| GROUP V | FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR; |
ping down its long, green fronds into the cool and limpid water of roadside wells hewn out of the rock; often exposed to the full blaze of the sun, but always in such cases dwindled down to a tiny size" ("The Fern Paradise").
The Hart's Tongue has been known as the Caterpillar Fern and the Seaweed Fern.
36. VIRGINIA CHAIN FERN
Woodwardia Virginica
Swampy places, often in deep water, from Maine to Florida. Two to more than three feet high.
Fronds.—Once-pinnate; pinnæ pinnatifid, with oblong segments; fruit-dots oblong, in chain-like rows along the midrib both of the pinnæ and of the lobes, confluent when ripe; indusium fixed by its outer margin, opening on the side next the midrib.
Emerging from the shade and silence of a little wood upon the rolling downs where one has glimpses of the blue bay, our attention is attracted by a tall fern beside the path, growing among a tangle of shrubs and vines. It does not grow in symmetrical crowns or tufts like an Osmunda, but its fronds are almost as handsome, the divisions being wider apart and more scattered. Turning over two or three of the rather glossy fronds, we find a rusty-backed, fertile frond, covered on one side with the regular chain-like rows of fruit-dots which make its name of Chain Fern seem very appropriate and descriptive.
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