The Fern Lover's Companion Part 10

This dainty fern has fronds of a delicate yellow-green, "the greenest of all green things growing." Its ternate character is shown even in the uncoiling of the fronds, the three round b.a.l.l.s suggesting the sign of the p.a.w.nbroker. The parts of the oak fern develop with great regularity, each pinna, pinnule and lobe having another exactly opposite to it nearly always. In rocky woods, common northward; also in Virginia, Kansas and Colorado. A fine species for cultivation at the base of the artificial rockery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Dryopteris_]

(2) THE NORTHERN OAK FERN

_Phegopteris Robertiana. Phegopteris calcarea_

THELPTERIS ROBERTIaNA

Resembles the oak fern, but with fronds rather larger, especially the terminal segment; also more rigid and coa.r.s.er in appearance. Stalks and fronds minutely glandular beneath. Lower pinnules of the lateral divisions scarcely longer than the others. Often called "Limestone Polypody," the beech ferns having formerly been cla.s.sed with the polypodies. Britton and Brown designate it as the "Scented Oak Fern." Canada and the northwestern states. Rare.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Northern Oak Fern. _Phegopteris Robertiana_ (From Water's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BROAD BEECH FERN. Phegopteris hexagonoptera]

(3) BROAD BEECH FERN

_Phegopteris hexagonoptera_

THELPTERIS HEXAGONoPTERA

Fronds triangular, broader than long, seven to twelve inches broad, spreading more or less horizontally at the summit of the stipe; p.u.b.escent and often glandular beneath; pinnae fragrant, lanceolate, the lowest pair usually much larger than those above, having the segments elongated and cut into lobes. Basal segments decurrent and forming a many-angled wing along the main rachis. Fruit-dots small, near the margin.

The broad beech fern is usually larger than its sister, the long beech fern, and extends farther south, ranging from New England to Minnesota and southward to Florida. It is sometimes called "six-angled polypody."

According to Dodge it is most common in Rhode Island and Connecticut. It prefers rather dry, open woods. It is said to have a pleasant, ferny odor when bruised. August.

(4) LONG BEECH FERN

_Phegopteris polypodiides_. THELPTERIS PHEGoPTERIS

Fronds triangular, longer than broad, four to six inches long, twice pinnatifid. Pinnae lanceolate, ac.u.minate, the lowest pair deflexed and standing forward; cut into oblong, obtuse segments. Fruit-dots near the margin.

Compared with the broad beech fern this is the more northern species. While usually quite distinct in structure, it sometimes approaches its sister fern rather closely.

It prefers deep woods and shaded banks. Newfoundland to Alaska and southward to the mountains of Virginia. July.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Long Beech Fern. _Phegopteris polypodioides_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Long Beech Fern]

THE FRAGRANT FERN

_Aspidium fragrans. Nephrdium fragrans_

THELPTERIS FRaGRANS. _Dryopteris fragrans_

Fronds four to twelve inches high, glandular-aromatic, narrowly lanceolate and twice pinnate or nearly so. Pinnae oblong-lanceolate, pinnate or deeply pinnatifid. Pinnules toothed or entire nearly covered beneath with the large, thin, imbricated indusia which are orbicular with a narrow sinus, having the margins ragged and sparingly glanduliferous. Stipe short and chaffy.

The fragrant fern grows on high cliffs among the mountains of northern New England. It is reported from scattered stations in northern Maine, from north of the White Mountains and from Sunapee Lake in New Hampshire, and in the Green Mountains south to central Vermont, New Brunswick and to Minnesota. Found also in Alaska and Greenland. This much-coveted fern has a singularly sweet and lasting fragrance, compared by some to strawberries, by others to new-mown hay and sweet brier leaves. We have seen herbarium specimens that were mildly and pleasantly odorous after several years. When growing the fern may be tested "by its fragrance, its stickiness and its beautiful brown curls." Evergreen. Spores ripen the middle of August.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fragrant Fern. _Aspidium fragrans_ (Mt. Mansfield. Vt.)]

KEY TO THE WOOD FERNS

ASPIDIUM

Fronds pinnate, the pinnae pinnatifid; Blade soft and thin, not evergreen; Lower pinnae reduced to mere lobes New York Fern Lower pinnae but slightly reduced; Veins simple......................Ma.s.sachusetts Fern Veins forked..............................Marsh Fern

Blade rather thick (subcoreaceous) mostly evergreen; Fronds small, narrow, glandular, rock species Fragrant Fern Fronds large, two or more feet high; Lower pinnae short, broadly triangular Crested Shield Fern Lower pinnae longer; Sori close to the margin.... Marginal Shield Fern Sori nearer the midvein; Frond lanceolate....................Male Fern Frond ovate..............Goldie's Shield Fern

Fronds twice pinnate with the lower pinnules pinnatifid Boott's Shield Fern

Fronds nearly thrice pinnate................Spinulose Shield Fern

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marginal Shield Fern. _Aspidium marginale_]

THE WOOD FERNS

The ferns of this group, not counting the small fragrant fern, prefer the woods or at least shady places. Although the genus _Polstichum_ represents the true shield ferns, the wood ferns are also thus designated, as their indusia have nearly the shape of small, roundish shields. The old generic name for them all was _Aspidium_ (meaning shield), first published in 1800.

For a long time its chief rival was _Nephrdium_ (kidney-like), 1803. Many modern botanists have preferred the earlier name _Dryopteris_ (1763), meaning oak fern, alluding, perhaps, to its forest-loving habits.

THELPTERIS, still earlier (1762), may supersede the others.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Marginal Shield Fern. Aspidium marginale (From Woolson's "Ferns," Doubleday, Page & Co.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sori of Marginal Shield Fern]

(1) MARGINAL SHIELD FERN, EVERGREEN WOOD FERN

_Aspidium marginale_. THELPTERIS MARGINaLIS _Dryopteris marginalis. Nephrdium marginale_

Fronds from a few inches to three feet long, ovate-oblong, somewhat leathery, smooth, twice pinnate. Pinnae lanceolate, ac.u.minate, broadest just above the base. Pinnules oblong, often slightly falcate, entire or toothed.

Fruit-dots large, round, close to the margin. Rocky hillsides in rich woods, rather common throughout our area. The heavy rootstock rises slightly above the ground and is clothed at the crown with s.h.a.ggy, brown scales. Its rising caudex, often creeping for several inches over bare rocks, suggests the habit of a tree fern. In early spring it sends up a graceful circle of large, handsome, bluish-green blades. The stipes are short and densely chaffy. No other wood fern endures the winter so well.

The fronds burdened with snow lop over among the withered leaves and continue green until the new ones shoot up in the spring. It is the most valuable of all the wood ferns for cultivation.

(2) THE MALE FERN

_Aspidium Flix-mas_. THELPTERIS FLIX-MAS _Dryopteris Flix-mas. Nephrdium Flix-mas_