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4 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
gitiidinal cleft when ripe, and discharge the minute pellucid
spores.
The climbing-fern of our Eastern States is the only species
of the genus in the territory of the United States; and, indeed,
no other Lygodium anywhere attains so high a latitude. The
genus is characterized by the separately involúcrate sporangia, by
the climbing habit of the fronds, and by the leaflets, or pinnæ,
being arranged in pairs on short common foot-stalks. About sixteen
other species are known, mostly inhabitants of tropical America,
tropical Asia, Australia and Polynesia, all of them larger plants
than ours, the leaves more compound, and the fronds climbing
often to the height of many feet. Lygodium scandons (Swartz),
from Southern China, &c., is frequently seen in cultivation in
conservatories, and two or three other species less commonly.
The sub-order to which Lygodium belongs is usually named
ScHizÆAC.EÆ : it includes, besides this genus, the genera Schizæa,
Aneimia, Mohria, and Trochopferis, and is characterized by the
horizontal apical ring, or radiated cap, of the sporangia. Schizæa
and Aneimia, genera of a considerable number of species, have
each one or two species within the United States; while Mohria,
of a single species, is confined to South Africa and the neighboring
islands; and Trochopteris, likewise monotypic, is found only
in tropical America.
Lygodium palmatum grows abundantly in certain favored
localities ; but between them are great regions where it seems to
be utterly wanting.' Near Concord in Massachusetts is its most
north-easterly known station. It is found plentifully near Sund
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FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
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derland, Mass.; near Windsor, Plainville, and Manchester, Conn.;
in several counties of New Jersey; in Monroe County, and perhaps
other parts of Pennsylvania; is named in a catalogue of
Ohio plants; and occurs, how profusely is not known, in Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, probably Alabama,
and even in Florida {Chapman). For many years it was unknown
in New York; but in 1873 it was discovered by Miss
M a r y C. R e y n o l d s in the town of Hunter, Greene County, N.Y.
The carefully pressed fronds are much used as an article of
parlor ornament or decoration in the cities of Connecticut, and the
custom is spreading to other States. The plant is gathered in
August and September, and is exposed for sale in Hartford, New
Haven, and New York, in great quantities, both in the fresh
condition and as pressed specimens. Indeed, the gathering of it
became so destructive, that in 1869 the legislature of Connecticut
passed a special law for its protection. This law has since been
codified in the revision of the statutes of 1875; and under title
XX., chap. iv., sect. 2 2 , it is made an offence, punishable by a fine
not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisonment not more
than twelve months, or both, to wilfully cut, destroy, or take away
from the land of another person any “ cranberries, creeping-fern,
crops, shrub, fruit, or vegetable production.”
Probably this is the only instance in statute law where a
plant has received special legal protection solely on account of its
beauty.
The plate represents a frond of the climbing-fern, a fruiting segment,
magnified, and a sporangium, highly magnified.