[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Leaf Gradations]

[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern. Gradations from Sterile to Fertile Fronds]

[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _frondosa_]

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.

[Illustration: Cinnamon Fern, var. _incisa_ (Maine)]

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,