e I
of water-plants, so St. Osmund might be equally venerated
under like circumstances, could we know more of his history
than is handed down to us. And a saint of that name did
come over from Normandy in 1066 with William the Conqueror,
and one of some celebrity too ; for he was made
Chancellor of the kingdom, and Bishop of Salisbury, where he
‘ reformed the liturgy for the diocese, which afterwards became
general throughout the kingdom, under the name of the Salisbury
Liturgy.’ Such a saint deserves to have his name handed
down to posterity in so truly noble a British fern.” Still another
Osmund, and a saintly man too, appears to have been a waterman,
and a dweller at Loch Tyne. A story of his adventures
is related in Williamson’s “ Ferns of Kentucky.” A little more
about the name is given by Milde {Monogr. Gen. Osmimdce,
P- 55)-
Plate X X V I I I .— Osmunda regalis, from a fine plant in the grounds
of John Robinson, Esq., at Salem, Massachusetts. The plant is drawn
about one-eighth the natural size. Fig. 2 shows the base of a mature
stalk with the stipular dilation, though the wing is not so wide as when
the frond is first developed. Fig. 3. — A pinnule of the form commonest
in the northern United States. Fig. 4 .— An elongated pinnule,
somewhat auricled on the lower side of the base, from a plant found
at Beverly, Massachusetts. Fig. 5 .— A portion of a pinnule enlarged,
showing the common type of the venation. Fig. 6. — A cluster of sporangia,
magnified. Fig. 7. — A spore.
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