Fronds pinnate, one to five feet high. Pinnæ cut into oblong, obtuse lobes.
Fertile fronds taller than the sterile, having from one to five pairs of
intermediate pinnæ contracted and bearing sporangia.
[Illustration: Interrupted Fern. _Osmunda Claytoniàna_]
The fronds have a bluish-green tint; they mature their spores about the
last of May. The sterile fronds may be distinguished from those of the
cinnamon fern by not having retained, like those, a tuft of wool at the
base of each pinna. Besides, in Clayton's fern the fronds are broader,
blunter and thinner in texture, and the segments more rounded; the fronds
are also more inclined to curve outwards. They turn yellow in the fall, at
times "flooding the woods with golden light," but soon smitten by the early
frosts they wither and disappear. The interrupted fern is rather common in
damp, rocky woods and pastures; Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to North
Carolina and Missouri. Although fond of moisture it is easily cultivated
and its graceful outlines make it worthy of a prominent place in the
fern garden. Var. _dubia_ has the pinnules of the sterile frond widely
separated, and the upper-middle ones much elongated. Southern Vermont.
[Illustration: Interrupted Fern with the Fertile Pinnules Spread Open]
(3) CINNAMON FERN. BRAKES
_Osmunda cinnamomea_
Fronds one to six feet long, pinnate. Pinnæ lanceolate, pinnatifid with
oblong, obtuse divisions. Fertile pinnæ on separate fronds, which are
contracted and covered with brown sporangia.
[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Leaf Gradations]
[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Gradations from Sterile to Fertile Fronds]
[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _frondosa_]
Each fertile frond springs up at first outside the sterile ones, but is
soon surrounded and overtopped by them and finds itself in the center of
a charming circle of green leaves curving gracefully outwards. In a short
time, however, it withers and hangs down or falls to the ground. The large,
conspicuous clusters of cinnamon ferns give picturesqueness to many a
moist, hillside pasture and swampy woodyard. In its crosier stage it is
wrapped in wool, which falls away as the fronds expand, but leaves, at the
base of each pinna, a tiny tuft, as if to mark its identity.
[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _incisa_ (Maine)]
Many people in the country call the cinnamon fern the "buckhorn brake," and
eat with relish the tender part which they find deep within the crown at
the base of the unfolding fronds. This is known as the "heart of Osmund."
The fern, itself, with its tall, recurving leaves makes a beautiful
ornament for the shady lawn, and like the interrupted fern is easy to
cultivate. The spores of all the _osmundas_ are green, and need to
germinate quickly or they lose their vitality. Common in low and swampy
grounds in eastern North America and South America and Japan. May. Some
think it was this species which was coupled with the serpent in the old
rhyme,
"Break the first brake you see,
Kill the first snake you see,
And you will conquer every enemy."
[Illustration: Osmunda cinnamomea, var. _glandulosa_ (From Waters's
"Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]
Var. _frondòsa_ has its fronds partly sterile below and irregularly fertile
towards the summit.
Var. _incìsa_ has the inner pinnules of some of the pinnæ more or less
cut-toothed.
Var. _glandulòsa_ has glandular hairs on the pinnæ, rachis and even the
stipes of the sterile frond. This is known only on the coastal plain from
Rhode Island to Maryland.