twice-pinnate, fertile ones taller and longer stalked
than the sterile; _pinnæ_ (of the fertile frond, turning
their faces toward the apex of the frond) rather short,
lance-shaped or triangular-oblong, deeply impressed with
veins, cut deeply into oblong, obtuse, finely toothed
divisions; _fruit-dots_ large, round, half-way between
midvein and margin; _indusium_ large, flat.
In wet woods, growing either from the ground or from the trunks of
fallen trees, and also in open meadows, we notice the tall, slender,
dark-green, somewhat lustrous fronds of the Crested Shield Fern,
usually distinguished easily from its kinsmen by the noticeably
upward-turning pinnæ of the fertile fronds, and by the deep impression
made by the veins on their upper surfaces.
The sterile fronds are much shorter than the fertile ones. They are
evergreen, lasting through the winter after the fertile fronds have
perished.
Near the Crested Shield Fern we find often many of its kinsmen,
broad, feathery fronds of the Spinulose Wood Fern, more slender
ones of Boott's Shield Fern, great tufts made by the magnificent
bright-green fronds of Goldie's Fern, symmetrical circles of vigorous
Evergreen Wood Fern, and shining clusters of the Christmas Fern. All
these plants, belonging to the one tribe, seek the same moist, shaded
retreats, and form a group of singular beauty and vigor.
[Illustration: PLATE XXX
Part of CLINTON'S WOOD FERN
_a_ Portion of fertile pinna]
43. CLINTON'S WOOD FERN
_Aspidium cristatum, var. Clintonianum_ (_Dryopteris
cristata Clintoniana_)
Maine to New Jersey and Pennsylvania, in swampy woods. Two
and a half to four feet high.
_Fronds._--Larger in every way than those of the Crested
Shield Fern, nearly twice-pinnate; _pinnæ broadest
at base_, cut into from eight to sixteen pairs of
linear-oblong, obtuse, obscurely toothed divisions;
_fruit-dots_ large, round, near the midvein; _indusium_
orbicular, smooth.
This is a much larger and more showy plant than the Crested Shield
Fern. Its tall, broad, hardy-looking fronds are found in our moist
woods. While not rare it is exclusive in its habits, and cannot
be classed with such every-day finds as its kinsmen, the Marsh,
Spinulose, Evergreen, and Christmas Ferns.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXI
Part of fertile frond of Goldie's Fern
_a_ Portion of a fertile pinna]
44. GOLDIE'S FERN
_Aspidium Goldianum_ (_Dryopteris Goldieana_)
New Brunswick to North Carolina and Tennessee, in rich
woods. Two to more than four feet high, with stalks which
are chaffy near the base.
_Fronds._--Broadly ovate, the early sterile ones much
broader in proportion and smaller, usually a foot or more
wide, once-pinnate; _pinnæ_ pinnatifid; _broadest in the
middle_ (the distinction from Clinton's Wood Fern), the
divisions, about twenty pairs, oblong-linear, slightly
toothed; _fruit-dots_ very near the midvein; _indusium_
very large, orbicular.
In the golden twilight of the deeper woods this stately plant unfurls
its tall, broad, bright-green fronds, studded on their backs with the
round fruit-dots which are so noticeable in this _Aspidium_, adding
much to their attractiveness by the suggestion of fertility.
This plant ranks with the Osmundas and with the Ostrich Fern in size
and vigorous beauty. Its retiring habits give it a reputation for
rarity or at least for exclusiveness.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXII
EVERGREEN WOOD FERN
_a_ Tip of fertile pinna
_b_ Magnified fruit-dot, showing indusium and sporangia]
45. EVERGREEN WOOD FERN. MARGINAL SHIELD FERN
_Aspidium marginale_ (_Dryopteris marginalis_)
Canada to Alabama, in rocky woods. A few inches to three
feet high, with more or less chaffy stalks having shining
scales.
_Fronds._--Ovate-oblong, smooth, thick, somewhat
leathery, once or twice-pinnate; _pinnæ_ lance-shaped or
triangular-ovate, tapering at the end, cut into pinnules;
_pinnules_ oblong, entire, or toothed; _fruit-dots_ large,
round, close to the margin; _indusium_ large, convex,
persistent.
Above the black leaf-mould in our rocky northern woods rise the firm,
graceful crowns formed by the blue-green fronds of the Evergreen Wood
Fern. The plant bears a family likeness to the Crested Shield Fern,
but its conspicuously marginal fruit-dots identify it at sight.
It is interesting to read that it comes "nearer being a tree-fern than
any other of our species, the caudex covered by the bases of fronds
of previous seasons, sometimes resting on bare rocks for four or five
inches without roots or fronds" (see Eaton, p. 70). This peculiarity
in the plant's growth is often striking and certainly suggests the
tree-ferns of the green-house.
Frequently in this species I notice what is more or less common to
nearly all ferns, the exquisite contrast in the different shades of
green worn by the younger and older fronds and the charming effect
produced when the deep green of the centre of a frond shades away in
the most delicate manner toward its apex and the tips of its pinnules.
As its English title signifies, the Evergreen Wood Fern flourishes
throughout the winter. In one of the October entries in his journal,
Thoreau records his satisfaction in the endurance of the hardy ferns:
"Now they are conspicuous amid the withered leaves. You are
inclined to approach and raise each frond in succession,
moist, trembling, fragile greenness. They linger thus
in all moist, clammy swamps under the bare maples and
grapevines and witch hazels, and about each trickling
spring that is half choked with fallen leaves. What means
this persistent vitality? Why were these spared when the
brakes and osmundas were stricken down? They stay as if
to keep up the spirits of the cold-blooded frogs which
have not yet gone into the mud, that the summer may die
with decent and graceful moderation. Is not the water of
the spring improved by their presence? They fall back and
droop here and there like the plumes of departing summer,
of the departing year. Even in them I feel an argument for
immortality. Death is so far from being universal. The same
destroyer does not destroy all. How valuable they are,
with the lycopodiums, for cheerfulness. Greenness at the
end of the year, after the fall of the leaf, a hale old
age. To my eye they are tall and noble as palm-groves, and
always some forest nobleness seems to have its haunt under
their umbrage. All that was immortal in the swamp herbage
seems here crowded into smaller compass, the concentrated
greenness of the swamp. How dear they must be to the
chickadee and the rabbit! the cool, slowly retreating
rear-guard of the swamp army."
46. FRAGRANT SHIELD FERN
_Aspidium fragrans_ (_Dryopteris fragrans_)
Northern New England to Wisconsin and northward, on rocks.
Five to sixteen inches long, with very chaffy stalks having
brown, glossy scales.
_Fronds._--Lance-shaped, tapering to a point, nearly
twice-pinnate, fragrant; _pinnæ_ oblong-lanceolate,
pinnatifid; _fruit-dots_ round, large; _indusium_ large and
thin.
The Fragrant Shield Fern thrives in a colder climate than that chosen
by many of its kinsmen. Though found in the White Mountains, in the
Green Mountains (where it climbs to an elevation of four thousand
feet), in the Adirondacks, and in other special localities of about
the same latitude, yet it is rare till we journey farther north. It
loves the crevices of shaded cliffs or mossy rocks, often thriving
best in the neighborhood of rushing brooks and waterfalls. Frequently
it seems to seek the most inaccessible spots, as if anxious to evade
discovery. Mr. J. A. Bates, of Randolph, Vt., writes that he first saw
this little plant through a telescope from the piazza of the Summit
House on Mount Mansfield on an apparently inaccessible ledge, the
only instance in my experience when the fern student has sought this
method of observation, suggesting "Ferns Through a Spy-glass" as a
companion volume to "Birds Through an Opera-glass." But even the most
carefully chosen spots are not safe from invasion, as Mr. Bates tells
us, for some unprincipled persons, having felled neighboring trees and
constructed a rude ladder, have succeeded in uprooting every plant
from the Fragrant Shield Fern Cliff on Mount Mansfield.
[Illustration: "Like the plumes of departing summer"]
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIII
FRAGRANT SHIELD FERN
_a_ Portion of fertile pinna]
The fronds of the Fragrant Shield Fern grow in a crown and the fertile
ones fruit in great abundance.
Eaton writes as follows touching the fragrance of this fern and its
use as a beverage:
"The pleasant odor of this plant remains many years in the
herbarium. The early writers compare the fragrance to that
of raspberries, and Milde repeats the observation. Hooker
and Greville thought it 'not unlike that of the common
primrose.' Maximowicz states that the odor is sometimes
lacking. Milde quotes Redowsky as saying that the Yakoots
of Siberia use the plant in place of tea; and, having tried
the experiment myself, I can testify to the not unpleasant
and very fragrant astringency of the infusion."
The following delightful description of the Fragrant Shield Fern was
written by Mr. C. G. Pringle, and is taken from Meehan's "Native
Flowers and Ferns":
"In the several stations of _Aspidium fragrans_ among the
Green Mountains which I have explored, the plant is always
seen growing from the crevices or on the narrow shelves of
dry cliffs--not often such cliffs as are exposed to the
sunlight, unless it be on the summits of the mountains,
but usually such cliffs as are shaded by firs, and notably
such as overhang mountain-rivulets and waterfalls. When I
visit such places in summer, the niches occupied by the
plants are quite dry. I think it would be fatal to the
plant if much spray should fall on it during the season of
its active growth. When you enter the shade and solitude of
the haunts of this fern, its presence is betrayed by its
resinous odor; looking up the face of the cliff, usually
mottled with lichens and moss, you see it often far above
your reach hanging against the rock, masses of dead brown
fronds, the accumulations of many years, preserved by the
resinous principle which pervades them; for the fronds, as
they disport regularly about the elongating caudex, fall
right and left precisely like a woman's hair. Above the
tuft of drooping dead fronds, which radiate from the centre
of the plant, grow from six to twenty green fronds, which
represent the growth of the season, those of the preceding
year dying toward autumn."
47. BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN
_Aspidium aculeatum, var. Braunii_ (_Dryopteris Braunii_)
Canada to Maine, the mountains of Pennsylvania and
westward, in deep rocky woods. One to more than two feet
long, with chaffy stalks, having brown scales.
_Fronds._--Thick, twice-pinnate; _pinnæ_ lanceolate,
tapering both ways; _pinnules_ covered with hairs and
scales, truncate, nearly rectangular at the base;
_fruit-dots_ roundish, small, mostly near the midveins;
_indusium_ orbicular, entire.
This fern is said to have been first discovered by Frederick Pursh in
1807 in Smuggler's Notch, Mount Mansfield, Vt. In the Green Mountains
and in the Catskills several stations have been established. It has
been found also in the Adirondacks and in Oswego County, N. Y., and it
is now reported as common in the rocky woods of northern Maine, and by
mountain brooks in northern New England.
Braun's Holly Fern is one of the numerous varieties of the Prickly
Shield Fern or _A. aculeatum_ (_D. aculeata_).
Though few of our fern-students will have an opportunity to follow
the Prickly Shield Fern through all the forms it assumes in different
parts of the world, yet undoubtedly many of them will have the
pleasure of seeing in one of its lonely and lovely haunts our own
variety, Braun's Holly Fern.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXIV
BRAUN'S HOLLY FERN
_a_ Portion of pinna
_b_ Fertile pinnule, indusia gone]
48. COMMON POLYPODY. SNAKE FERN
_Polypodium vulgare_
Almost throughout North America, on rocks. A few inches to
more than a foot high.
_Fronds._--Oblong, smooth, somewhat leathery, cut into
narrowly oblong, usually obtuse divisions which almost
reach the rachis; _fruit-dots_ large, round, half-way
between the midrib and margin; _indusium_, none.
[Illustration: Polypody]
Strangely enough, the Polypody, one of our most abundant and
ubiquitous ferns, is not rightly named, if it is noticed at all,
by nine out of ten people who come across it in the woods or along
the roadside. Yet the plant has a charm peculiarly its own, a charm
arising partly from its vigor, from the freshness of its youth and the
endurance of its old age, partly from its odd outlines, and partly
from its usual environment, which entitles it to a more ready and
universal recognition.
"The cheerful community of the polypody," as Thoreau calls it, thrives
best on the flat surfaces of rocks. I recall the base of certain great
cliffs where the rocky fragments, looking as though hurled from above
by playful giants, are thickly covered with these plants, their rich
foliage softening into beauty otherwise rugged outlines. Usually the
plant is found in somewhat shaded places. Occasionally it grows on the
trunks of trees and on fallen logs, as well as on rocks and cliffs.
[Illustration: Tip of fertile frond]
A few weeks ago I found its fronds prettily curtaining the cleverly
hidden nest of a pair of black and white creepers. It is with good
reason that these birds are noted for their skill in concealing their
dwelling-place. This special afternoon, when persuaded by their
nervous chirps and flutterings about the rocky perch where I was
sitting that the young ones were close by, I began an investigation of
my precipitous and very slippery surroundings which was not rewarded
for an hour or more. Not till I had climbed several feet over the
side of the cliff to a narrow shelf below, broken through a thicket
of blueberries, and pushed aside the tufts of Polypody which hid the
entrance to the dark crevice in the rocks beyond, did I discover the
little nest holding the baby creepers.
Thoreau writes of the Polypody with peculiar sympathy:
"It is very pleasant and cheerful nowadays, when the brown
and withered leaves strew the ground and almost every plant
is fallen withered, to come upon a patch of polypody ...
on some rocky hill-side in the woods, where, in the midst
of dry and rustling leaves, defying frost, it stands so
freshly green and full of life. The mere greenness, which
was not remarkable in the summer, is positively interesting
now. My thoughts are with the polypody a long time after
my body has passed.... Why is not this form copied by our
sculptors instead of the foreign acanthus leaves and bays?
How fit for a tuft about the base of a column! The sight
of this unwithering green leaf excites me like red at some
seasons. Are not wood-frogs the philosophers who frequent
these groves? Methinks I imbibe a cool, composed, frog-like
philosophy when I behold them. The form of the polypody is
strangely interesting, it is even outlandish. Some forms,
though common in our midst, are thus perennially foreign as
the growth of other latitudes.... The bare outline of the
polypody thrills me strangely. It only perplexes me. Simple
as it is, it is as strange as an oriental character. It
is quite independent of my race and of the Indian, and of
all mankind. It is a fabulous, mythological form, such as
prevailed when the earth and air and water were inhabited
by those extinct fossil creatures that we find. It is
contemporary with them, and affects us somewhat as the
sight of them might do."
49. LONG BEECH FERN
_Phegopteris polypodioides_ (_P. Phegopteris_)
Newfoundland to Alaska, south to mountains of Virginia, wet
woods and hill-sides. Six or eight inches to more than a
foot high.
_Fronds._--Triangular, usually longer than broad (4-9
inches long, 3-6 inches broad), downy, especially beneath,
thin, once-pinnate; _pinnæ_ lance-shaped, the lower pair
noticeably standing forward and deflexed, cut into oblong,
obtuse segments; _fruit-dots_ small, round, near the
margin; _indusium_, none.
Of the three species of _Phegopteris_ native to the northeastern
States _P. polypodioides_, commonly called the Long Beech Fern, is the
one I happen to have encountered oftenest.
[Illustration: Long Beech Fern]
It is a less delicate plant than either of its sisters, the effect
of the larger and older specimens being rather hardy, yet its downy,
often light-green, triangular frond is exceedingly pretty, with
a certain oddity of aspect which it owes to the lowest pair of
pinnæ, these being conspicuously deflexed and turned forward. This
peculiarity gives it a decided individuality and renders it easy of
identification.
[Illustration: _a_ Portion of pinna
_b_ Tip of pinna]
The Long Beech Fern I have found growing alternately in company with
the Oak Fern and the Broad Beech Fern. It loves the damp woods,
clambering over the roots of trees or carpeting thickly the hollows
that lie between.
50. BROAD BEECH FERN. HEXAGON BEECH FERN
_Phegopteris hexagonoptera_
Quebec to Florida, in dry woods and on hill-sides, with
stalks eight to eighteen inches long.
_Fronds._--Triangular, as broad or broader than long,
seven to twelve inches broad, thin, slightly hairy, often
finely glandular beneath, fragrant, once-pinnate; _pinnæ_,
the large, lowest ones broadest near the middle and cut
nearly to the midrib into linear-oblong, obtuse segments,
the middle ones lance-shaped, tapering, the upper ones
oblong, obtuse, toothed or entire; _basal segments_ of the
pinnæ forming a continuous, many-angled wing along the
main rachis; _fruit-dots_ round, small, near the margin;
_indusium_, none.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXV
BROAD BEECH FERN]
In many ways this plant resembles its sister, the Long Beech Fern, but
usually it is a larger plant, with more broadly triangular fronds,
which wear, to my mind, a brighter, fresher, more delicate green. In
the Long Beech Fern the two lower pairs of pinnæ differ little in
length and breadth, while in the Broad Beech Fern the lowest pair are
decidedly larger and broader than the next pair. The wing along the
rachis formed by the basal segments of the pinnæ seems to me more
conspicuous in the latter than in the former.
The range of the Broad Beech Fern extends farther south than does that
of its two kinsmen, neither of which are found, I believe, south of
Virginia. It seeks also more open and usually drier woods. Its leaves
are fragrant.
Williamson says that its fronds are easily decolorized and that they
form a "good object for double-staining, a process well known to
microscopists."
51. OAK FERN
_Phegopteris Dryopteris_
Northeastern United States to Virginia, west to Oregon
and Alaska, usually in wet woods, with stalks six to nine
inches long.
_Fronds_.--Usually longer than broad, four to nine inches
long, broadly triangular, the three primary divisions
widely spreading, smooth, once or twice-pinnate;
_fruit-dots_ small, round, near the margin; _indusium_,
none.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVI
OAK FERN]
So far as I remember, my first encounter with the Oak Fern was in
a cedar swamp, famous for its growth of showy lady's-slippers. One
July day in the hope of finding in flower some of these orchids, I
visited this swamp. It lay in a semi-twilight, caused by the dense
growth of cedars and hemlocks. Prostrate on the spongy sphagnum below
were hosts of uprooted trees, so overrun with trailing strands of
partridge-vine, twin-flower, gold-thread, and creeping snowberry,
and so soft and yielding to the feet that they seemed to have become
one with the earth. The stumps and far-reaching roots of the trees
that had been cut or broken off above ground, instead of having been
uprooted bodily, had also become gardens of many delicate woodland
growths. Some of these decaying stumps and outspreading roots were
thickly clothed with the clover-like leaflets of the wood-sorrel,
here and there nestling among them a pink-veined blossom. On others I
found side by side gleaming wild strawberries and dwarf raspberries,
feathery fronds of Maidenhair, tall Osmundas, the Crested and the
Spinulose Shield Ferns, the leaves of the violet, foam-flower,
mitrewort, and many others of the smaller, wood-loving plants. Among
these stumps were pools of water filled with the dark, polished,
rounded leaves of the wild calla, and bordered by beds of moss
which cushioned the equally shining but long and pointed leaves of
the _Clintonia_. Near one of these pools grew a patch of delicate,
low-spreading plants, evidently ferns. It needed only one searching
look at the broad, triangular, light-green fronds--suggesting somewhat
those of a small Brake--with roundish fruit-dots below to assure me
that I had found the Oak Fern.
Every lover of plants or of birds or of any natural objects will
appreciate the sense of something more exciting than satisfaction
which I experienced as I knelt above the little plantation and
gathered a few slender-stemmed fronds. One such find as this
compensates for many hours of fatigue and discomfort, or intensifies
the enjoyment of an already happy day. The expedition had justified
itself with the first full view of the solemn, beautiful depths of the
cedar forest. The discovery of the Oak Fern provided a tangible token
of what we had accomplished, and when finally we found the tall, leafy
plants of the showy lady's-slipper, without a single blossom left upon
them, our disappointment was so mild as to be almost imperceptible.
As is often the case, having once discovered the haunt of the Oak
Fern, it ceased to be a rarity. It joined the host of plants which
climbed over the mossy stumps and fallen logs, and at times it fairly
carpeted the ground beneath the cedars and hemlocks.
[Illustration: Bulblet Bladder Fern]
52. BULBLET BLADDER FERN
_Cystopteris bulbifera_
Canada to Tennessee, on wet rocks, preferring limestone.
One to three feet long, with light-colored, somewhat
brittle stalks.
_Fronds._--Elongated, lance-shaped from a broad base, often
bearing beneath large, fleshy bulbs, usually twice-pinnate;
_pinnæ_ lance-oblong, pointed; _pinnules_ toothed or
deeply lobed; _fruit-dots_ roundish, _indusium_ short,
hood-like, attached by a broad base on the side toward the
midrib, early thrown back and withering so that the mature
fruit-dots appear arched.
The Bulblet Bladder Fern is never more at home than when it grows
close to falling water, clinging to rocks dark and wet with spray. It
seems to reflect the very spirit of the waterfall, all its life and
grace, as it springs from the dripping ledges, clothing them with a
diaphanous garment of delicate green which vies with their neighboring
veil of white, now pouring over some rocky shelf a solid but silent
mass of pale luxuriant foliage, now trailing down the cliff its long,
tapering fronds, side by side with silvery strands of water, close to
tufts of wind-blown, spray-tipped harebells.
[Illustration: PLATE XXXVII
BULBLET BLADDER FERN
_a_ Portion of fruiting pinna]
Although the plant is never seen at its best save in some such
neighborhood as this, its slender, feathery fronds are always
possessed of singular grace and charm, whether undulating along the
dried rocky bed of a mountain brook or bending till their slender tips
nearly touch the rushing stream or growing quite away from the rocks
which are their natural and usual companions among the moss-grown
trunks and fallen trees of the wet woods.
I know no other fern, save the climbing fern, which is so vine-like
and clinging. In reality its stalk and midrib are somewhat brittle,
yet this brittleness does not prevent its adapting itself with supple
and exquisite curves to whatever support it has chosen.