[Illustration: Northern Oak Fern. Phegopteris Robertiana (From Water's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]
[Illustration: BROAD BEECH FERN. Phegopteris hexagonoptera]
Fronds triangular, broader than long, seven to twelve inches broad, spreading more or less horizontally at the summit of the stipe; pubescent and often glandular beneath; pinnæ 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.
Fronds triangular, longer than broad, four to six inches long, twice pinnatifid. Pinnæ lanceolate, acuminate, 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.
[Illustration: Long Beech Fern. Phegopteris polypodioides]
[Illustration: The Long Beech Fern]
Fronds four to twelve inches high, glandular-aromatic, narrowly lanceolate and twice pinnate or nearly so. Pinnæ 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.
[Illustration: Fragrant Fern. Aspidium fragrans (Mt. Mansfield. Vt.)]
[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern. Aspidium marginale]
The ferns of this group, not counting the small fragrant fern, prefer the woods or at least shady places. Although the genus Polýstichum 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 Aspídium (meaning shield), first published in 1800. For a long time its chief rival was Nephròdium (kidney-like), 1803. Many modern botanists have preferred the earlier name Dryópteris (1763), meaning oak fern, alluding, perhaps, to its forest-loving habits. THELÝPTERIS, still earlier (1762), may supersede the others.
[Illustration: Marginal Shield Fern. Aspidium marginale (From Woolson's "Ferns," Doubleday, Page & Co.)]
[Illustration: Sori of Marginal Shield Fern]
Fronds from a few inches to three feet long, ovate-oblong, somewhat leathery, smooth, twice pinnate. Pinnæ lanceolate, acuminate, 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 shaggy, 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.
Fronds lanceolate, pinnate, one to three feet high growing in a crown from a shaggy rootstock. Pinnæ lanceolate, tapering from base to apex. Pinnules oblong, obtuse, serrate at the apex, obscurely so at the sides, the basal incisely lobed, distant, the upper confluent. Fruit-dots large, nearer the mid vein than the margin, mostly on the lower half of each fertile segment.
The male fern resembles the marginal shield fern in outline, but the fronds are thinner, are not evergreen, and the sori are near the midvein. Its use in medicine is of long standing. Its rootstock produces the well-known fìlix-mas of the pharmacist. This has tonic and astringent properties, but is mainly prescribed as a vermifuge, which is one of the names given to it. In Europe it is regarded as the typical fern, being oftener mentioned and figured than any other. In rocky woods, Canada, Northfield, Vt., and northwest to the great lakes, also in many parts of the world.
[Illustration: The Male Fern. Aspidium Filix-mas (Vermont)]
[Illustration: FIG. 33G. Aspidium filix mas 1, Illustration exhibiting general habit; a, young leaves: 2, transverse section of rhizome showing the conducting bundles; a: 3, portion of the leaf bearing sori; a indusium b, sporangia; 4, longitudinal; 5, transverse section of a soris; a, leaf; b, indusium; c, sporangia: 6, a single sporangium; a, stalk; c, annulus; d, spores. (After WOSSIDLO OFFICINAL) From a German print, giving details]
Fronds two to four feet high and often one foot broad, pinnate, broadly ovate, especially the sterile ones. Pinnæ deeply pinnatifid, broadest in the middle. The divisions (eighteen or twenty pairs) oblong-linear, slightly toothed. Fruit-dots very near the midvein. Indusium large, orbicular, with a deep, narrow sinus. Scales dark brown to nearly black with a peculiar silky lustre.
A magnificent species, the tallest and largest of the wood ferns. It delights in rich woodlands where there is limestone. Its range is from Canada to Kentucky. While not common, there are numerous colonies in New England. It is reported from Fairfield, Me., Spencer and Mt. Toby, Mass., and frequently west of the Connecticut River. We have often admired a large and beautiful colony of it on the west side of Willoughby Mountain in Vermont. It is easily cultivated and adds grace and dignity to a fern garden.
[Illustration: Goldie's Shield Fern. Aspidium Goldianum (Vermont, 1874. C.G. Pringle) (Herbarium of G.E. Davenport)]
[Illustration: Goldie's Fern (From Woolson's "Ferns," Doubleday, Page & Co.)]
Fronds one to two feet long, linear-oblong or lanceolate, pinnate, acute. Pinnæ two to three inches long, broadest at the base, triangular-oblong, or the lowest triangular. Divisions oblong, obtuse, finely serrate or cut-toothed, those nearest the rachis sometimes separate. Fruit-dots large, round, half way between the midvein and the margin. Indusium smooth, naked, with a shallow sinus.
The short sterile fronds, though spreading out gracefully, are conspicuous only in winter; while the fertile fronds, tall, narrow and erect, are found only in summer.
It is one of our handsomest evergreen ferns and even the large sori, with their dark spore cases and white indusia, are very attractive. The fertile pinnæ have a way of turning their faces upward toward the apex of the frond for more light. In moist land, Canada to Kentucky.
Var. Clintoniànum. Clinton's Wood Fern. Resembles the type, but is in every way larger. Divisions eight to sixteen pairs. Fruit-dots near the midvein, the sides of the sinus often overlapping. South central Maine to New York and westward. "Rare in New England attaining its best development in western sections." (Dodge.) Mt. Toby, Mass., Hanover, N.H. July. Fine for cultivation.
[Illustration: Crested Shield Fern. Aspidium cristatum (Reading, Mass., Kingman)]
[Illustration: The Crested Shield Fern. Aspidium cristatum]
[Illustration: Clinton's Wood Fern. Aspidium cristatum, var. Clintonianum (Gray Herbarium)]
Both the crested fern and Clinton's fern appear to hybridize with the marginal shield fern with the result that the upper part of the frond is like marginale and the lower like cristàtum, including the veining and texture.
This form was discovered by Raynal Dodge, verified by Margaret Slosson and described by Geo. E. Davenport, who had a small colony under cultivation in his fern garden at Medford, Mass., and to him the writer and other friends are indebted for specimens.
Found occasionally throughout New England and New Jersey. Other supposed hybrids have been found between the marginal shield and the spinulose fern and its variety intermèdium, and with Goldie's fern; also between the crested fern, including Clinton's variety and each of the others mentioned; and, in fact, between almost all pairs of species of the wood ferns, although we do not think they have been positively verified. Still other species of ferns are known to hybridize more or less, as we saw in the case of Scott's spleenwort.
[Illustration: Crested Marginal Fern. A Hybrid. Aspidium Cristatum X marginale (Fernery of Geo. E. Davenport)]
[Illustration: Aspidium cristatum X marginale One of the very best for cultivation]
Fronds one to three feet high, oblong-lanceolate, bipinnate, the upper pinnæ lanceolate, the lower triangular with spinulose teeth. Sori in rows each side of the midvein, one to each tooth and often scattering on the lower pinules. Indusium large, minutely glandular, variable.
This fern has been thought to be a hybrid between the crested and spinulose ferns, but is now regarded as distinct. Like the crested fern its fertile fronds wither in autumn, while its sterile blades remain green throughout the winter. It differs from it, however, by being twice pinnate below, and from the typical spinulose fern by its glandular indusium; but from the intermediate variety it is more difficult to separate it, as that also has indusiate glands. The collector needs to study authentic specimens and have in mind the type, with its rather long, narrow blade as an aid to the verbal description, and even then he will often find it an interesting puzzle. Shaded swamps throughout our area.
[Illustration: Aspidium Boottii]
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.
[Illustration: Spinulose Shield Fern. Aspidium spinulosum (Maine, 1877, Herbarium of Geo. E. Davenport)]
| Aspidium spinulosum |
[Illustration: Aspidium spinulosum, var. intermedium] |
|
[Illustration: Aspidium spinulosum, var. AMERICANUM] |
Aspidium spinulosum |
A tripinnate form of this variety discovered at Concord, Mass., by Henry Purdie, has been named var. CONCORDIÀNUM. It has small, elliptical, denticulate pinnules and a glandular-pubescent indusium.
Var. AMERICÀNUM (=dilatàtum, syn.). Fronds broader, ovate or triangular-ovate in outline. A more highly developed form of the typical plant, the lower pinnæ being often very broad, and the fronds tripinnate. Inferior pinnules on the lower pair of pinnæ conspicuously elongated. A variety preferring upland woods; northern New England, Greenland to the mountains of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and northward.
The bladder ferns are a dainty, rock-loving family partial to a limestone soil. (The Greek name cystópteris means bladder fern, so called in allusion to the hood-shaped indusium.)
Fronds lanceolate, elongated, one to three feet long, twice pinnate. Pinnæ lanceolate-oblong, pointed, horizontal, the lowest pair longest. Rachis and pinnæ often bearing bulblets beneath. Pinnules toothed or deeply lobed. Indusium short, truncate on the free side. Stipe short.
[Illustration: Bulblet Bladder Fern. Cystopteris bulbifera (Willoughby, Vt., 1904, G.H.T.)]
[Illustration: Bulblet Bladder Fern. Cystopteris bulbifera]
One of the most graceful and attractive of our native ferns; an object of beauty, whether standing alone or massed with other growths. It is very easily cultivated and one of the best for draping. "We may drape our homes by the yard," says Woolson, "with the most graceful and filmy of our common ferns, the bladder fern." This fern and the maidenhair were introduced into Europe in 1628 by John Tradescant, the first from America.
It delights in shaded ravines and dripping hillsides in limestone districts. While producing spores freely it seems to propagate its species mainly by bulblets, which, falling into a moist soil, at once send out a pair of growing roots, while a tiny frond starts to uncoil from the heart of the bulb. Mt. Toby, Mass., Willoughby Mountain, Vt., calcareous regions in Maine, and west of the Connecticut River, Newfoundland to Manitoba, Wisconsin and Iowa; south to northern Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas.
Stipe long and brittle. Fronds oblong-lanceolate, five to twelve inches long, twice pinnate, the pinnæ often pinnatifid or cut-toothed, ovate-lanceolate, decurrent on the winged rachis. Indusium appearing acute at the free end. Very variable in the cutting of the pinnules.
The fragile bladder fern, as it is often called, and which the name frágilis suggests, is the earliest to appear in the spring, and the first to disappear, as by the end of July it has discharged its spores and withered away. Often, however, a new crop springs up by the last of August, as if Nature were renewing her youth. In outline the fragile bladder fern suggests the blunt-lobed Woodsia, but in the latter the pinnæ and pinnules are usually broader and blunter, and its indusium splits into jagged lobes. Rather common in damp, shady places where rocks abound. In one form or another, found nearly throughout the world though only on mountains in the tropics.
[Illustration: Fragile Bladder Fern, Fruited Portion]
[Illustration: Fragile Bladder Fern. Cystopteris fragilis (Wakefield, Mass.)]
Small, tufted, pinnately divided ferns. Fruit-dots borne on the back of simply forked, free veins. Indusium fixed beneath the sori, thin and often evanescent, either small and open, or early bursting at the top into irregular pieces or lobes. (Named for James Woods, an English botanist.)
Fronds oblong-lanceolate, three to ten inches high, rather smooth above, thickly clothed underneath with rusty, bristle-like chaff. Pinnate, the pinnæ crowded, sessile, cut into oblong segments. Fruit-dots near the margin often confluent at maturity. Indusium divided nearly in the center into slender hairs which are curled over the sporangia. Stipes jointed an inch or so above the rootstock.
[Illustration: Rusty Woodsia, Woodsia ilvensis]
The rusty Woodsia is decidedly a rock-loving fern, and often grows on high cliffs exposed to the sun; its rootstock and fronds are covered with silver-white, hair-like scales, especially underneath. These scales turn brown in age, whence the name, rusty. As the short stipes separate at the joints from the rootstock, they leave at the base a thick stubble, which serves to identify the fern. Exposed rocks, Labrador to North Carolina and westward. Rather common in New England. Said to be very abundant on the trap rock hillocks about Little Falls, N.J., where it grows in dense tufts.
Fronds narrowly lanceolate, two to six inches long, smooth above, somewhat hairy beneath, pinnate. Pinnæ triangular-ovate, obtuse, lobed, the lobes few and nearly entire. Fruit-dots rarely confluent. Indusium as in Woodsia ilvensis.
[Illustration: Details of Northern Woodsia. Woodsia alpina]
Thought by some botanists to be a smooth form of Woodsia ilvensis. It was discovered in the United States by Horace Mann, in 1863, at Willoughby Lake, Vt. Twenty years or more later it was collected by C.H. Peck in the Adirondacks, who supposed it to be Woodsia glabélla. In 1897 it was rediscovered at Willoughby Lake by C.H. Pringle. New York, Vermont, Maine, and British America. Rare.
[Illustration: Northern Woodsia, Woodsia alpina (From Waters' "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]
Fronds broadly lanceolate, ten to eighteen inches long, nearly twice pinnate, often minutely glandular. Pinnæ rather remote, triangular-ovate or oblong, pinnately parted into obtuse, oblong, toothed segments. Veins forked. Fruit-dots on or near the margin of the lobes. Indusium conspicuous, at length splitting into several spreading, jagged lobes.
[Illustration: Blunt-lobed Woodsia. Woodsia obtusa]
This is our most common species of Woodsia and it has a wider range than the others, extending from Maine and Nova Scotia to Georgia and westward. On rocky banks and cliffs. The sori of this species have a peculiar beauty on account of the star-shaped indusium, as it splits into fragments. Var. angústa is a form with very narrow fronds and pinnæ. Highlands, New York. The type grows in Middlesex County, Mass., but is rare.
Fronds two to five inches high, very delicate, linear, pinnate. Pinnæ remote at the base, roundish-ovate, very obtuse with a few crenate lobes. Stipes jointed, straw-colored. Hairs of the indusium few and minute.
[Illustration: Smooth Woodsia. Woodsia glabella (Willoughhy Mountain, Vt. G.H.T.)]
On moist, mossy, mostly calcareous rocks, northern New England, Mount Mansfield, Willoughby, and Bakersfield Ledge, Vt., Gorham, N.H., also Newfoundland, New York, and far to the northwest. Not very common. It differs from the alpine species by the absence of scales above the joint. As the name implies, the plant is smooth, except for the chaffy scales at or near the rootstock, which mark all the Woodsias, and many other ferns, and which serve as a protective covering against sudden changes in extremes of heat and cold.
Fronds two to ten inches high, smooth, bright green, glandular beneath, narrowly lance-oblong, bipinnatifid. Pinnse triangular-oblong, obtuse, pinnatifid. Segments ovate or oblong, obtuse, crenate, the teeth or margin nearly always reflexed. Indusium minute, concealed beneath the sorus, divided into a few beaded hairs.
Like the obtuse Woodsia this fern has no joint near the base of the stipe, but is much smaller and has several points of difference. Limestone cliffs, Gaspé Peninsula, southern shore of Lake Superior, Colorado, Oregon to the northwest. Its eastern limit is northern Michigan.
Fronds six to fifteen inches long [smooth], lanceolate, pinnatifid. Pinnæ triangular-ovate, the lowest pair shortened. Under surface of the whole frond hispidulous with minute, white hairs and stalked glands. Indusium hidden beneath the sporangia, consisting mostly of a few hair-like divisions.
In crevices of rocks, mountains of West Virginia, Gaspé Peninsula, Rocky Mountains, and westward to Oregon and California.
Fronds eight to twelve inches high, lanceolate, bipinnatifid, finely glandular-puberulent. Pinnse oblong; the lower distant segments oblong, denticulate, separated by wide sinuses.
Rocky river banks, west Michigan to northeast Minnesota.
Fruit-dots small, globular, marginal, each on the apex of a vein or fork. Sporangia borne on an elevated, globular receptacle in a membranous, cup-shaped indusium which is open at the top.
(Named in honor of August Wilhelm Dennstaed.)
Fronds one to three feet high, minutely glandular and hairy, ovate-lanceolate, pale green, very thin and mostly bipinnate. Primary pinnæ in outline like the frond; the secondary, pinnatifid into oblong and obtuse, cut-toothed lobes. Fruit-dots minute, each on a recurved toothlet, usually one at the upper margin of each lobe. Indusium fixed under the sporangia, appearing like a tiny green cup filled with spore cases.
[Illustration: Hayscented Fern. Dennstædtia punctilobula (Sudbury, Mass. G.E.D.)]
[Illustration: Forked Variety of Hayscented Fern]
[Illustration: Hayscented Fern. Dennstædtia punctilobula]
While Dennstaédtia is the approved scientific name of this species, the name Dicksònia has come to be used almost as commonly as hay scented fern or boulder fern. It is one of our most graceful and delicate species, its long-tapering outline suggesting the bulblet bladder fern. It delights to cluster around rocks and boulders in upland fields and pastures and in the margin of rocky woods. It is sweet-scented in drying. A fine species for the fernery and one of the most decorative of the entire fern family. The effect of the shimmering fronds, so delicately wrought, flanked by evergreens, is highly artistic. Fine-haired mountain fern, pasture fern, and hairy Dicksònia are other names. Canada to Tennessee and westward.
Var. cristata has the fronds more or less forked at the top.
[Illustration: Pinnule and Sori]
[Illustration: Mass of Sensitive Fern]
(Last three names applied to Ostrich Fern only.)
It is a question whether the sensitive and ostrich fern should be included in the same genus. They are similar in many respects, but not in all. The sensitive fern has a running rootstock, scattered fronds, and netted veins; while the ostrich fern has an upright rootstock, fronds in crowns, and free veins.
[Illustration: Sensitive Fern. Gradations from Leaf to Fruit. Obtusilobata Form]
Fronds one to three feet high, scattered along a creeping rootstock, broadly triangular, deeply pinnatifid, with segments sinuately lobed or nearly entire. Veins reticulated with fine meshes. The fertile fronds shorter, closely bipinnate with the pinnules rolled up into berry-like structures which contain the spore cases. (The name in Greek means a closed vessel, in allusion to the berry-like fertile segments.) The sensitive fern is so called from its being very sensitive to frost. The sterile and fertile fronds are totally unlike, the latter not coming out of the ground until about July, when they appear like rows of small, green grapes or berries, but soon turn dark and remain erect all winter, and often do not discharge their spores until the following spring. The little berry-like structures of the fertile frond represent pinnules, bearing fruit-dots, around which they are closely rolled. As Waters remarks, "Most ferns hold the sori in the open hand, but the sensitive fern grasps them tightly in the clenched fist."
Var. obtusilobatà is an abortive form with the fertile segments only partially developed. The illustration shows several intermediate forms.
[Illustration: Sori of Sensitive Fern]
| Sensitive Fern |
[Illustration: Sensitive Fern, Fertile and Sterile Fronds on one Stock Onoclea sensibilis (From the collection of Mr. and Mrs. L.P. Breckenridge)] |
|
[Illustration: Sensitive Fern. Onoclea sensibilis] |
Sensitive Fern |
[Illustration: Ostrich Fern. Onoclea Struthiopteris. Fertile Fronds]
Fronds two to eight feet high, growing in a crown; broadly lanceolate, pinnate, the numerous pinnæ deeply pinnatifid, narrowed toward the channeled stipe. Fertile fronds shorter, pinnate with margins of the pinnæ revolute into a necklace form containing the sori.
[Illustration: Ostrich Fern. Sterile Fronds (New Hampshire)]
The rootstocks send out slender, underground stolons which bear fronds the next year. Sterile fronds appear throughout the summer, fertile ones in July. Seen from a distance its graceful leaf-crowns resemble those of the cinnamon fern. An intermediate form between the fertile and sterile fronds is sometimes found, as in the sensitive fern. This handsome species thrives under cultivation. For grace and dignity it is unrivaled, and for aggressiveness it is, perhaps, equaled only by the lady fern. For the climax of beauty it should be combined with the maidenhair. The ostrich fern is fairly common in alluvial soil over the United States and Canada.
[Illustration: Sori and sporangia of Ostrich Fern]
This family is represented in North America by three species, all of which belong to the single genus.
The osmundas are tall swamp ferns growing in large crowns from strong, thickened rootstocks; the fruiting portion of the fertile frond much contracted and quite unlike the sterile. Sporangia large, globular, short-stalked, borne on the margin of the divisions and opening into two valves by a longitudinal slit. Ring obscure. (From Osmunder, a name of the god Thor.)
Fronds pale green, one to six feet high; sterile part bipinnate, each pinna having numerous pairs of lance-oblong, serrulate pinnules alternate along the midrib. Fruiting panicle of the frond six to twelve inches long, brown when mature and sometimes leafy.
A magnificent fern, universally admired. Well named by the great Linnæus, regalis, royal, indeed, in its type of queenly beauty. The wine-colored stipes of the uncoiling fronds shooting up in early spring, lifting gracefully their pink pinnæ and pretty panicles of bright green spore cases, throw an indescribable charm over the meadows and clothe even the wet, stagnant swamps with beauty nor is the attraction less when the showy fronds expand in summer and the green sporangia are turned to brown. The stout rootstocks are often erect, rising several inches to a foot above the ground, as if in imitation of a tree fern. The poet Wordworth hints at somewhat different origin of the name from that given here.
[Illustration: Royal or Flowering Fern Osmunda regalis]
The royal fern may be transplanted with success if given good soil, sufficient shade and plenty of water. Common in swamps and damp places. Newfoundland to Virginia and northwestward.
[Illustration: Sori of Osmunda regalis (From Waters's "Ferns," Henry Holt & Co.)]
Fronds pinnate, one to five feet high. Pinnæ cut into oblong, obtuse lobes. Fertile fronds taller than the sterile, having from one to five pairs of intermediate pinnæ contracted and bearing sporangia.