slightly above the ground and is clothed at the crown with shaggy, brown
scales. Its rising caudex, often creeping for several inches over bare
rocks, suggests the habit of a tree fern. In early spring it sends up a
graceful circle of large, handsome, bluish-green blades. The stipes are
short and densely chaffy. No other wood fern endures the winter so well.
The fronds burdened with snow lop over among the withered leaves and
continue green until the new ones shoot up in the spring. It is the most
valuable of all the wood ferns for cultivation.

(2) THE MALE FERN

_Aspídium Fìlix-mas_. THELÝPTERIS FÌLIX-MAS
_Dryópteris Fìlix-mas. Nephròdium Fìlix-mas_

Fronds lanceolate, pinnate, one to three feet high growing in a crown from
a shaggy rootstock. Pinnæ lanceolate, tapering from base to apex. Pinnules
oblong, obtuse, serrate at the apex, obscurely so at the sides, the basal
incisely lobed, distant, the upper confluent. Fruit-dots large, nearer the
mid vein than the margin, mostly on the lower half of each fertile segment.

The male fern resembles the marginal shield fern in outline, but the fronds
are thinner, are not evergreen, and the sori are near the midvein. Its use
in medicine is of long standing. Its rootstock produces the well-known
_fìlix-mas_ of the pharmacist. This has tonic and astringent properties,
but is mainly prescribed as a vermifuge, which is one of the names given to
it. In Europe it is regarded as the typical fern, being oftener mentioned
and figured than any other. In rocky woods, Canada, Northfield, Vt., and
northwest to the great lakes, also in many parts of the world.

[Illustration: The Male Fern. _Aspidium Filix-mas_ (Vermont)]