ROYAL

FERN  , in botany, the common name for the fern Osmunda regalis, a native of Britain, where it grows in bogs, marshy woods, &c . It is a handsome plant with bi-pinnate fronds 2 to 6 ft. long and r ft. or more broad; the tops of the fronds are fertile, the fertile pinnae being cylindrical and densely covered with the spore-cases, giving the appearance of a dense panicle of flowers, whence the plant is known as the flowering fern . There are various cultivated forfns-crislata has the ends of the fronds and the pinnae finely crested, and corymbifera has curiously forked and crested fronds . Several other species, such as O. cinnamomea, O . Cl'aytoniana, are known as handsome greenhouse ferns' (see also FERNS) .