Chapter II: The Flowering Fern Family

_OSMUNDÀCEAE_

This family is represented in North America by three species, all of which belong to the single genus.

OSMÚNDA

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.)

(1) FLOWERING FERN, ROYAL FERN

_Osmúnda regàlis. Osmunda regàlis_, var. SPECTÁBILIS

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.

"Fair ferns and flowers and chiefly that tall fern
So stately of the Queen Osmanda named."

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.

(2) INTERRUPTED FERN. CLAYTON'S FERN

Osmunda Claytoniàna

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.

The fronds have a bluish-green tint; they mature their spores about the last of May. The sterile fronds may be distinguished from those of the cinnamon fern by not having retained, like those, a tuft of wool at the base of each pinna. Besides, in Clayton's fern the fronds are broader, blunter and thinner in texture, and the segments more rounded; the fronds are also more inclined to curve outwards. They turn yellow in the fall, at times "flooding the woods with golden light," but soon smitten by the early frosts they wither and disappear. The interrupted fern is rather common in damp, rocky woods and pastures; Newfoundland to Minnesota, south to North Carolina and Missouri. Although fond of moisture it is easily cultivated and its graceful outlines make it worthy of a prominent place in the fern garden. Var. _dubia_ has the pinnules of the sterile frond widely separated, and the upper-middle ones much elongated. Southern Vermont.

(3) CINNAMON FERN. BRAKES

_Osmunda cinnamomea_

Fronds one to six feet long, pinnate. Pinnæ lanceolate, pinnatifid with oblong, obtuse divisions. Fertile pinnæ on separate fronds, which are contracted and covered with brown sporangia.

Each fertile frond springs up at first outside the sterile ones, but is soon surrounded and overtopped by them and finds itself in the center of a charming circle of green leaves curving gracefully outwards. In a short time, however, it withers and hangs down or falls to the ground. The large, conspicuous clusters of cinnamon ferns give picturesqueness to many a moist, hillside pasture and swampy woodyard. In its crosier stage it is wrapped in wool, which falls away as the fronds expand, but leaves, at the base of each pinna, a tiny tuft, as if to mark its identity.

Many people in the country call the cinnamon fern the "buckhorn brake," and eat with relish the tender part which they find deep within the crown at the base of the unfolding fronds. This is known as the "heart of Osmund." The fern, itself, with its tall, recurving leaves makes a beautiful ornament for the shady lawn, and like the interrupted fern is easy to cultivate. The spores of all the _osmundas_ are green, and need to germinate quickly or they lose their vitality. Common in low and swampy grounds in eastern North America and South America and Japan. May. Some think it was this species which was coupled with the serpent in the old rhyme,

"Break the first brake you see,
Kill the first snake you see,
And you will conquer every enemy."

Var. _frondòsa_ has its fronds partly sterile below and irregularly fertile towards the summit.

Var. _incìsa_ has the inner pinnules of some of the pinnæ more or less cut-toothed.

Var. _glandulòsa_ has glandular hairs on the pinnæ, rachis and even the stipes of the sterile frond. This is known only on the coastal plain from Rhode Island to Maryland.