over an unused mountain road brought us to a picturesque spot where
the clear stream tumbled into a rock-paved basin, suggesting so
vividly the joy of
"---- the cool silver shock
Of the plunge in a pool's living water,"
that then and there we resolved soon to pitch our tent upon its banks.
In all respects it was not a suitable camp site. There were no balsams
or evergreens of any kind available for bedding in the neighborhood,
so when, a few days later, we had taken up our quarters just above
the rock-paved pool, we went into our temporary back-yard where
the _Dicksonia_ grew abundantly with its usual soft and seductive
appearance, and gathered great armfuls for the night's rest. I must
frankly own that I never slept on so hard a bed. Since then I have
been more than ever inclined to believe that ferns inhabit the earth
chiefly for decorative ends. In the present age they do not lend
themselves as once they did to medicinal purposes. Usually they are
without culinary value. So far as I know animals refuse to eat them on
account of their acrid juices. And experience proves that when used as
a bed they do not
"---- medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday."
The Hay-scented Fern is very sensitive, withering with the early
frosts. Sometimes in the fall it bleaches almost white. Then its
slender fronds seem like beautiful wraiths of their former selves.
The _Dicksonia_, as he always calls it, is Thoreau's favorite among
the ferns. Its fronds are sweet-scented when crushed or in drying, and
to their fragrance he was peculiarly sensitive:
"Going along this old Carlisle road ... road where all
wild things and fruits abound, where there are countless
rocks to jar those who venture in wagons; road which leads
to and through a great but not famous garden, zoölogical
and botanical, at whose gate you never arrive--as I was
going along there, I perceived the grateful scent of the
Dicksonia fern now partly decayed. It reminds me of all up
country, with its springy mountain-sides and unexhausted
vigor. Is there any essence of Dicksonia fern, I wonder?
Surely that giant, who my neighbor expects is to bound up
the Alleghenies, will have his handkerchief scented with
that. The sweet fragrance of decay! When I wade through by
narrow cow-paths, it is as if I had strayed into an ancient
and decayed herb garden. Nature perfumes her garments with
this essence now especially. She gives it to those who go
a-barberrying and on dark autumnal walks. The very scent of
it, if you have a decayed frond in your chamber, will take
you far up country in a twinkling. You would think you had
gone after the cows there, or were lost on the mountains."
Again:
"Why can we not oftener refresh one another with original
thoughts? If the fragrance of the Dicksonia fern is so
grateful and suggestive to us, how much more refreshing
and encouraging, recreating, would be fresh and fragrant
thoughts communicated to us from a man's experience? I want
none of his pity nor sympathy in the common sense, but
that he should emit and communicate to me his essential
fragrance ... going a-huckleberrying in the fields of
thought, and enriching all the world with his vision and
his joys."
In connection with this fern Thoreau indulges in one of those
whimsical, enchanting disquisitions with the spirit of which you are
in complete accord, even though you may seem to contradict the letter:
"It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin
to know. I do not get nearer by a hair's-breadth to any
natural object, so long as I presume that I have an
introduction to it from some learned man. To conceive of it
with a total apprehension, I must for the thousandth time
approach it as something totally strange. If you would make
acquaintance with the ferns, you must forget your botany.
Not a single scientific term or distinction is the least
to the purpose. You would fain perceive something, and you
must approach the object totally unprejudiced. You must
be aware that nothing is what you have taken it to be. In
what book is this world and its beauty described? Who has
plotted the steps toward the discovery of beauty? You must
be in a different state from common. Your greatest success
will be simply to perceive that such things are, and you
will have no communication to make to the Royal Society. If
it were required to know the position of the fruit-dots or
the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than
to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected
by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to
you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation
to you, helping to redeem your life, this end is not so
easily accomplished."
GROUP V
FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; SPORANGIA IN LINEAR
OR OBLONG FRUIT-DOTS
24. LADY FERN
_Asplenium Filix-fœmina_
A wood and roadside fern, growing in all parts of the
country and presenting many varying forms. One to three
feet high, with tufted, straw-colored, reddish, or brownish
stalks.
_Fronds._--Broadly lance-shaped, tapering toward the
apex, twice-pinnate; _pinnæ_ lance-shaped; _pinnules_
oblong-lanceolate, toothed or incised; _fruit-dots_ short,
curved; _indusium_ delicate, curved, sometimes shaped like
a horseshoe.
The Lady Fern is found in all parts of the country. Sometimes it forms
a part of the tangle of wild, graceful things which grow close to the
roadside fence. Again, in company with the Silvery Spleenwort, the
Evergreen Wood Fern and the Spinulose Shield Fern, forming perhaps a
background for the brilliant scarlet clusters of the wild bergamot, it
fringes the banks of some amber-colored brook which surprises us with
its swift, noiseless flow as we stroll through the woods.
[Illustration: PLATE XV
LADY FERN
_a_ Fruiting pinnule
_b_ Portion of same]
The earliest fronds uncurl in May. In June the plant is very
graceful and pleasing. When growing in shaded places it is often
conspicuous by reason of its bright pink or reddish stalks, which
contrast effectively with the delicate green of the foliage. But in
later summer, judging by my own experience, the Lady Fern loses much
of its delicacy. Many of its fronds become disfigured and present a
rather blotched and coarse appearance.
This seems strange in view of the fact that the plant is called by
Lowe, a well-known English writer, the "Queen of Ferns," and that it
is one of the few ferns to which we find reference in literature.
Scott pays it the compliment, rarely bestowed upon ferns, of
mentioning it by name:
"Where the copse wood is the greenest,
Where the fountain glistens sheenest,
Where the morning dew lies longest,
There the Lady Fern grows strongest."
In English works devoted to ferns I find at least two poems, more
remarkable for enthusiasm than for poetic inspiration, in its honor.
I quote a portion of the one which occurs in Miss Pratt's "Ferns of
Great Britain and Their Allies":
"But seek her not in early May,
For a Sibyl then she looks,
With wrinkled fronds that seem to say,
'Shut up are my wizard books!'
Then search for her in the summer woods,
Where rills keep moist the ground,
Where Foxgloves from their spotted hoods,
Shake pilfering insects round;
When up and clambering all about,
The Traveller's Joy flings forth
Its snowy awns, that in and out
Like feathers strew the earth:
Fair are the tufts of meadow-sweet
That haply blossom nigh;
Fair are the whirls of violet
Prunella shows hard by;
But nor by burn in wood, or vale,
Grows anything so fair
As the plumy crest of emerald pale,
That waves in the wind, and soughs in the gale,
Of the Lady Fern, when the sunbeams turn
To gold her delicate hair."
The other, which I give in full, on account of its quaintness,
appeared in the _Botanical Looker-out_ of Edwin Lees:
"When in splendor and beauty all nature is crown'd,
The Fern is seen curling half hid in the ground,
But of all the green brackens that rise by the burn,
Commend me alone to the sweet Lady Fern.
"Polypodium indented stands stiff on the rock,
With his sori exposed to the tempest's rough shock;
On the wide, chilly heath Aquilina stands stern,
Not once to be named with the sweet Lady Fern.
"Filix-mas in a circle lifts up his green fronds
And the Heath Fern delights by the bogs and the ponds;
Through their shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn,
The palm must still rest with the fair Lady Fern.
"By the fountain I see her just spring into sight,
Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright;
To the water she shrinks--I can scarcely discern
In the deep humid shadows the soft Lady Fern.
"Where the water is pouring forever she sits,
And beside her the Ouzel, the Kingfisher flits;
There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn,
In the shade of the rock stands the tall Lady Fern.
"Noon burns up the mountain; but here by the fall
The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall.
Hours speed as thoughts rise, without any concern,
And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern."
25. SILVERY SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium thelypteroides_ (_A. acrostichoides_)
Canada to Alabama and westward, in rich woods. One to three
feet high.
_Fronds._--Lance-shaped, tapering both ways from the
middle, once-pinnate; _pinnæ_ linear-lanceolate, deeply
cut into obtuse segments; _fruit-dots_ oblong; _indusium_
silvery when young.
[Illustration: Entire frond]
The Silvery Spleenwort grows in company with its kinsman, the
Narrow-leaved Spleenwort, and also with many of the Aspidiums, such
as the Spinulose Shield Fern, the Evergreen Wood Fern, the Christmas
and Goldie's Fern. I find it growing in large patches in the rich
woods, often near water, either in boggy ground or on the very edge
of the clear, brown brook. Sometimes it is difficult to detect a
single fertile frond in a group of plants covering many square feet
of ground. This is probably owing to the deeply shaded situations
which it favors, as in sunny exposures I have noticed an abundance of
fertile fronds.
[Illustration: PLATE XVI
_a_ Upper part of fertile frond of Silvery Spleenwort
_b_ Portion of fruiting pinna
_c_ Portion of pinna showing double fruit-dots]
Its color is a dull green, the silvery indusia on the lower surfaces
of the pinnæ giving the plant its English title. Although usually its
fronds are larger, their outline, tapering as it does both ways from
the middle, somewhat suggests that of the New York Fern. It is readily
identified, as the oblong or linear fruit-dots at once proclaim it a
Spleenwort, and no other member of this tribe has fronds of the same
shape.
Although it cannot be classed among the rare ferns, it is absent
from many promising localities, and is associated in my mind with
especially successful expeditions.
26. RUE SPLEENWORT. WALL RUE
_Asplenium Ruta-muraria_
A small rock fern, growing on limestone, Vermont to
Michigan and southward. Four to seven inches long, with
green, slender, tufted stalks.
_Fronds._--Triangular-ovate, smooth, evergreen, twice or
thrice-pinnate below; _pinnæ_ cut into stalked pinnules;
_fruit-dots_ confluent at maturity, covering nearly the
whole lower surface of pinnules; _indusium_ delicate.
My first acquaintance with the little Rue Spleenwort in its own home
dates back to the memorable day when we discovered the new station for
the Hart's Tongue.
[Illustration: PLATE XVII
RUE SPLEENWORT]
As I have already mentioned in my description of the Purple Cliff
Brake, on a chance morning call I learned that twenty-five years
before the Rue Spleenwort and the Purple Cliff Brake had been found on
certain cliffs which overhung some neighboring falls.
On these very cliffs a quarter of a century later we found a few
specimens of each plant. The tiny fronds of the Rue Spleenwort grew
from small fissures in the cliffs, flattening themselves against their
rocky background.
About a month later we returned to the spot for the purpose of
securing photographs of the natural gallery where the plants grew. The
seamed, overhanging rocks, the neighboring stream plunging nearly two
hundred feet to the ravine below, the bold opposite cliffs showing
here and there through their cloak of trees, and above and beyond the
smiling upland pastures, the wood-crowned hills, and the haze-softened
valley, had left a picture in the mind that we hoped to reproduce,
however inadequately, by means of the camera.
This morning we had approached the cliffs from an opposite direction.
In climbing a gradual ascent from the bed of the stream, we found a
plant of the Rue Spleenwort which was more vigorous and thrifty than
any we had previously seen. In the single tuft, about as large as the
palm of one's hand, we counted forty-five green fronds. Their lower
surfaces, in many cases, were covered with confluent fruit-dots. The
plant had much the effect of a rather small specimen of the Mountain
Spleenwort. The short, broad fronds were somewhat leathery, with
only a few pinnæ. Considering its lack of size, the little cluster,
springing from the bare rock, made so definite and interesting a
picture that we tried to photograph it as it grew. But after some time
spent in striving to secure a foothold for the tripod, and at the same
time for the photographer, we gave up the attempt as hopeless.
In England the Rue Spleenwort is found growing on old walls, specially
on their northern sides, also on church-towers, bridges, and ruins. It
is said to be difficult to cultivate.
Formerly this fern yielded a decoction which was supposed to be
beneficial in attacks of pleurisy and of jaundice.
[Illustration: Mountain Spleenwort]
27. MOUNTAIN SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium montanum_
Connecticut and New York to Georgia. A small rock fern from
two to eight inches long, with stalks brown at base.
_Fronds._--Ovate-lanceolate in outline, somewhat leathery,
cut into oblong pinnæ, the lower ones of which are cut
again into more or less oblong, toothed divisions, the
upper ones less and less divided; _rachis_ green, broad,
flat; _fruit-dots_ linear, short; _indusium_ thin, hidden
at length by the sporangia, which mature in July.
With us this plant is decidedly rare. New York and Connecticut are
given as its northern limits. I have found it only in one locality,
in the neighborhood of a mountain lake in Ulster County, N. Y. Though
growing here somewhat abundantly, the fern is so small that, unless
your eyes are trained to search every cranny in the hope of some new
find, you are not likely to notice it. Even with trained eyes you may
readily fancy that the narrow chinks in the cliffs which rise sheerly
from the lake are merely patched with moss. But when you have pulled
your boat close under the shelving rocks, and have secured a hold
that enables you to stand up and examine at leisure the suspicious
patches, your heart bounds with delight as you get a near view of
the fringe of blue-green, leathery fronds which flatten themselves
against the gray cliffs. Apparently only the plants that grow under
specially favorable conditions are able to develop fronds that attain
a length of five or six inches. Only in what must have been almost
constant shadow, under the shelving rocks, directly above the lake
and refreshed always by its moisture, did I find these really
attractive, thrifty-looking plants. The specimens, which were located
at some distance from the lake, growing in one instance on top of
a mountain, again in the shaded crevices of a cliff, were tiny,
indefinite-looking plants with nothing to recommend them to any eyes
save those of the fern collector. In every instance they grew from
fissures in the rocks, rooting apparently in a mere pinch of earth,
yet with such tenacity that it would have been very difficult to
extract a plant unharmed. In almost every case they were shielded much
of the time from exposure to the sun.
[Illustration: PLATE XVIII
MOUNTAIN SPLEENWORT
_a_ A fertile frond
_b_ A pinna of fertile frond]
[Illustration: Mountain Spleenwort]
The large plants in the immediate vicinity of the lake were noticeably
bluish-green in color.
It is to be hoped that the few known haunts of the Mountain Spleenwort
will be respected in order that this rare little plant may be
preserved.
[Illustration: "In the shaded crevices of a cliff"]
28. EBONY SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium ebeneum_ (_A. platyneuron_)
Maine to Florida and westward, on rocks and hill-sides.
Nine to eighteen inches high, with blackish and shining
stalks.
_Fronds._--Upright, narrowly oblanceolate, fertile fronds
much the taller, once-pinnate; _pinnæ_ usually alternate,
oblong, finely toothed, the base auricled on the upper or
on both sides; _fruit-dots_ many, oblong, nearer midvein
than margin; _indusium_ silvery till maturity.
The slender fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort hold themselves with a sort
of rigid grace which suggests a combination of delicacy and endurance.
[Illustration: Portion of fertile frond]
[Illustration: Fertile pinna magnified]
It is an attractive plant with an elusiveness of habit which serves,
perhaps, to increase its charm. Its range is from Maine to Florida and
westward; it is said to prefer limestone soil, and my past experience
has proved it a fairly common plant, yet so far this summer, in many
expeditions in a part of the country rich in limestone, I have found
only one specimen, while last year along the roadsides of Long Island
I found its black-stemmed fronds standing erect and slim in crowded
ranks under groups of red cedars. In other years it has abounded in
localities of a different character, sometimes following its little
relative, the Maidenhair Spleenwort, into moist ravines or along the
shelves of shaded rocks, again climbing exposed hill-sides, where its
fresh beauty is always a surprise.
[Illustration: PLATE XIX
EBONY SPLEENWORT]
The fronds of the Ebony Spleenwort usually face the sun, even if so
doing necessitates the twisting of its stalk.
29. MAIDENHAIR SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium Trichomanes_
Almost throughout North America. A small rock fern, four
to twelve inches long, with purplish-brown and shining,
thread-like stalks.
_Fronds._--Linear in outline, somewhat rigid, once-pinnate;
_pinnæ_ roundish or oval, unequal-sided, attached to rachis
by a narrow point, entire or toothed; _fruit-dots_ short,
oblong, narrowed at the ends, three to six on each side of
the midrib; _sporangia_ dark-brown when ripe; _indusium_
delicate.
[Illustration: Fertile pinnæ]
In childhood the delicate little fronds and dark, glistening,
thread-like stalks of the Maidenhair Spleenwort seemed to me a token
of the mysterious, ecstatic presence of the deeper woods, of woods
where dark hemlocks arched across the rock-broken stream, where the
spongy ground was carpeted with low, nameless plants with white-veined
or shining leaves and coral-like berries, where precious red-cupped
mosses covered the fallen tree-trunks and strange birds sang unknown
songs.
Perhaps because in those days it was a rare plant to be met with
on rare occasions, in a spirit of breathless exultation, I almost
begrudge finding it now on shaded cliffs close to the highway.
[Illustration: Maidenhair Spleenwort]
Certainly it seems lovelier when it holds itself somewhat aloof
from the beaten paths. One of its favorite haunts is a mossy cliff
which forms part of a ravine of singular beauty. Along the base of
this cliff foams a rushing stream on its way to the valley. Overhead
stretch branches of hemlock, cedar, and basswood. On the broader
shelves the mountain maple, the silver birch, and the hobble-bush
secure a precarious foothold. Below rare sunbeams bring out rich
patches of color on the smooth, muscular trunks of the beeches. Close
to the water, perhaps, wheel a pair of spotted sand-pipers, now
lighting on the rocks in order to secure some insect, now tilting
backward and forward with the comical motion peculiar to them, now
gliding swiftly along the pebbly shore till their brown and gray and
white coats are lost in the brown and gray and white of shore, rock,
and water.
[Illustration: Lower pinnæ]
In such a retreat as this ravine the Maidenhair Spleenwort seems
peculiarly at home. Its tufted fronds have a fresh greenness that is a
delight to the eye as they spring from little pockets or crannies too
shallow, we would suppose, for the necessary moisture and nourishment.
Its near companions are the Walking Fern, whose tapering, leaf-like,
blue-green fronds leap along the shelving ledge above, and the Bulblet
Bladder Fern, which seems to gush from every crevice of the cliff.
[Illustration: Upper pinnæ]
30. GREEN SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium viride_
Northern New England, west and northward, on shaded rocks.
A few inches to nearly a foot long, with tufted stalks,
brownish below, green above.
_Fronds._--Linear-lanceolate, once-pinnate, pale green;
_pinnæ_ ovate, toothed, midvein indistinct and forking;
_fruit-dots_ oblong; _indusium_ straight or curved.
[Illustration: PLATE XX
GREEN SPLEENWORT]
The Green Spleenwort in general appearance resembles the Maidenhair
Spleenwort. Perhaps its most distinguishing feature is its stalk,
which, though brown below, becomes green above, while that of its
little relative is dark and shining throughout. Its discovery on Mt.
Mansfield, Vt., by Mr. Pringle gave it a place in the flora of the
United States, as is shown in the following passage from Mr. Pringle's
address before the Vermont Botanical Club:
"On this first visit to Mt. Mansfield my work was
restricted to the crest of the great mountain. About the
cool and shaded cliffs in front of the Summit House were
then first brought to my view _Aspidium fragrans_ ... and
_Asplenium viride_, ... for I was still on my fern hunt.
The finding of the former added a species to the Vermont
catalogue; the latter was an addition to the flora of the
United States. Such little discoveries gave joy to the
young collector."
[Illustration: Fertile pinnæ]
31. SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium ebenoides_
Connecticut to the Mississippi and southward to Alabama, on
limestone. Four to twelve inches long, with blackish and
shining stalks.
_Fronds._--Lanceolate, tapering to a long, narrow apex,
generally pinnate below, pinnatifid above; _fruit-dots_
straight or slightly curved; _indusium_ narrow.
[Illustration: PLATE XXI
SCOTT'S SPLEENWORT]
The known stations of this curious little plant are usually in the
immediate neighborhood of the Walking Leaf and the Ebony Spleenwort,
of which ferns it is supposed to be a hybrid. The long, narrow apex
occasionally forming a new plant, and the irregular fruit-dots remind
one of the Walking Leaf, while the lustrous black stalk, the free
veins, and the pinnate portions of the fronds suggest the Ebony
Spleenwort.
Scott's Spleenwort matures in August. It is rare and local, except
in Alabama. The fact, however, that it has been discovered in widely
distant localities east of the Mississippi should lend excitement to
fern expeditions in any of our limestone neighborhoods where we see
its chosen associates, the Walking Leaf and the Ebony Spleenwort.
To find a new station for this interesting little fern, even if it
consisted of one or two plants only, as is said to have been the case
at Canaan, Conn., would well repay the fatigue of the longest tramp.
32. PINNATIFID SPLEENWORT
_Asplenium pinnatifidum_
New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Illinois, and southward to
Alabama and Arkansas, on rocks. Four to fourteen inches
long, with polished stalks, blackish below, green above,
when young somewhat chaffy below.
_Fronds._--Broadly lance-shaped, tapering to a long,
slender point, pinnatifid or pinnate below; _pinnæ_ rounded
or the lowest tapering to a point, _fruit-dots_ straight or
somewhat curved; _indusium_ straight or curved.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII
PINNATIFID SPLEENWORT]