems somewhat obscure. It
is said to be derived from Osmunder, the Saxon Thor. In his Herbal
Gerarde tells us that _Osmunda regalis_ was formerly called "Osmund,
the Waterman," in allusion, perhaps, to its liking for a home in the
marshes. One legend claims that a certain Osmund, living at Loch Tyne,
saved his wife and child from the inimical Danes by hiding them upon
an island among masses of flowering ferns, and that in after years the
child so shielded named the stately plants after her father.
The following lines from Wordsworth point to still another origin of
the generic name:
"--often, trifling with a privilege
Alike indulged to all, we paused, one now,
And now the other, to point out, perchance
To pluck, some flower, or water-weed, too fair
Either to be divided from the place
On which it grew, or to be left alone
To its own beauty. Many such there are,
Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall fern,
So stately, of the Queen Osmunda named:
Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode
On Grasmere's beach, than Naiad by the side
Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere,
Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance."
The Royal Fern may be cultivated easily in deep mounds of rich soil
shielded somewhat from the sun.
6. INTERRUPTED FERN
_Osmunda Claytoniana_
Newfoundland to North Carolina, in swampy places. Two to
four feet high.
_Sterile fronds._--Oblong-lanceolate, once-pinnate, _pinnæ_
cut into oblong, obtuse divisions, _without_ a tuft of wool
at the base of each pinna.
_Fertile fronds._--Taller than the sterile, leaf-like above
and below, some of the middle pinnæ fruit-bearing.
The Interrupted Fern makes its appearance in the woods and meadows and
along the roadsides in May. It fruits as it unfolds.
At first the fruiting pinnæ are almost black. Later they become
golden-green, and after the spores are discharged they turn brown.
They are noticeable all summer, and serve to identify the plant at
once.
In the absence of the fertile fronds it is often difficult to
distinguish between the Cinnamon Fern and the Interrupted Fern.
The sterile fronds of the Interrupted Fern are usually less erect,
curving outward much more noticeably than those of the Cinnamon Fern.
Then, too, its pinnæ are cut into segments that are more obtuse, and
the whole effect of the frond is more stubby.
But the most distinguishing feature of all is the tuft of rusty wool
which clings to the base of each pinna of the sterile fronds of the
Cinnamon Fern. These tufts we do not find in the Interrupted Fern,
though both plants come into the world warmly wrapped in wool.
[Illustration: PLATE VI
INTERRUPTED FERN
_a_ Clusters of sporangia
_b_ Showing veining]
The Interrupted Fern is a peculiarly graceful plant. Its fertile
fronds, standing quite erect below but curving outward above the
fruiting pinnæ, are set in a somewhat shallow vase formed by the
sterile fronds, which fall away in every direction.
In the fall the fronds turn yellow, and at times are so brilliant that
they flood the woods with golden light.
Like the other Osmundas, the Interrupted Fern is easily cultivated.
[Illustration: Interrupted Fern]
[Illustration: Climbing Fern]
7. CLIMBING FERN. CREEPING FERN. HARTFORD FERN
_Lygodium palmatum_
Massachusetts and southward, in moist thickets and open
woods. Stalks slender and twining.
_Fronds._--Climbing and twining, one to three feet long,
divided into lobed, rounded, heart-shaped, short-stalked
segments; _fruit-clusters_, growing at the summit of the
frond, ripening in September.
The Climbing Fern is still found occasionally in moist thickets and
open woods from Massachusetts southward, but at one time it was picked
so recklessly for decorative purposes that it was almost exterminated.
In 1869 the legislature of Connecticut passed for its protection a
special law which was embodied in the revision of the statutes of
1875, "perhaps the only instance in statute law," Dr. Eaton remarks,
"where a plant has received special legal protection solely on account
of its beauty."
I have never seen the plant growing, but remember that when a child
my home in New York was abundantly decorated with the pressed fronds
which had been brought from Hartford for the purpose. Even in that
lifeless condition their grace and beauty made a deep impression on my
mind.
[Illustration: Part of fertile pinnule]
Mr. Saunders has described it as he found it growing in company with
_Schizæa_, in the New Jersey pine barrens:
"Lygodium palmatum ... is one of the loveliest of American
plants, with twining stem adorned with palmate leaflets,
bearing small resemblance to the popular idea of a fern. It
loves the shaded, mossy banks of the quiet streams whose
cool, clear, amber waters, murmuring over beds of pure
white sand, are so characteristic of the pine country.
There the graceful fronds are to be found, sometimes
clambering a yard high over the bushes and cat-briers;
sometimes trailing down the bank until their tips touch the
surface of the water.
"The Lygodium is reckoned among the rare plants of the
region--though often growing in good-sized patches when
found at all--and is getting rarer. Many of the localities
which knew it once now know it no more, both because of the
depredations of ruthless collectors, and, to some extent,
probably, the ravages of fire. The plant is in its prime in
early fall, but may be looked for up to the time of killing
frosts."
8. ADDER'S TONGUE
_Ophioglossum vulgatum_
Canada to New Jersey and Kentucky, in moist meadows. Two
inches to one foot high.
_Sterile portion._--An ovate, fleshy leaf.
_Fertile portion._--A simple spike, usually long-stalked.
The unprofessional fern collector is likely to agree with Gray
in considering the Adder's Tongue "not common." Many botanists,
however, believe the plant to be "overlooked rather than rare." In an
article on _O. vulgatum_, which appeared some years ago in the _Fern
Bulletin_, Mr. A. A. Eaton writes:
"Previous to 1895 Ophioglossum vulgatum was unknown to
me, and was considered very rare, only two localities
being known in Essex County, Mass. Early in the year a
friend gave me two specimens. From these I got an idea
of how the thing looked. On the 11th of last July, while
collecting Habenaria lacera in a 'bound-out' mowing field,
I was delighted to notice a spike of fruit in the grass. A
search revealed about sixty, just right to collect, with
many unfruitful specimens. A few days later, while raking
in a similar locality, I found several, within a stone's
throw of the house, demonstrating again the well-known fact
that a thing once seen is easily discovered again. On the
23d of last August, while riding on my bicycle, I noticed
a field that appeared to be the right locality, and an
investigation showed an abundance of them. I subsequently
found it in another place. This year, on May 28th, I found
it in another locality just as it was coming up, and I have
since found three others. I consider it abundant here, only
appearing rare because growing hidden in fine grass in old
mowing fields, after the red top and timothy have died out,
and the finer species of Carex are coming in. A good index
plant is the Habenaria quoted. I have never found it except
when associated with this plant, on a cold, heavy soil. The
leaf is usually hidden, or, if not, is easily passed by for
Maianthemum or Pogonia."
In the "Grete Herbal" of Gerarde we read that "the leaves of Adder's
Tongue stamped in a stone mortar, and boiled in oyle olive unto the
consumption of the juice, and until the herbs be dried and parched
and then strained, will yeelde most excellent greene oyle or rather a
balsame for greene wounds comparable to oyle of St. John's-wort if it
do not farre surpasse it."
It is said that "Adder's Spear Ointment," made from the fresh fronds
of this plant is still used for wounds in English villages.
[Illustration: PLATE VII
ADDER'S TONGUE]
The Adder's Tongue was believed formerly to have poisonous
qualities, which not only injured the cattle that fed upon it, but
destroyed the grass in which it grew.
9. RATTLESNAKE FERN. VIRGINIA GRAPE FERN
_Botrychium Virginianum_
Nova Scotia to Florida, in rich woods. One or two feet
high, at times much smaller, when it becomes _B. gracile_.
_Sterile portion._--Usually broader than long, spreading,
with three main divisions which are cut into many smaller
segments, thin, set close to the stem about half way up.
_Fertile portion._--Long-stalked, more than once-pinnate.
[Illustration: Rattlesnake Fern]
On our rambles through the woods we are more likely to encounter the
Rattlesnake Fern than any other member of the _Botrychium_ group. It
fruits in early summer, but the withered fertile portion may be found
upon the plant much later in the year. Its frequent companions are the
Spinulose Shield Fern, the Christmas Fern, the Silvery Spleenwort, and
the Maidenhair.
10. TERNATE GRAPE FERN
_Botrychium ternatum_ or _dissectum_
Nova Scotia to Florida, in moist meadows. A few inches to
more than a foot high.
_Sterile portion._--Broadly triangular, the three main
divisions cut again into many segments, on a separate stalk
from near the base of the plant, fleshy.
_Fertile portion._--Erect, usually considerably taller than
non-fruiting segment, more than once-pinnate.
[Illustration: Sporangia of Botrychium]
Of late some doubt has existed as to whether _B. ternatum_ has been
actually found in this country, although the standard Floras give no
evidence of this uncertainty. Dr. Underwood is convinced that the true
_B. ternatum_ is found only in Japan and China, and that our species
is really _B. dissectum_, a species, not a variety. He says that this
species is very common in the vicinity of New York City, and thence
southward and westward; that it is also found in various parts of New
England; that it reaches its fullest development in moist, shady
woods; that in mossy meadows of New England and Central New York the
plant assumes a more contracted habit. He believes its segments are
more apt to be divided in shady situations than in open, sunny ground.
The Ternate Grape Fern fruits in the fall.
[Illustration: Part of sterile portion of B. dissectum]
[Illustration: PLATE VIII
TERNATE GRAPE FERN]
11. LITTLE GRAPE FERN
_Botrychium simplex_
Canada to Maryland, in moist woods and in fields. Two to
four inches high, rarely a little taller.
_Sterile portion._--Somewhat oblong, more or less lobed,
occasionally 3-7 divided, usually short-stalked from near
the middle of the plant, thick and fleshy.
_Fertile portion._--Either simple or once or twice-pinnate,
taller than the sterile portion.
This little plant is sufficiently rare to rejoice the heart of the
fern hunter who is so fortunate as to stumble upon it by chance or
to trace it to its chosen haunts.
It is generally considered an inhabitant of moist woods and meadows,
though Mr. Pringle describes it as "abundantly scattered over Vermont,
its habitat usually poor soil, especially knolls of hill pastures,"
and Mr. Dodge assigns it to "dry fields." It fruits in May or June.
12. MOONWORT
_Botrychium Lunaria_
Newfoundland to Connecticut and Central New York, in dry
pastures. Three inches to nearly one foot high. A very
fleshy plant.
_Sterile portion._--Oblong, cut into several fan-shaped
fleshy divisions, growing close to the stem about the
middle of the plant.
_Fertile portion._--Branching, long-stalked, usually the
same height as or taller than the sterile portion.
The Moonwort is another of our rare little plants. It grows usually in
dry pastures, fruiting in July.
Formerly it was accredited with various magic powers. Gathered by
moonlight, it was said to "do wonders." The English poet Drayton
refers to the Moonwort as "Lunary":
"Then sprinkled she the juice of rue
With nine drops of the midnight dew
From Lunary distilling."
[Illustration: PLATE IX
MOONWORT
LANCE LEAVED GRAPE FERN]
Gerarde mentions its use by alchemists, who called it Martagon. In the
work of Coles, an early writer on plants, we read: "It is said, yea,
and believed by many that Moonwort will open the locks wherewith
dwelling-houses are made fast, if it be put into the keyhole; as also
that it will loosen ... shoes from those horses' feet that go on the
places where it grows."
It is to the Moonwort that Withers alludes in the following lines:
"There is an herb, some say, whose vertue's such
It in the pasture, only with a touch
Unshoes the new-shod steed."
13. MATRICARY GRAPE FERN
_Botrychium matricariæfolium_
Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and wet meadows. Two
inches to one foot high.
_Sterile portion._--Once or twice divided, sometimes very
fleshy, growing high up on the stem.
_Fertile portion._--With several branched pinnæ.
This plant is found, often in the companionship of _B. Virginianum_,
in woods and wet meadows, not farther south than New Jersey. It fruits
in summer.
14. LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN
_Botrychium lanceolatum_
Nova Scotia to New Jersey, in woods and meadows. Two to
nine inches high.
_Sterile portion._--Triangular, twice-pinnatifid, with
somewhat lance-shaped segments, hardly fleshy, set close to
the top of the common stalk.
_Fertile portion._--Branching.
Like the Matricary Grape Fern, this plant is found in the woods and
wet meadows from Nova Scotia to New Jersey. It fruits also in summer.
GROUP III
FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE IN APPEARANCE, YET
DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS
15. SLENDER CLIFF BRAKE
_Pellæa gracilis (P. Stelleri)_
Labrador to Pennsylvania, usually on sheltered rocks,
preferring limestone. Two to five inches long, with
straw-colored or pale-brown stalks, slightly chaffy below.
_Fronds._--Delicate, with few pinnæ; _pinnæ_, the lower
ones once or twice parted into 3-5 divisions, those of
the fertile frond oblong or linear-oblong, sparingly
incised, of the sterile frond ovate or obovate, toothed or
incised; _sporangia_ bordering the pinnæ of the fertile
frond, covered by a broad and usually continuous general
_indusium_, formed by the reflexed margin of the _pinnule_.
The first time I found the Slender Cliff Brake was one July day in
Central New York, under the kind guidance of an enthusiastic fern
collector. A rather perilous climb along the sides of a thickly
wooded glen brought us to a spot where our only security lay in
clinging to the trees, which, like ourselves, had obtained doubtful
standing-room. In a pocket in the limestone just above us I was shown
a very brown and withered little plant which only the closest scrutiny
in combination with a certain amount of foreknowledge could identify
as the Slender Cliff Brake. The season had been a dry one and the
plant had perished, I fancy, for lack of water, in spite of the stream
which plunged from the top of the cliffs close by, almost near enough,
it seemed to me, to moisten with its spray our hot cheeks.
[Illustration: Portion of fertile frond]
Later in the season I found more promising though not altogether
satisfactory specimens of this plant growing in other rocky crevices
of the same deep glen, in the neighborhood of the Maidenhair
Spleenwort, the Walking Leaf, and the Bulblet Bladder Fern.
My sister tells me that late in August on the cliffs which border the
St. Lawrence River, refreshed by the myriad streams which leap or
trickle down their sides, under the hanging roots of trees, close to
clusters of quivering harebells and pale tufts of the Brittle Bladder
Fern, the Slender Cliff Brake grows in profusion, its delicate fronds
rippling over one another so closely that at times they give the
effect of a long, luxuriant moss. On most occasions, in these soft
beds of foliage, she found the fertile fronds, which are far more
slender and unusual looking than the sterile, largely predominating,
though at times a patch would be made up chiefly of the sterile
fronds. These somewhat resemble the Brittle Bladder Fern in whose
company they are seen so often.
[Illustration: Slender Cliff Brake]
16. PURPLE CLIFF BRAKE
_Pellæa atropurpurea_
Canada to Georgia and westward, usually on limestone
cliffs; with wiry purplish stalks.