Rootstocks creeping, not densely covered with the persistent bases of the
fronds. Stipes about as long as the blade. Scales of the stipe very few,
seldom persistent, rarely over 3-16 of an inch long. Fronds narrowly
deltoid, lanceolate, widest near the base, the second pair of pinnæ
commonly longest. Indusia ciliate, the cilia (hairs) ending in glands.
Spores dark, netted or wrinkled.
[Illustration: Lowland Lady Fern. ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES (From the Gray
Herbarium)]
The following two forms are named by Butters:
F. TÝPICUM. The usual form frequent in eastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, and Missouri.
F. SUBTRIPINNÀTUM. An unusually large and rare form with triangular,
lanceolate, and pinnatifid pinnules, having blunt, oblong segments. Wet
situations in half shade. Massachusetts, West Virginia, and Virginia.
Our lowland or southern lady fern flourishes in the southern states, comes
up the Atlantic Coast until it meets the upland or northern species in
Pennsylvania and southern New England, and their identification can hardly
fail to awaken in the student a keen interest.
Our American botanists are inclined to think that the real _Athýrium
fìlix-fémina_ is not to be found in the northeastern United States, but
is rather a western species, with its habitat in California and the Rocky
Mountain region and identical with _Athýrium cyclosòrum_.
But whatever changes may occur in the scientific name of the old _Athýrium
fìlix-fémina_, the name lady fern will not change, but everywhere within
our limits it will hold its own as a familiar term.
Underwood, writing of the lady fern under the genus _Asplenium_, mentions
the form "_exìle_, small, starved specimens growing in very dry situations
and often fruiting when only a few inches high." He also mentions Eaton's
"_angústum_," and alludes to the "Remaining sixty-three varieties equally
unimportant that have been described of this species."
The lady fern is common in moist woods, by walls and roadsides, and at its
best is a truly handsome species, although, like Mrs. Parsons, we have
noticed that in the late summer it loses much of its delicacy. "Many of
its forms become disfigured and present a rather blotched and coarse
appearance." The lady fern has inspired several poems, which have been
quoted more or less fully in the fern books. The following lines are from
the pen of Calder Campbell:
"But not by burne in wood or dale
Grows anything so fair
As the palmy crest of emerald pale
Of the lady fern when the sunbeams turn
To gold her delicate hair."
Referring, perhaps, to the fair colors of the unfolding crosiers revealing
stipes of a clear wine color in striking contrast with the delicate green
of the foliage.
In identifying this fern the novice should bear in mind the tendency of the
curved sori of youth to become straightened and even confluent with age,
although such changes are rather unreliable. Possibly the suggestion of the
poetic Davenport may be helpful to some that there is "An indefinable charm
about the various forms of the lady fern, which soon enables one to know it
from its peculiarly graceful motion by merely gently swaying a frond in the
hand." Spores ripen in August.
The lady fern is very easy to cultivate and when once established is apt to
crowd aside its neighbors.
(3) SILVERY SPLEENWORT. ATHÝRIUM ACROSTICHÒIDES
_Asplènium acrostichòides. Asplènium thelypteròides_
Fronds two to four feet tall, pinnate, tapering both ways from the middle.
Pinnæ deeply pinnatifid, linear-lanceolate, acuminate. Lobes oblong,
obtuse, minutely toothed, each bearing two rows of oblong or linear
fruit-dots. Indusium silvery when young.
[Illustration: Silvery Spleenwort. _Athyrium acrostichoides_]
[Illustration: Silvery Spleenwort. Athyrium acrostichoides]
The sterile fronds come up first and the taller, fertile ones do not appear
until late in June. Where there are no fruit-dots the hairs on the upper
surface of the fronds will help to distinguish it from specimens of the
Marsh fern tribe, which it somewhat resembles. The regular rows of nearly
straight, clear-cut sori of the fertile fronds are very attractive, and
the lower ones, as well as those at the slender tips of the pinnæ, are
frequently double.
Rich woods and moist, shady banks, New England to Kentucky and westward.
Generally distributed but hardly common.
(4) NARROW-LEAVED SPLEENWORT