Stipes with a few pale brown deciduous scales. Fronds one to two and
one-half feet long, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate. Pinnæ oblique to
the rachis, the lower ones broadly triangular, the upper ones elongated.
Pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnæ often elongated, especially the
lower pair, the pinnule nearest the rachis being usually the longest, at
least in the lowest pinnæ. Pinnules variously cut into spinulose-toothed
segments. Indusium smooth, without marginal glands.
The common European type, but in this country far less common than its
varieties. They all prefer rich, damp woods, and because of their
graceful outline and spiny-toothed lobes are very attractive. They can be
transplanted without great difficulty, and the fern garden depends upon
them for its most effective lacework.
Var. _intermèdium_ has the scales of the stipe brown with darker center.
Fronds ovate-oblong, often tripinnate. Pinnæ spreading, oblong-lanceolate.
Pinnules pinnately cleft, the oblong lobes spinulose-toothed at the apex.
Margin of the indusium denticulate and beset with minute, stalked glands.
In woods nearly everywhere--our most common form. Millions of fronds of
this variety are gathered in our northern woods, placed in cold storage and
sent to florists to be used in decorations.[A] As long as the roots are not
disturbed the crop is renewed from year to year, and no great harm seems to
result. Canada to Kentucky and westward.
[Footnote A: _Horticulture_ reports that twenty-eight million fern leaves
have been shipped from Bennington, Vt., in a single season; and that nearly
$100,000 were paid out in wages.]
[Illustration: Spinulose Shield Fern. _Aspidium spinulosum_ (Maine, 1877,
Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)]
[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. _intermedium_]
[Illustration: _Aspidium spinulosum_, var. AMERICANUM]
A tripinnate form of this variety discovered at Concord, Mass., by Henry
Purdie, has been named var. CONCORDIÀNUM. It has small, elliptical,
denticulate pinnules and a glandular-pubescent indusium.
Var. AMERICÀNUM (=_dilatàtum_, syn.). Fronds broader, ovate or
triangular-ovate in outline. A more highly developed form of the typical
plant, the lower pinnæ being often very broad, and the fronds tripinnate.
Inferior pinnules on the lower pair of pinnæ conspicuously elongated. A
variety preferring upland woods; northern New England, Greenland to the
mountains of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and northward.