. Our ferns in their haunts; a guide to all the native species. Ferns. 28 THE OSMUNDAS. powerless to do so at all. A single frond will produce many millions of spores and although the conditions for growth seem just right when they are shed, the com- paratively small number of mature ferns indicate very plainly that many dangers attend the sporeling. As soon as the spores are shed, the fertile spikes wither and have usually disappeared by the end of June. Under the frosts of autumn the pinnae of the sterile fronds twist and curl, and turning brown, soon loosen from the rachis. The latter remai
. Our ferns in their haunts; a guide to all the native species. Ferns. 28 THE OSMUNDAS. powerless to do so at all. A single frond will produce many millions of spores and although the conditions for growth seem just right when they are shed, the com- paratively small number of mature ferns indicate very plainly that many dangers attend the sporeling. As soon as the spores are shed, the fertile spikes wither and have usually disappeared by the end of June. Under the frosts of autumn the pinnae of the sterile fronds twist and curl, and turning brown, soon loosen from the rachis. The latter remains erect and bare all winter in marked contrast to some of the evergreen species in which, although the fronds continue green, the rachids early become unable to hold them erect. The rootstock of the cinnamon fern is doubtless larger than that of any other American species. It is shaggy with the persistent bases of the fronds of other years and creeps along just at the surface of the soil, looking like a great shoe-brush half buried in the mud. The strong wiry roots are given off on all sides and many are obliged to penetrate the bases of one or more stipes before en- tering the earth. One end of the rootstock is annually renewed by fresh crowns of fronds and the other as con- stantly dies. If no injury happens to the crown, there seems nothing to prevent a plant from living for centur- ies. That some are very old, an examination of the root- stock will show. A medium sized specimen often ex- hibits the persistent bases of more than three hundred fronds, to say nothing of those that have decayed and Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Clute, Willard Nelson, b. 1869. New York, F. A. Stokes Co
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