WALKING FERN. WALKING LEAF
Camptosòrus
Fruit-dots oblong or linear as in Asplènium, but irregularly scattered on either side of the reticulated veins of the simple frond, the outer ones sometimes confluent at their ends, forming crooked lines (hence, the name from the Greek meaning crooked sori). Only one species within our limits.
Camptosòrus rhizophyllus
Fronds evergreen, leathery, four to eighteen inches long, heart-shaped at the base, but tapering towards the apex, which often roots and forms a new plant. Veins reticulated. The auricles of this species are sometimes elongated and may even take root.
This curious and interesting fern is one of the finest for rockeries, the tips taking root in rock-fissures. Shaded limestone, or sometimes other rocks. Shapleigh and Winthrop, Me., rarely in New Hampshire (Lebanon), and Connecticut, Mt. Toby, Mass., and western New England; also Canada to Georgia and westward.
[Illustration: Walking Fern. Camptosorus rhizophyllus]
[THE SHIELD FERNS]
[THE CHRISTMAS AND HOLLY FERNS]
Polýstichum
These have been grouped with the wood ferns, but are now usually placed under the genus Polýstichum, which has the sori round and covered with a circular indusium fixed to the frond by its depressed center. The wood ferns, on the other hand, have a kidney-shaped indusium attached to the fronds by the sinus. (Polýstichum is the Greek for many rows, the sori of some species being in many ranks.)