Nova Scotia to Florida, in swampy places. Growing in a crown, one to five feet high.
Sterile fronds.—Broadly lance-shaped, once-pinnate; pinnæ cut into broadly oblong divisions that do not reach the midvein, each pinna with a tuft of rusty wool at its base beneath.
Fertile fronds.—Quite unlike the sterile fronds, growing in the centre of the crown formed by the sterile fronds and usually about the same height; erect, with cinnamon-colored spore-cases.
Cinnamon Fern
In the form of little croziers, protected from the cold by wrappings of rusty wool, the fertile fronds of the Cinnamon Fern appear everywhere in our swamps and wet woods during the month of May. These fertile fronds, first dark-green, later cinnamon-brown, are quickly followed and encircled by the sterile ones, which grow in a tall, graceful crown. The fertile fronds soon wither, and, during the summer, may be found either clinging to the stalks of the sterile fronds or lying on the ground.
PLATE III
CINNAMON FERN
a Showing tuft of wool at base of pinna, also free veins with forking veinlets