Page:Parsons How to Know the Ferns 7th ed.djvu/228

This page has been validated.

52. BULBLET BLADDER FERN

Cystopteris bulbifera

Canada to Tennessee, on wet rocks, preferring limestone. One to three feet long, with light-colored, somewhat brittle stalks.

Fronds.—Elongated, lance-shaped from a broad base, often bearing beneath large, fleshy bulbs, usually twice-pinnate; pinnæ lance-oblong, pointed; pinnules toothed or deeply lobed; fruit-dots roundish, indusium short, hood-like, attached by a broad base on the side toward the midrib, early thrown back and withering so that the mature fruit-dots appear arched.


The Bulblet Bladder Fern is never more at home than when it grows close to falling water, clinging to rocks dark and wet with spray. It seems to reflect

194