Part 26

24. LADY FERN

Asplenium Filix-fœmina

A wood and roadside fern, growing in all parts of the country and presenting many varying forms. One to three feet high, with tufted, straw-colored, reddish, or brownish stalks.

Fronds.--Broadly lance-shaped, tapering toward the apex, twice-pinnate; pinnæ lance-shaped; pinnules oblong-lanceolate, toothed or incised; fruit-dots short, curved; indusium delicate, curved, sometimes shaped like a horseshoe.

The Lady Fern is found in all parts of the country. Sometimes it forms a part of the tangle of wild, graceful things which grow close to the roadside fence. Again, in company with the Silvery Spleenwort, the Evergreen Wood Fern and the Spinulose Shield Fern, forming perhaps a background for the brilliant scarlet clusters of the wild bergamot, it fringes the banks of some amber-colored brook which surprises us with its swift, noiseless flow as we stroll through the woods.

LADY FERN

a Fruiting pinnule b Portion of same]

The earliest fronds uncurl in May. In June the plant is very graceful and pleasing. When growing in shaded places it is often conspicuous by reason of its bright pink or reddish stalks, which contrast effectively with the delicate green of the foliage. But in later summer, judging by my own experience, the Lady Fern loses much of its delicacy. Many of its fronds become disfigured and present a rather blotched and coarse appearance.

This seems strange in view of the fact that the plant is called by Lowe, a well-known English writer, the "Queen of Ferns," and that it is one of the few ferns to which we find reference in literature. Scott pays it the compliment, rarely bestowed upon ferns, of mentioning it by name:

"Where the copse wood is the greenest, Where the fountain glistens sheenest, Where the morning dew lies longest, There the Lady Fern grows strongest."

In English works devoted to ferns I find at least two poems, more remarkable for enthusiasm than for poetic inspiration, in its honor. I quote a portion of the one which occurs in Miss Pratt's "Ferns of Great Britain and Their Allies":

"But seek her not in early May, For a Sibyl then she looks, With wrinkled fronds that seem to say, 'Shut up are my wizard books!' Then search for her in the summer woods, Where rills keep moist the ground, Where Foxgloves from their spotted hoods, Shake pilfering insects round; When up and clambering all about, The Traveller's Joy flings forth Its snowy awns, that in and out Like feathers strew the earth: Fair are the tufts of meadow-sweet That haply blossom nigh; Fair are the whirls of violet Prunella shows hard by; But nor by burn in wood, or vale, Grows anything so fair As the plumy crest of emerald pale, That waves in the wind, and soughs in the gale, Of the Lady Fern, when the sunbeams turn To gold her delicate hair."

The other, which I give in full, on account of its quaintness, appeared in the Botanical Looker-out of Edwin Lees:

"When in splendor and beauty all nature is crown'd, The Fern is seen curling half hid in the ground, But of all the green brackens that rise by the burn, Commend me alone to the sweet Lady Fern.

"Polypodium indented stands stiff on the rock, With his sori exposed to the tempest's rough shock; On the wide, chilly heath Aquilina stands stern, Not once to be named with the sweet Lady Fern.

"Filix-mas in a circle lifts up his green fronds And the Heath Fern delights by the bogs and the ponds; Through their shadowy tufts though with pleasure I turn, The palm must still rest with the fair Lady Fern.

"By the fountain I see her just spring into sight, Her texture as frail as though shivering with fright; To the water she shrinks--I can scarcely discern In the deep humid shadows the soft Lady Fern.

"Where the water is pouring forever she sits, And beside her the Ouzel, the Kingfisher flits; There, supreme in her beauty, beside the full urn, In the shade of the rock stands the tall Lady Fern.

"Noon burns up the mountain; but here by the fall The Lady Fern flourishes graceful and tall. Hours speed as thoughts rise, without any concern, And float like the spray gliding past the green Fern."

25. SILVERY SPLEENWORT

Asplenium thelypteroides (A. acrostichoides)

Canada to Alabama and westward, in rich woods. One to three feet high.

Fronds.--Lance-shaped, tapering both ways from the middle, once-pinnate; pinnæ linear-lanceolate, deeply cut into obtuse segments; fruit-dots oblong; indusium silvery when young.

The Silvery Spleenwort grows in company with its kinsman, the Narrow-leaved Spleenwort, and also with many of the Aspidiums, such as the Spinulose Shield Fern, the Evergreen Wood Fern, the Christmas and Goldie's Fern. I find it growing in large patches in the rich woods, often near water, either in boggy ground or on the very edge of the clear, brown brook. Sometimes it is difficult to detect a single fertile frond in a group of plants covering many square feet of ground. This is probably owing to the deeply shaded situations which it favors, as in sunny exposures I have noticed an abundance of fertile fronds.

a Upper part of fertile frond of Silvery Spleenwort b Portion of fruiting pinna c Portion of pinna showing double fruit-dots]

Its color is a dull green, the silvery indusia on the lower surfaces of the pinnæ giving the plant its English title. Although usually its fronds are larger, their outline, tapering as it does both ways from the middle, somewhat suggests that of the New York Fern. It is readily identified, as the oblong or linear fruit-dots at once proclaim it a Spleenwort, and no other member of this tribe has fronds of the same shape.

Although it cannot be classed among the rare ferns, it is absent from many promising localities, and is associated in my mind with especially successful expeditions.

26. RUE SPLEENWORT. WALL RUE