(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.
III
[CURLY GRASS FAMILY]
SCHIZÆÀCEÆ
CURLY GRASS. Schizàea pusílla
Small, slender ferns with linear or thready leaves, the sterile, one to two inches high and tortuous or "curled like corkscrews"; fertile fronds longer, three to five inches, and bearing at the top about five pairs of minute, fruited pinnæ. Sporangia large, ovoid, sessile in a double row along the single vein of the narrow divisions of the fertile leaves, and provided with a complete apical ring. (Schizæa, from a Greek root meaning to split, alluding to the cleft leaves of foreign species.)
[Illustration: Curly Grass. Schizæa pusilla]
The curly grass is so minute that it is difficult to distinguish it when growing amid its companion plants, the grasses, mosses, sundews, club mosses, etc. The sterile leaves are evergreen. Pine barrens of New Jersey, Grand Lake, Nova Scotia, and in New Brunswick. Several new stations for the curly grass have recently been discovered in the southwest counties of Nova Scotia by the Gray Herbarium expedition, mostly in bogs and hollows of sandy peat or sphagnum.
[Illustration: Sporangia of Curly Grass]
CLIMBING FERN. HARTFORD FERN
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.
IV
[ADDER'S TONGUE FAMILY]
OPHIOGLOSSÀCEÆ
Plants more or less fern-like consisting of a stem with a single leaf. In Ophioglóssum the leaf or sterile segment is entire, the veins reticulated and the sporangia in a simple spike. In Botrýchium the sterile segment is more or less incised, the veins free, and the sori in a panicle or compound or rarely simple spike. Sporangia naked, opening by a transverse slit. Spores copious, sulphur-yellow.
ADDER'S TONGUE. Ophioglóssum vulgàtum
Rootstock erect, fleshy. Stem simple, two to ten inches high, bearing one smooth, entire leaf about midway, and a terminal spike embracing the sporangia, coherent in two ranks on its edges. (Generic name from the Greek meaning the tongue of a snake, in allusion to the narrow spike of the sporangia.)
In moist meadows or rarely on dry slopes. "Overlooked rather than rare." New England states and in general widely distributed. July. Often grows in company with the ragged orchis. The ancient ointment known as "adder's speare ointment" had the adder's tongue leaves as a chief ingredient, and is said to be still used for wounds in English villages.
"For them that are with newts or snakes or adders stung,
He seeketh out a herb that's called adder's tongue."
[Illustration: Adder's Tongue. Ophioglossum vulgatum]
Var. minus, smaller; fronds often in pairs. The sterile segment yellowish-green, attached usually much below the middle of the plant. Sandy ground, New Hampshire to New Jersey.
Var. Engelmánni. (Given specific rank in Gray.) Has the sterile segment thicker and cuspidate, the stipe slender and the secondary veins forming a fine network within the meshes of the principal ones. Virginia and westward.
Var. arenàrium. (From the Latin, arèna, meaning sand, being found in a sandy soil.) Probably a depauperate form of Ophióglossum vulgàtum and about half as large. A colony of these ferns was discovered growing in poor soil at Holly Beach, New Jersey.
[KEY TO THE GRAPE FERNS]
(Botrýchium)
Plant large, fruiting in June, sterile part much divided:
Rattlesnake Fern.
Plant smaller:
Fruiting in autumn, sterile part long-stalked, triangular.
Common Grape Fern.
Fruiting in summer:
Plant fleshy, sterile part mostly with lunate segments.
Moonwort.
Plant less fleshy, segments not lunate:
Sterile part short-stalked above the middle of the stem.
Matricary Fern.
Sterile part stalked usually below middle of stem.
Little Grape Fern.
Sterile part sessile near the top of the stem.
Lance-leaved Grape Fern.
[GRAPE FERNS]
Botrýchium
Rootstock very short, erect with clustered fleshy roots; the base of the sheathed stalk containing the bud for the next year's frond. Fertile frond one to three pinnate, the contracted divisions bearing a double row of sessile, naked, globular sporangia, opening transversely into two valves. Sterile segment of the frond ternately or pinnately divided or compound. Veins free. Spores copious, sulphur yellow. (The name in Greek means a cluster of grapes, alluding to the grape-like clusters of the sporangia.)
[(1) MOONWORT. Botrýchium Lunària]
Very fleshy, three to ten inches high, sterile segment subsessile, borne near the middle of the plant, oblong, simple pinnate with three to eight pairs of lunate or fan-shaped divisions, obtusely crenate, the veins repeatedly forking; fertile segment panicled, two to three pinnate.
[Illustration: Moonwort Botrychium Lunaria]
[Illustration: Moonwort. Botrychium Lunaria. Details]
The moonwort was formerly associated with many superstitions and was reputed to open all locks at a mere touch, and to unshoe all horses that trod upon it. "Unshoe the horse" was one of the names given to it by the country people.
"Horses that feeding on the grassy hills,
Tread upon moonwort with their hollow heels,
Though lately shod, at night go barefoot home
Their maister musing where their shoes be gone."
In dry pastures, Lake Superior and northward, but rare in the United States. Willoughby, Vt., where the author found a single plant in 1904, and St. Johnsbury, Vt. Also New York, Michigan and westward.
In England said to be local rather than rare. Sometimes called Lunary.
"Then sprinkled she the juice of rue
With nine drops of the midnight dew
From Lunary distilling."
DRAYTON.
[(2) LITTLE GRAPE FERN. Botrychium símplex]
Fronds two to four inches high, very variable. Sterile segment short-petioled, usually near the middle, simple and roundish or pinnately three to seven lobed. Veins all forking from the base. Fertile segments simple or one to two pinnate, apex of both segments erect in the bud.
In moist woods and fields, Canada to Maryland and westward; Conway and Plainfield, Mass., Berlin and Litchfield, Conn. Rare. According to Pringle it is "abundantly scattered over Vermont, its habitat usually poor soil, especially knolls of hill pastures." May or June.
[(3) LANCE-LEAVED GRAPE FERN]
Botrychium lanceolàtum
BOTRÝCHIUM ANGUSTISEGMÉNTUM
Frond two to nine inches high, both sterile and fertile segments at the top of the common stalk. Sterile segment triangular, twice pinnatifid, the acute lobes lanceolate, incised or toothed, scarcely fleshy, resembling a very small specimen of the rattlesnake fern. Fertile segment slightly overtopping the sterile, two to three pinnate and spreading.
One of the constant companions of the rattlesnake fern. New England to Lake Superior. July.
[Illustration: Little Grape Fern Botrychium simplex]
[Illustration: Lance-leaved Grape Fern Botrychium lanceolatum Botrychium angustisegmentum]
[(4) MATRICARY FERN]
Botrychium ramòsum. Botrychium matricariæfòlium
Fronds small, one to twelve inches high. Sterile segment above the middle, usually much divided. Fertile segment twice or thrice pinnate. Apex of both segments turned down in the bud, the sterile overtopping and clasping the fertile one.
[Illustration: The Matricary Fern Botrychium ramosum]
The matricary fern differs from the preceding in ripening its spores about a month earlier, in having its sterile frond stalked, besides being a taller and fleshier plant. It may also be noted that in the lance-leaved species the midveins of the larger lobes are continuous, running to the tip; whereas in the matricary fern the midveins fork repeatedly and are soon indistinguishable from the veinlets. The two are apt to grow near each other, with the rattlesnake fern as a near neighbor. June.
NOTE. In 1897 A.A. Eaton discovered certain Botrychia in a sphagnum swamp in New Hampshire, to which he gave the specific name of Botrychium tenebròsum. The plants were very small, not averaging above two or three inches high, with the sterile blade sessile or slightly stalked. Many botanists prefer to place this fern as a variety of the matricary, but others regard it as a form of Botrychium símplex. Borders of maple swamps, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York.
[(5) COMMON GRAPE FERN]
Botrychium oblìquum. Botrychium ternàtum, var. oblìquum
BOTRYCHIUM DISSÉCTUM, var. OBLÌQUUM
Rootstock short, its base including the buds of succeeding years. Fronds two to twelve inches or more high. Leafy or sterile segment triangular, ternate, long-petioled, springing from near the base of the plant, and spreading horizontally. From the main leafstock grow several pairs of stalked pinnæ, with the divisions ovate-oblong, acutish, crenate-serrulate, obliquely cordate or subcordate. Fertile segment taller, erect, about three times pinnate, maturing its fruit in autumn. Occasionally two or three fertile spikes grow on the same plant. In vernation the apex of each segment is bent down with a slight curve inward.
[Illustration: Common Grape Fern. Botrychium obliquum]
New England to Virginia, westward to Minnesota and southward.
Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum. Similar to the type, but with the divisions very finely dissected or incisely many-toothed, the most beautiful of all the grape ferns. There is considerable variety in the cutting of the fronds. Maine to Florida and westward.
Botrychium oblìquum, var. oneidénse. Ultimate segments oblong, rounded at the apex, crenulate-serrate, less divided than any of the others and, perhaps, less common. Vermont to Central New York.
Botrychium oblìquum, var. elongàtum. Divisions lanceolate, elongated, acute.
[Illustration: Botrychium obliquum var. oneidense]
Note: A Botrychium not uncommon in Georgia and Alabama, named by Swartz B. lunarioides, deserves careful study. It is known as the "Southern Botrychium."
[Illustration: Botrychium obliquum, var. dissectum]
(6) TERNATE GRAPE FERN
Botrýchium ternàtum, var. intermèdium
Botrýchium oblìquum, var. intermèdium
Leaf more divided than in oblìquum and the numerous segments not so long and pointed, but large, fleshy, ovate or obovate (including var. austràle), crenulate, and more or less toothed.
Sandy soil, pastures and open woods. More northerly in its range--New England and New York. Var. rutaefòlium. More slender, rarely over six or seven inches high; sterile segment about two inches broad, its divisions few, broadly ovate, the lowest sublunate. The first variety passes insensibly into the second.
[Illustration: Ternate Grape Fern Botrychium ternatum var. intermedium (Reduced)]
[Illustration: Ternate Grape Fern Botrychium ternatum var. intermedium (Two stocks, reduced)]
[(7) RATTLESNAKE FERN. Botrychium virginiànum]
Fronds six inches to two feet high. Sterile segment sessile above the middle of the plant, broadly triangular, thin, membranaceous, ternate. Pinnules lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid; ultimate segments oblong or lanceolate and scarcely or not at all spatulate. Fertile part long-stalked, two to three pinnate, its ultimate segments narrow arid thick, nearly opaque in dried specimens. Mature sporangia varying from dark yellow-brown to almost black. Open sporangia close again and are flattened or of a lenticular form. In rich, deciduous woods, rather common and widely distributed.
[Illustration: Rattlesnake Fern. Botrychium virginianum (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]
Prince Edward Island, Minnesota, south to Florida and Texas, and north to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Var. grácilis. A form much reduced in size.
Var. LAURENTIÀNUM. A conspicuous variety having thick and heavy sterile fronds less finely divided than the type, with the segments crowded to overlapping. Pinnules shorter than the type, tending to be ovate, outer segments strongly spatulate. Fertile spike relatively short and stout, strongly paniculate when well developed. Ultimate segments flat, folaceous, one mm. wide. Mostly confined to the limestone district near the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador, Newfoundland, Quebec, Maine, and Michigan.
Var. INTERMEDIUM. Segments of sterile fronds ultimately much spatulate, previously ovate, not overlapping. Segments of fertile fronds ultimately narrowly flattened. (For this and the other varieties see Rhodora of September, 1919.) Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, northern New York, Illinois, and Missouri.
Var. EUROPÀEUM. Fertile frond less finely dissected than in type. Ultimate segments more obtuse than in type; has but very slight tendency towards the spatulate form of the two previous varieties. Pinnules lanceolate, strongly decurrent so that the pinnæ are merely pinnatifid. In coniferous forests of Canada, and confined to calcareous regions. Quebec, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Ontario, Montana, and British Columbia. Said to be rare even in Europe.
V
[THE FILMY FERN FAMILY]
HYMENOPHYLLÀCEÆ
The filmy ferns are small, delicate plants with membranaceous, finely dissected fronds from slender, creeping rootstocks. Sporangia sessile on a bristle-like receptacle. There are about one hundred species, mostly tropical, only one of which grows as far north as Kentucky.
[Illustration: Filmy Fern Trichomanes Boschianum (From Waters' "Ferns", Henry Holt & Co.)]
FILMY FERN. BRISTLE FERN
Trichómanes Boschiànum. Trichómanes rádicans
Rootstocks creeping, filiform, stipes ascending, one to three inches long, thin, very delicate, pellucid, much divided, oblong-lanceolate, bipinnatifid. Rachis narrowly winged. Sporangia clustered around the slender bristle, which is the prolongation of a vein, and surrounded by a vase-like, slightly two-lipped involucre.
On moist, dripping sandstone cliffs, Kentucky to Alabama. Often called the "Killarney fern," as it grows about the lakes of Killarney in Ireland.
[Illustration: Fruiting Pinnules of Filmy Fern (From Waters's "Ferns." Henry Holt & Co.)]
[Illustration: Ostrich Fern]
[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern]
>
[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern]
[Illustration: Lady Fern Crosiers]
[Illustration: Fiddleheads or Crosiers of Christmas Fern]
[NOTED FERN AUTHORS]
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
[The works of these authors are listed under "Fern Literature" in the following pages.]
EATON, DANIEL CADY. Born at Gratiot, Mich., September 12, 1834. His grandfather was Amos Eaton, noted botanist and author. Studied botany under his friend, Prof. Asa Gray, who had studied with Prof. John Torrey, who in turn was a pupil of Amos Eaton. Daniel C. was professor of botany in Yale College, for more than thirty years. A man of graceful and winsome personality, an authority on ferns, and widely known by his writings. His masterpiece was "The Ferns of North America" in two large, quarto volumes, beautifully illustrated. He died June 29, 1895.
CLUTE, WILLARD NELSON. Born at Painted Post, N.Y., February 26, 1869. Education informal; common schools, university lectures and private study. Manifested early a keen interest in birds and flowers. Was founder and first president of the American Fern Society. Collected in Jamaica more than three hundred species of ferns. Has written extensively on the ferns and their allies, besides publishing several standard volumes. His great distinction is in founding and editing the Fern Bulletin through its twenty volumes, when he combined this publication with The American Botanist, which is now on its twenty-eighth volume, the whole a prodigious achievement of great scientific value.
[Illustration: Noted Writers on Ferns W.N. CLUTE, D.C. EATON, F.T. PARSONS, G. DAVENPORT, J. WILLIAMSON, L.M. UNDERWOOD, W.R MAXON, A.A. EATON, C.E. WATERS, R. DODGE]
UNDERWOOD, LUCIUS MARCUS. Born at New Woodstock, N.Y., October 26, 1853. Spent early life on a farm. Was graduated from Syracuse University in 1877. After teaching several years in his alma mater and elsewhere, he became Professor of Botany in Columbia University. He contributed numerous articles to the Torrey Bulletin, Fern Bulletin, and other scientific journals. His scholarly book, "Our Native Ferns and Their Allies," continued unexcelled through six editions. He died November 16, 1907.
DAVENPORT, GEO. EDWARD. Born in Boston, August 3, 1833. A promoter and officer of the Middlesex Institute. An accurate and diligent student of the ferns, his numerous articles were published in the Fern Bulletin, in the Torrey Bulletin, Rhodora, and in separate monographs. He was a leading authority on the pteridophyta, and collected a large and choice herbarium of the native ferns, which he donated to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. By his gentle manners and kindly spirit he won many friends, all of whom were proud to recognize his distinguished ability. He cultivated many of our rare native ferns in his Fellsway home, at Medford, Mass., and freely gave specimens to his friends. He died suddenly of heart failure, November 29, 1907.
WATERS, CAMPBELL EASTER. Born in Baltimore County, Md., September 14, 1872. Was graduated at Johns Hopkins University in 1895. Ph.D. in 1899. Was for a time a close student of ferns, and issued his notable book, "Ferns," in 1903, containing his "Analytical Key Based on the Stipes." A chemist by profession, he has pursued that branch of science for the last eighteen years. His address is Bureau of Standards, Washington, D.C.
MAXON, WILLIAM RALPH. Born at Oneida, N.Y., February 27, 1877. Was graduated at Syracuse University in 1898. Began as aid in cryptogamic botany, United States National Herbarium, 1899, and is now associate curator of the same. Has specialized in scientific work on the pteridophyta, distinguishing himself by the excellence as well as by the large number of his publications, the more important being "Studies of Tropical American Ferns," Nos. 1 to 6. The Fern Bulletin, Torrey Bulletin, American Fern Journal, Fernwort Papers, et al., have profited from his expert and up-to-date knowledge. He is president of the American Fern Society.
PARSONS, FRANCES THEODORA. Born in New York, December 5, 1861. Née Smith. Married Commander William Starr Dana of the United States Navy, who was lost at sea. As Mrs. Dana, she published, "How to Know the Wild Flowers," in 1893, and within ten years more than seventy thousand copies of the book had been sold. "According to Season" appeared in 1894. In February, 1896, she married Prof. James Russell Parsons, treasurer of the University of the State of New York. In 1899 she published, "How to Know the Ferns." She combined a thorough knowledge of her subject with an easy and graceful style.
DODGE, RAYNAL. Born at Newburyport, Mass., September 9, 1844. Civil War veteran. Wounded at Port Hudson, June 28, 1863. A machinist by trade. A careful observer and student of nature, he discovered Aspidium simulatum at Follymill, Seabrook, N.H., in 1880. (Whittier's "My Playmate," verse 9.) He discovered also the hybrid Aspidium cristatum × Marginale. He published his little book, "Ferns and Fern Allies of New England," in 1896. Died October 20, 1918.
EATON, ALVAH AUGUSTUS. Born at Seabrook, N.H., November 20, 1865. Studied at the Putnam School in Newburyport, but was largely self-educated. He took up teaching for several years, spending three years in California. Returning East, he became a florist and began to write for various fern journals, giving special attention to the fern allies. He prepared the genera Equisetum and Isoetes for the seventh edition of "Gray's Manual." He proved the keenness of his observing powers by discovering several ferns new to the United States. Died at his home in North Easton, Mass., September 29, 1908.
WILLIAMSON, JOHN. Born in Abernathy, Scotland, about the year 1838. He came to Louisville, Ky., to live in 1866. A wood-carver by trade, he could work skillfully in wood or metal, and after a time established a brass foundry. His friend, George E. Davenport, writes of him: "He caught as by some divine gift or inspiration the innermost life and feelings of the wild flowers and ferns, and his marvelously accurate needle transfixed them with revivifying power on paper or metal." His "Ferns of Kentucky," issued in 1878, was the first handbook on ferns published in the United States. He died June 17, 1884, in the mountains of West Virginia, whither he had gone for his health.
[FERN LITERATURE]
AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL. 1910. The American Fern Society. (Annual subscription, $1.25.)
BELAIRS, NONA. Hardy Ferns. Smith, Elder and Co. London, 1865.
BRITISH FERN GAZETTE.
BRITTEN, JAMES. European Ferns. Colored Plates. Cassell & Co. London. Quarto.
BUTTERS, F.K. Athyrium. Study of the American Lady Ferns. Rhodora, September, 1917.
CAMPBELL, D.H. Structure and Development of the Mosses and Ferns. Macmillan & Co. 1905. Ed. 2.
CLUTE, WILLARD N. Our Ferns in Their Haunts. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New York, 1901.
Fern Collector's Guide. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New York, 1902.
The Fern Allies. Frederick A. Stokes Co. New York, 1905.
The Fern Bulletin. Founder and Editor. 20 vols. 1893-1912.
Combined with The American Botanist. Joliet, Ill. 1912.
CONARD, HENRY S. Structure and History of Hayscented Fern. Washington, 1908.
COOK, M.C. Fern-book for Everybody. E. Warne & Co. London.
DAVENPORT, GEO.E. Catalog of Davenport Herbarium, Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 1879. Numerous Monographs and Notes on New England ferns in Torrey Bulletin, Fern Bulletin, and Rhodora. The following monographs are in single booklets by Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Aspidium cristatum × marginale, Aspidium simulatum, Aspidium spinulosum and its Varieties, Botrychium ternatum and its Varieties, Notes on Botrychium simplex.
DODGE, RAYNAL. The Ferns and Fern Allies of New England--very small volume, now out of print. W.N. Clute & Co. 1904.
DRUERY, CHARLES T. British Ferns and Their Varieties. Routledge & Son. London.
EASTMAN, HELEN. New England Ferns and Their Common Allies. Houghton Mifflin & Co. Boston, 1904. Out of print.
EATON, DANIEL C. The Ferns of North America. 2 vols. 1879-80. S.E. Cassino, Salem. Drawings by J.H. Emerton and C.E. Faxon.
EATON, A.A. Specialist in Fern Allies. Prepared Equisetum and Isoetes for Gray's Manual, 7th ed. 1908.
GILBERT, BENJ.D. List of North American Pteridophytes. 1901. Utica, N.Y.
HERVEY, ALPHAEUS B. Wayside Flowers and Ferns. Page & Co. Boston, 1899.
HEMSLEY, ALFRED. Book of Fern Culture. John Lane. London, 1908.
HIBBARD, SHIRLEY. The Fern Garden. Groombridge & Sons. 5 Paternoster Row, London. 1869.
HOOKER, SIR W.J. Genera Filicum. Large 8vo. London, 1842. Contains fine plates which include all American genera. Costs about $25.
Species Filicum. 5 vols. 8vo. London, 1846-64. Vol. II contains seventeen and Vol. Ill contains two plates of American ferns with descriptions of more species. Cost about $50.
HOOKER, SIR W.J., & BAKER. Synopsis Filicum 2d ed. 1874. 8vo. Describes all ferns then known, including the American species. Has also figures illustrating each genus. Costs about $10.
LOWE, EDWARD J. Ferns British and Exotic. 9 vols. 8vo. Bell & Daldy. London, 1868. 550 plates, some very poor. Some American ferns are represented. "The descriptions," says John Robinson, "are worthless, and the synonymy is often incorrect."
MAXON, WILLIAM R. A List of Ferns and Fern Allies of North America, north of Mexico, etc. National Museum, 23:619-651. 1901.
Numerous Monographs and Notes on American Ferns in current magazines.
Studies of Tropical American Ferns. United States National Herbarium, 17:541+.
Pteridophyta (excepting Equisitaceæ and Isoetaceæ) of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. In Britton and Brown, Illustrated Flora, etc., ed. 2, pp. 1-54. 1913. New York.
MEEHAN, THOMAS. Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States. Boston, 1878-9.
MOORE, THOMAS. Nature-printed British Ferns. 2 vols. London, 1859.
PARSONS, FRANCES T. How to Know the Ferns. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1899.
PRATT, ANNE. The Ferns of Great Britain and Their Allies. F. Warne & Co. London. No date.
REDFIELD, JOHN. Geographical Distribution of the Ferns of North America. Torrey Bulletin, VI, 1-7. (1875).
RHODORA. Journal of the New England Botanical Club. January, 1899, to date.
ROBINSON, JOHN. Ferns in Their Homes and Ours. S.E. Cassino. Salem, 1878. Out of print.
SACHS, JULIUS. Text Book of Botany. (Translated.) Macmillan & Co. London. 8vo.
SLOSSON, MARGARET. How Ferns Grow. Henry Holt & Co. New York. 1906. Out of print.
SMALL, JOHN K. Ferns of Tropical Florida. New York, 1918.
SMITH, JOHN. Historia Filicum. London, 1875. Amply illustrated, reliable.
STEP, EDWARD. Wayside and Woodland Ferns. F. Warne & Co. London, 1908.
TIDESTROM, IVAR. Elysium Marianum. Washington, D.C.
UNDERWOOD, LUCIEN M. Our Native Ferns and Their Allies. Henry Holt & Co. Edition 6. 1900. Valuable. Out of print.
WATERS, CAMPBELL E. Ferns. Henry Holt & Co. 1903. Out of print. Scarce.
WEATHERBY, C.A. Changes in the Nomenclature of the Gray's Manual of Ferns. Important article in the Rhodora of October, 1919.
WILLIAMSON, JOHN. Ferns of Kentucky. J.P. Morton & Co. Louisville, Ky. 1878.
Fern Etchings. J.P. Morton & Co. 1879. Both out of print.
WOOLSON, GRACE A. Ferns and How to Grow Them. Doubleday, Page & Co. New York, 1909.
WRIGHT, MABEL O. Flowers and Ferns in Their Haunts. Macmillan & Co. New York, 1901.
"Fringing the stream at every turn,
Swung low the waving fronds of fern."
WHITTIER.]
[TIMES OF THE FRUITING OF FERNS]
"Ah! well I mind the calendar
Faithful through a thousand years
Of the painted race of flowers."--EMERSON.
Compiled from Dodge's "Ferns and Fern Allies of New England"
May 25. Little Grape Fern. Interrupted Fern.
May 30. Cinnamon Fern.
June 5. Ostrich Fern.
June 10. Frondosa variety of Cinnamon Fern.
June 15. Matricary Grape Fern.
June 20. Royal Fern. Interrupted Fern.
June 25. Rattlesnake Fern.
June 30. Oak Fern. Spinulose Wood Fern and Varieties.
July 5. Fragile Bladder Fern. Christmas Fern.
July 10. Long Beech Fern. Crested Shield Fern. Boott's
Shield Fern.
July 15. Moonwort. Virginia Chain Fern. Adder's
Tongue. Crested Marginal Shield Fern.
July 20. Slender Cliff Brake. Blunt-Lobed Woodsia.
July 25. Purple Cliff Brake. Bulblet Bladder Fern.
Mountain Spleen wort.
July 30. Goldie's Shield Fern. Marginal Shield Fern.
Clinton's Wood Fern.
August 5. Wall Rue. Walking Fern. Lady Fern.
August 10. Alpine Woodsia. Smooth Woodsia. Common
Polypody. Maidenhair Fern. Fragrant
Shield Fern. Scott's Spleenwort. Braun's
Holly Fern.
August 15. Rusty Woodsia. Silvery Spleen wort. Lance-leaved
Grape Fern.
August 20. Ebony and Maidenhair Spleenworts. Hayscented
Fern. New York Fern.
August 25. Broad Beech Fern.
August 30. Marsh Fern.
September 5. Bracken or Brake.
September 10. Climbing Fern. Narrow-leaved Spleenwort.
September 15. Massachusetts Fern. Green Spleenwort. Sensitive
Fern. Ternate Grape Fern.
September 30. Narrow-leaved Chain Fern.
[GLOSSARY]
ACÙMINATE. Gradually tapering to a point.
ACÙLEATE. Prickly. Beset with prickles.
ACUTE. Sharp pointed, but not tapering.
ADVENTÍTIOUS. Irregular, incidental. Growing out
of the usual or normal position.
ANÀSTOMOSING. Connected by cross veins and forming
a network as in the Sensitive
ferns.
ÀNNULUS. A jointed, elastic ring surrounding
the spore cases in most ferns.
ANTHERÍDIA. The male organs on a prothallium.
APEX The top or pointed end of leaf or frond.
(plu. APICES).
ARCHEGÒNIA. The female organs on a prothallium.
ARÈOLA. A space formed by intersecting
veins; a mesh.
AURICLE. An ear-shaped lobe at the base.
ARTÍCULATE. Jointed; having a joint or node.
AXIL. The angle formed by a leaf or
branch with the stem.
BI (Latin, Two, twice, doubly.
bis,
twice).
BLADE. The expanded, leafy portion of a frond.
BULBLET. A small bulb, borne on a leaf or in
its axil.
CAUDATE. With a slender, tail-like appendage.
CAUDEX. A trunk or stock of a plant; especially
of a tree fern.
CHAFF. Thin, dry scales of a yellowish-brown
color.
CHLÒROPHYLL. The green coloring matter of plants.
CÍLIATE. Fringed with fine hairs.
CÍRCINATE. Coiled downward from the apex, as
in the young fronds of a fern.
CLAVATE. Club-shaped.
COMPOUND. Divided into two or more parts.
CONFLUENT. Blended together.
CORDATE. Heart-shaped.
CRENATE. Scalloped with rounded teeth; said of margins.
CRÒSIER. An uncoiling frond.
CÙNEATE. Wedge-shaped.
CÚSPIDATE. Hard pointed, tipped with a cusp.
DECIDUOUS. Falling away when done growing--not evergreen.
DECOMPOUND. More than once compounded or divided.
DECURRENT. Running down the stem below the
point of insertion, as the bases of some pinnæ.
DECUMBENT. Not erect; trailing, bending along
the ground, but with the apex ascending.
DEFLEXED. Bent or turned abruptly downward.
DENTATE. Toothed. Having the teeth of a
margin directed outward.
DICHÓTOMOUS. Forking regularly in pairs.
DIMÓRPHOUS. Of two forms; said of ferns whose
fertile fronds are unlike the sterile.
EMÀRGINATE. Notched at the apex.
ENTIRE. Without divisions, lobes, or teeth.
FALCATE. Scythe-shaped, slightly curved upward.
FERTILE. Bearing spores.
FÍLIFORM. Thread-like; long, slender, and terete.
FILMY. Having a thin membrane; gauzy;
said of the filmy fern fronds.
FLABELLATE. Fan-shaped; broad and rounded at
the summit and narrow at the base.
FROND. A fern leaf or blade; may include
both stipe and blade, or only the
latter--called also lamina.
GLABROUS. Smooth; not rough or hairy.
GLAND. A small secreting organ, globular or
pear-shaped; it is often stalked.
GLAUCOUS. Covered with a fine bloom, bluish-white
and powdery, in appearance
like a plum.
HASTATE. Like an arrowhead with the lobes
spreading.
IMBRICATE. Overlapping, like shingles on a roof.
INCÌSED. Cut irregularly into sharp lobes.
INDÙSIUM. The thin membrane covering the
sori in some ferns.
INVOLUCRE. In ferns, an indusium; in filmy
ferns, cup-shaped growths encircling
the sporangia.
LÀMINA. A blade; the leafy portion of a fern.
LACÍNIATE. Slashed; cut into narrow, irregular
lobes.
LANCEOLATE. Lance-shaped; broadest above the
base and tapering to the apex.
LOBE. A small rounded segment of a frond.
MIDRIB. The main rib or vein of a segment,
pinnule, pinna, or frond; a midvein.
MÙCRONATE. Ending abruptly in a short, sharp
point.
OBLONG. From two to four times longer than
broad and with sides nearly parallel.
OBTUSE. Blunt or rounded at the end.
OÌDES. A Greek ending, meaning like, or
like to, as polypodioides--like to a
polypody.
ÒÖSPHERE. The egg-cell in fern reproduction--becoming
the oöspore when fertilized.
OVATE. Egg-shaped with the broader end
downward.
PALMATE. Having lobes radiating like the
fingers of a hand.
PANICLE. A loose compound cluster of flowers
or sporangia with irregular stems.
PEDICEL. A tiny stalk, especially the stalk of
the sporangia.
PELLUCID. Clear, transparent.
PERSISTENT. Remaining on the plant for a long
time, as leaves through the winter.
PÉTIOLE. The same as stalk or stipe.
PINNA. One of the primary divisions of a frond.
PINNATE. Feather-like; with the divisions of
the frond extending fully to the rachis.
PINNÀTIFID. Having the divisions of the frond
extend halfway or more to the
rachis or mid vein.
PINNULE. A secondary pinna. In a bipinnate
frond one of the smaller divisions
extending to the secondary midvein.
PROCUMBENT. Lying on the ground.
PROTHÀLLIUM. (Or prothállus.) A delicate, cellular,
leaf-like structure produced
from a fern spore, and bearing the
sexual organs.
PTERIDÓPHYTA. A group of flowerless plants embracing
ferns, horsetails, club mosses, etc.
PUBESCENT. Covered with fine, soft hairs; downy.
RÀCHIS. The continuation of the stipe
through the blade or leafy portion
of the fern.
REFLEXED. Bent abruptly downward or backward.
RENIFORM. Kidney-shaped.
REVOLUTE. Rolled backward from the margin or apex.
ROOTSTOCK. (Or rhizome.) An underground
stem, from which the fronds are produced.
SCAPE. A naked stem rising from the ground.
SEGMENT. One of the smaller divisions of a
pinnatifid frond.
SERRATE. Having the margin sharply cut into
teeth pointing forward.
SÉRRULATE. The same only with smaller teeth.
SESSILE. Without a stalk.
SINUS. A cleft or rounded curve between two lobes.
SÍNUATE. With strongly wavy margins.
SORUS A cluster of sporangia; a fruit dot.
(plu. SORI).
SPÀTULATE. Shaped like a druggist's spatula or
a flattened spoon.
SPIKE. An elongated cluster of sessile sporangia.
SPÍNULOSE. Spiny; set with small, sharp spines.
SPORANGE (plu. A spore case. A tiny globe in which
SPORANGIA). the spores are produced.
STIPE. The stem of a fern from the ground
up to the leafy portion; the leaf stalk.
STOLON. An underground branch or runner.
SÚBULATE. Awl-shaped.
TÉRNATE. With three nearly equal divisions.
TRUNCATE. Ending abruptly as if cut off.
TUFT. Things flexible, closely grouped into
a bunch or cluster.
VENATION. The veining of a frond or leaf.
VERNATION. The arrangement of leaves in the bud.
WHORL. A circle of leaves around a stem.
WINGED. Margined by a thin expansion of the rachis.
[NOTE]
The student should have some idea of the terms genus, species and variety, although they are not capable of exact definition.
A species, or kind, is in botany the unit of classification. It embraces all such individuals as may have originated in a common stock. Such individuals bear an essential resemblance to each other, as well as to their common parent in all their parts. E.g., the Cinnamon fern is a kind or species of fern with the fronds evidently of one kind, and of a common origin, and all producing individuals of their own kind by their spores or rootstocks. When such individuals differ perceptibly from the type in the shape of the pinnæ, or the cutting of the fronds, we have varieties as frondòsum, incìsum, etc. Or if the difference is less striking the word form is used instead of variety, but in any given case opinions may differ in respect to the more fitting term.
A genus is an assemblage of species closely related to each other, and having more points of resemblance than of difference; e.g., the royal fern, the cinnamon fern, and the interrupted fern are alike in having similar spore cases borne in a somewhat similar manner on the fronds, and forming the genus Osmunda. In like manner certain members of the clover group--red, white, yellow, etc., make up the genus Trifolium.
Thus individuals are grouped into species and species are associated into genera, and the two groups are united to give each fern or plant its true name, the generic name being qualified by that of the species; as in the cinnamon fern Osmúnda (genus), cinnamòmea (species).
[CHECK LIST OF THE FERNS OF NORTHEASTERN AMERICA]
In the following list the first name is usually the one adopted in the text, and those that follow are synonyms.
Names printed in small capitals are those of the newer nomenclature, now adopted at the Gray Herbarium but not in the Manual.
ADIANTUM L.
1. Adiantum Capillus-Veneris L.
2. Adiantum pedatum L.
Var. ALEUTICUM RUPR.
ASPIDIUM SW.
3. Aspidium Boottii. Tuckerm.
Dryopteris Boottii. (Tuckerm.) Underw.
THELYPTERIS BOOTTII. (Tuckerm.) Nieuwl.
4. Aspidium cristatum. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris cristata. (L.) A. Gray.
THELYPTERIS CRISTATA. (L.) Nieuwl.
5. Aspidium cristatum var. Clintonianum. D.C. Eaton.
Dryopteris cristata var. Clintoniana. (D.C. Eaton.) Underw.
THELYPTERIS CRISTATA var. CLINTONIANA. (D.C. Eaton.) Weatherby.
6. Aspidium cristatum × marginale. Davenp.
7. Aspidium Filix-mas. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris Filix-mas. (L.) Sw.
THELYPTERIS FILIX-MAS. (L.) Nieuwl.
8. Aspidium fragrans. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris fragrans. (L.) Schott.
THELYPTERIS FRAGRANS. (L.) Nieuwl.
9. Aspidium Goldianum. Hook.
Dryopteris Goldiana. (Hook.) A. Gray.
THELYPTERIS GOLDIANA. (Hook.) Nieuwl.
10. Aspidium marginale. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris marginalis. (L.) A. Gray.
THELYPTERIS MARGINALIS. (L.) Nieuwl.
11. Aspidium noveboracense. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris noveboracensis. (L.) A. Gray.
THELYPTERIS NOVEBORACENSIS. (L.) Nieuwl.
12. Aspidium simulatum. Davenp.
Dryopteris simulata. Davenp.
THELYPTERIS SIMULATA. (Davenp.) Nieuwl.
13. Aspidium spinulosum. (O.F. Muell.) Sw.
Dryopteris spinulosa. (O.F. Muell.) Kuntze.
THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA. (O.F. Muell.) Nieuwl.
14. Aspidium spinulosum var. intermedium. (Muhl.) D.C. Eaton.
Dryopteris spinulosa var. intermedia. (Muhl.) Underw.
THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. INTERMEDIA. (Muhl.) Nieuwl.
15. Aspidium spinulosum var. concordianum. (Davenp.) Eastman.
THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. CONCORDIANA. (Davenp.) Weatherby.
16. Aspidium spinulosum var. dilatatum. (Hoff.) Gray.
Dryopteris spinulosa var. dilatata. (Hoff.) Underw.
THELYPTERIS SPINULOSA var. AMERICANA. (Fisch.) Weatherby.
17. Aspidium thelypteris. (L.) Sw.
Dryopteris thelypteris. (L.) A. Gray.
THELYPTERIS PALUSTRIS. Schott.
ASPLENIUM L.
18. Asplenium Bradleyi. D.C. Eaton.
19. Asplenium platyneuron. (L.) Oakes.
Asplenium ebeneum. Ait.
20. Asplenium ebenoides. R.R. Scott.
21. Asplenium montanum. Willd.
22. Asplenium parvulum. Mart, and Gal.
Asplenium resiliens. Kze.
23. Asplenium pinnatifidum. Nutt.
24. Asplenium Ruta-muraria. L.
25. Asplenium Trichomanes. L.
26. Asplenium viride. Huds.
ATHYRIUM. ROTH
27. ATHYRIUM ACROSTICHOIDES. (Sw.) Diels.
Asplenium acrostichoides. Sw.
Asplenium thelypteroides. Michx.
28. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. (Michx.) Milde.
Asplenium angustifolium. Michx.
Asplenium pycnocarpon. Spreng.
29. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTUM. (Willd.) Presl.
Athyrium filix-femina. American Authors not Roth.
Asplenium filix-femina. American Authors not Bernh.
30. ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES. (Michx.) Desv.
BOTRYCHIUM. SW.
31. Botrychium lanceolatum. (Gmel.) Angstroem.
BOTRYCHIUM ANGUSTISEGMENTUM. (Pease and Moore.) Fernald.
32. BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM. Spreng.
Botrychium obliquum var. dissectum. (Spreng.) Clute.
33. Botrychium obliquum. Muhl.
BOTRYCHIUM DISSECTUM var. OBLIQUUM. (Muhl.) Clute.
34. Botrychium lunaria. (L.) Sw.
35. Botrychium ramosum. (Roth.) Aschers.
Botrychium matricariæfolium. A. Br.
Botrychium neglectum. Wood.
36. Botrychium simplex. E. Hitchcock.
37. Botrychium ternatum. (Thunb.) Sw. Var. intermedium. D.C. Eaton.
Botrychium obliquum var. intermedium. (D.C. Eaton.) Underw.
38. Botrychium virginianum. (L.) Sw.
CAMPTOSORUS. LINK
39. Camptosorus rhizophyllus. (L.) Link.
CHEILANTHES. SW.
40. Cheilanthes alabamensis. (Buckley.) Kunze.
41. Cheilanthes Féei. Moore.
Cheilanthes lanuginosa. Nutt.
42. Cheilanthes lanosa. (Michx.) Watt.
Cheilanthes vestita. Sw.
43. Cheilanthes tomentosa. Link.
CRYPTOGRAMMA.R. BR.
44. Cryptogramma densa. (Brack.) Diels.
Pellæa densa. (Brack.) Hook.
45. Cryptogramma Stelleri. (Gmel.) Prantl.
Pellæa gracilis. (Michx.) Hook.
46. Cryptogramma acrostichoides. R. Br.
CYSTOPTERIS. BERNH.
47. Cystopteris bulbifera. (L.) Bernh.
Filix bulbifera. (L.) Underw.
48. Cystopteris fragilis. (L.) Bernh.
Filix fragilis. (L.) Underw.
DENNSTÆDTIA L'HER.
49. DENNSTÆDTIA PUNCTILOBULA. (Michx.) Moore.
Dicksonia pilosiuscula. Willd.
LYGODIUM SW.
50. Lygodium palmatum. (Bernh.) Sw.
NOTHOLÆNA.R. BR.
51. Notholæna dealbata. (Pursh.) Kunze.
Notholæna nivea var. dealbata. (Pursh.) Davenp.
ONOCLEA L.
52. Onoclea sensibilis. L.
53. Onoclea Struthiopteris. (L.) Hoff.
Struthiopteris Germanica. Willd.
Matteuccia Struthiopteris. (L.) Todaro.
PTERETIS NODULOSA. (Michx.) Nieuwl.
OPHIOGLOSSUM. (TOURN.) L.
54. Ophioglossum vulgatum. L.
Ophioglossum vulgatum var. minus. Moore.
55. Ophioglossum Engelmanni. Prantl.
OSMUNDA.L.
56. Osmunda cinnamomea. L.
57. Osmunda Claytoniana. L.
58. Osmunda regalis. L.
OSMUNDA REGALIS var. SPECTABILIS. (Willd.) Gray.
PELLÆA. LINK
59. Pellæa atropurpurea. (L.) Link.
60. Pellæa glabella. Mett.
PHEGOPTERIS FÉE
61. Phegopteris Dryopteris. (L.) Fée.
THELYPTERIS DRYOPTERIS. (L.) Slosson.
62. Phegopteris hexagonoptera. (Michx.) Fée.
THELYPTERIS HEXAGONOPTERA. (Michx.) Weatherby.
63. Phegopteris polypodioides Fée.
THELYPTERIS PHEGOPTERIS. (L.) Slosson.
Phegopteris Phegopteris. (L.) Underw.
64. Phegopteris Robertiana. (Hoff.) A. Br.
Phegopteris calcarea. Fée.
THELYPTERIS ROBERTIANA. (Hoff.) Slosson.
POLYPODIUM.L.
65. Polypodium vulgare. L.
66. Polypodium polypodioides. (L.) Watt.
Polypodium incanum. Sw.
POLYSTICHUM. ROTH
67. Polystichum acrostichoides. (Michx.) Schott.
Aspidium acrostichoides. Sw.
Dryopteris acrostichoides. (Michx.) Kuntze.
68. Polystichum Braunii. (Spenner.) Fée.
Dryopteris Braunii. (Spenner.) Underw.
Aspidium aculeatum var. Braunii. Doel.
69. Polystichum Lonchitis. (L.) Roth.
Aspidium Lonchitis. Sw.
Dryopteris Lonchitis. Kuntze.
PTERIS.L.
70. Pteris aquilina. L.
Pteridium aquilinum. (L.) Kuhn.
PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM. (Desv.) Maxon.
PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM var. PSEUDOCAUDATUM. (Clute.) Maxon.
SCHIZÆA.J.E. SMITH
71. Schizæa pusilla. Pursh.
72. Scolopendrium vulgare. J.E. Smith.
PHYLLITIS SCOLOPENDRIUM. (L.) Newman.
TRICHOMANES.L.
73. Trichomanes radicans. Sw.
Trichomanes Boschianum. Sturm.
WOODSIA.R. BY.
74. Woodsia glabella. R. Br.
75. Woodsia alpina. (Bolton.) S.F. Gray.
Woodsia hyperborea. R. Br.
76. Woodsia ilvensis. (L.) R. Br.
77. Woodsia Cathcartiana. B.L. Robinson.
78. Woodsia obtusa. (Spreng.) Torr.
79. Woodsia oregana. D.C. Eaton.
80. Woodsia scopulina. D.C. Eaton.
WOODWARDIA.J.E. SMITH
81. Woodwardia virginica. Sm.
82. Woodwardia areolata. (L.) Moore.
Woodwardia angustifolia. Sm.
THE PETRIFIED FERN
In a valley, centuries ago,
Grew a little fern-leaf green and slender,
Veining delicate and fibers tender,
Waving when the wind crept down so low;
Rushes tall and moss and grass grew round it,
Playful sunbeams darted in and found it,
Drops of dew stole down by night and crowned it.
But no foot of man e'er came that way--
Earth was young and keeping holiday.
Monster fishes swam the silent main,
Stately forests waved their giant branches,
Mountains hurled their snowy avalanches,
Mammoth creatures stalked across the plain,
Nature reveled in grand mysteries;
But the little fern was not of these,
Did not slumber with the hills and trees,
Only grew and waved its wild, sweet way;
No one came to note it day by day.
Earth, one time, put on a frolic mood,
Heaved the rocks and changed the mighty motion
Of the deep, strong currents of the ocean;
Moved the plain and shook the haughty wood,
Crushed the little fern in soft, moist clay,
Covered it and hid it safe away.
Oh, the long, long centuries since that day!
Oh, the changes! Oh, life's bitter cost!
Since the useless little fern was lost.
Useless? Lost? There came a thoughtful man
Searching Nature's secrets far and deep;
From a fissure in a rocky steep
He withdrew a stone o'er which there ran
Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,
Leafage, veining, fibers clear and fine,
And the fern's life lay in every line!
So, I think, God hides some souls away,
Sweetly to surprise us the last day!--M.B. BRANCH.