[Illustration: Aspidium Boottii]
(6) SPINULOSE SHIELD FERN
Aspidium spinulòsum. THELÝPTERIS SPINULÒSA
Dryopteris spinulòsa. Nephrodium spinulòsum
Stipes with a few pale brown deciduous scales. Fronds one to two and one-half feet long, ovate-lanceolate, twice pinnate. Pinnæ oblique to the rachis, the lower ones broadly triangular, the upper ones elongated. Pinnules on the inferior side of the pinnæ often elongated, especially the lower pair, the pinnule nearest the rachis being usually the longest, at least in the lowest pinnæ. Pinnules variously cut into spinulose-toothed segments. Indusium smooth, without marginal glands.
The common European type, but in this country far less common than its varieties. They all prefer rich, damp woods, and because of their graceful outline and spiny-toothed lobes are very attractive. They can be transplanted without great difficulty, and the fern garden depends upon them for its most effective lacework.
Var. intermèdium has the scales of the stipe brown with darker center. Fronds ovate-oblong, often tripinnate. Pinnæ spreading, oblong-lanceolate. Pinnules pinnately cleft, the oblong lobes spinulose-toothed at the apex. Margin of the indusium denticulate and beset with minute, stalked glands. In woods nearly everywhere--our most common form. Millions of fronds of this variety are gathered in our northern woods, placed in cold storage and sent to florists to be used in decorations.[A] As long as the roots are not disturbed the crop is renewed from year to year, and no great harm seems to result. Canada to Kentucky and westward.
[Footnote A: Horticulture reports that twenty-eight million fern leaves have been shipped from Bennington, Vt., in a single season; and that nearly $100,000 were paid out in wages.]
