PLATE XXXI
Part of fertile frond of Goldie's Fern
a Portion of a fertile pinna
44. GOLDIE'S FERN
Aspidium Goldianum (Dryopteris Goldieana)
New Brunswick to North Carolina and Tennessee, in rich woods. Two to more than four feet high, with stalks which are chaffy near the base.
Fronds.—Broadly ovate, the early sterile ones much broader in proportion and smaller, usually a foot or more wide, once-pinnate; pinnæ pinnatifid; broadest in the middle (the distinction from Clinton's Wood Fern), the divisions, about twenty pairs, oblong-linear, slightly toothed; fruit-dots very near the midvein; indusium very large, orbicular.
In the golden twilight of the deeper woods this stately plant unfurls its tall, broad, bright-green fronds, studded on their backs with the round fruit-dots which are so noticeable in this Aspidium, adding much to their attractiveness by the suggestion of fertility.