What is "female fern"

Female \Fe"male\, a.

1. Belonging to the sex which conceives and gives birth to young, or (in a wider sense) which produces ova; not male.

   As patient as the female dove When that her golden couplets are disclosed.
   --Shak.

2. Belonging to an individual of the female sex; characteristic of woman; feminine; as, female tenderness. ``Female usurpation.'b8
   --Milton.

   To the generous decision of a female mind, we owe the discovery of America.
   --Belknap.

3. (Bot.) Having pistils and no stamens; pistillate; or, in cryptogamous plants, capable of receiving fertilization.

   Female rhymes (Pros.), double rhymes, or rhymes (called in French feminine rhymes because they end in e weak, or feminine) in which two syllables, an accented and an unaccented one, correspond at the end of each line.

   Note: A rhyme, in which the final syllables only agree (strain, complain) is called a male rhyme; one in which the two final syllables of each verse agree, the last being short (motion, ocean), is called female.
   --Brande & C.

   Female screw, the spiral-threaded cavity into which another, or male, screw turns.
   --Nicholson.

   Female fern (Bot.), a common species of fern with large decompound fronds ( Asplenium Filixf[ae]mina), growing in many countries; lady fern.

   Note: The names male fern and female fern were anciently given to two common ferns; but it is now understood that neither has any sexual character.

   Syn: Female, Feminine.

   Usage: We apply female to the sex or individual, as opposed to male; also, to the distinctive belongings of women; as, female dress, female form, female character, etc.; feminine, to things appropriate to, or affected by, women; as, feminine studies, employments, accomplishments, etc. ``Female applies to sex rather than gender, and is a physiological rather than a grammatical term. Feminine applies to gender rather than sex, and is grammatical rather than physiological.''
   --Latham.

Female fern may refer to:

• Lady fern, the genus Athyrium
  • particularly, the common lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina)
• a lesser used name of the common brake ( Pteridium aquilinum)
• literal meaning of Thelypteris (also: maiden ferns)