Large and somewhat coarse ferns of swampy woods with pinnate or nearly
two-pinnate fronds, and oblong or linear fruit-dots, arranged in one or
more chain-like rows, parallel to and near the midribs. Indusium fixed by
its outer margin to a veinlet and opening on the inner side. In our
section there are two species. (Named for Thomas J. Woodward, an English
botanist.)
[Illustration: Powdery Cloak Fern. _Notholaena
dealbata_ (Kansas) (G.E. Davenport)]
[Illustration: The Common Chain Fern.
_Woodwardia virginica_]
(1) THE COMMON CHAIN FERN. _Woodwardia virgínica_
Sterile and fertile fronds similar in outline, two to four feet high, once
pinnate, the pinnæ deeply incised with oblong segments. Fruit-dots oblong
in chain-like rows along the midrib both of the pinnæ and the lobes,
confluent when ripe. Veins forming narrow rows of net-like spaces (areoles)
beneath the fruit-dots, thence free to the margin. The spores ripen in
July.
The sterile fronds resemble those of the cinnamon fern, but the latter grow
in crowns, with a single frond in the center, while the fronds of the
chain fern rise singly from the creeping rootstock, which sends them up at
intervals all summer. The sori are borne on the backs of fertile fronds.
There are usually more sterile than fertile blades, especially in dense
shade. We have waded repeatedly through a miry swamp in Melrose, Mass.,
where the wild calla flourishes along with the blueberry and other swamp
bushes, and have found the chain fern in several shaded spots, but every
frond was sterile. It is said that when exposed to the sun it always faces
the south. Swamps, Maine to Florida, especially along the Atlantic Coast,
and often in company with the narrow-leaved species.
[Illustration: Net-Veined Chain Fern. _Woodwardia areolata_ (Stratford,
Conn.)]
(2) NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN