_Lygòdium palmàtum_
"And where upon the meadow's breast
The shadow of the thicket lies."
BRYANT.
Fronds slender, climbing or twining, three to five feet long. The lower
pinnæ (frondlets) sterile, roundish, five to seven lobed, distant in pairs
with simple veins; the upper fertile, contracted, several times forked,
forming a terminal panicle; the ultimate segments crowded, and bearing
the sporangia, which are similar to those of curly grass, and fixed to a
veinlet by the inner side next the base, one or rarely two covered by each
indusium. (From the Greek meaning like a willow twig [pliant], alluding to
the flexible stipes.)
[Illustration: Climbing Fern. _Lygodium palmatum_]
Fifty years ago this beautiful fern was more common than at present. There
was a considerable colony in a low, alluvial meadow thicket at North
Hadley, Mass., not far from Mt. Toby, where we collected it freely in 1872.
Many used to decorate their homes with its handsome sprays, draping it
gracefully over mirrors and pictures. It was known locally as the Hartford
fern. Greedy spoilers ruthlessly robbed its colonies and it became scarce,
at least in the Mt. Toby region. In Connecticut a law was enacted in 1867
for its protection and with good results. But as Mr. C.A. Weatherby states
in the American Fern Journal (Vol. II, No. 4), the encroachments of tillage
(mainly of tobacco, which likes the same soil), are forcing it from its
cherished haunts, thus jeopardizing its survival. Doubtless an aggressive
agriculture is in part responsible for its scarcity in the more northern
locality. It is still found here and there in New England, New York and New
Jersey; also in Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida, but is nowhere common.
The fertile portion dies when the spores mature, but the sterile frondlets
remain green through the winter. A handsome species for the fernery in the
house or out of doors.