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COLORED FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS, Wmi SYNONYMY AND GEOGKA/WCAL DISTRIBUTION, OF THE FERNS (INCLUDING THE OPIIIOCLOSSACE/E) flF TIIK UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN POSSESSIONS. DANIEL CADY EATON, TROKESSOR OF IIOTANV IS VAI.R COl.I.ECE. THE DRAWryCS BYJ. H. EMERTON AXD C. E. FAXON. Vol. I. NSCr SALEM : S. E. CASSINO, PUBLISHER, NATURALISTS' AGKNCY. •879. 0642iO NATIONAL //i!."i:j/,^S Cf C^NpnA MUS^ NATION.i!. V X' CAXAOA UBRARV - Wfc..»OTHtQU£ CopvRir.iiT. By S. E. CASSISO. 1S78. LNiv.K-nv PKt«s; John Wiu^n i Sun. CAMBKItX'ii TO ASA GRAY. LL.D.. FOn THRBK YEAHS MV INSTlllCTOIl, AND I OH MOIIK THAN TWKNTY MV TIIUK AND OBNEROUS I'UIKND, I DKDICATK THIS UOOK IN TOKKN OF MV AI'I-KCTIONATE REUAltD AND MV ADMlllATION Km WHAT UK HAS DONK FOH SCIENCE. Daniel Cadv Eaton. New Haven, Afril 17, 1879. PREFACE. Fern-ixivf.rs in North America have often expressed a wish for some work devoted to the ilhistration and description of the Ferns of the United States and the British Possessions. To meet this wish is the design of the present undertaking. The sixty years which have elapsed since the publication of Nut- tail's Genera of North American Plants have seen the number of rec- ognized North American Ferns more than doubled. This great increase is due to a more general botanical interest in the older parts of the land almost as much as to discoveries in newly acquired territory. Nut- tall gave the names of only seventy Ferns: in 1848, Kunze reviewed the list, adding about ten species to it, and rejecting several names as not representing distinct species, or as not belonging to any North American plant. Al)out the same time the acquisition of New Mexico, Arizona and California, and the various governmental explorations of these re- gions, brought to our Flora about twenty-eight more F"erns, many of V Vl PRnFACF.. which had lonjr ajjti Ikicii ilcscribcd I)y KaulfiiKH, antl others wen; made known to IratanistH by Sir William Jackson I looker in the early volumes of his S/irn'rs lulicnm. Most of these species are enumerated in the Report OH the United States <»//ium malricarurjoliitm — would each claim a place; and possibly some of \.\\v reputed varieties would have to he recognized as distinct species. Horace Mann's Calalof^ue of Ihe I'ascnlar Crypto- gamia of S'orlh America, publ'shcd in 186.S, enumerates one hundred and twenty-four species <>f I'erns ; Kohinson's Check-list, of 1876, names one hundred and tinh -seven; anil tin; species now attributed, by good authority, to that ijortiou of our continent which is north of the Mexican boundary, are 1 least iJiie luin<'.Ld ami forty-three, and will probably exceed that number be "c die present work is completed. The plan adojitcd for this work is essentially that of Hooker's l''ilices Hxoticie. In order to exK-iul the usefulness of the book, the definitions of species are written in Isnglish rather than in l^tin, and they are often made to include some points of generic importance, thereby making the recognition of the species easier to the student. All the definitions are newly drawn up from actu.il specimens before the eyes of the author, living plants being used whenever obtainable. Ample references antl synonymy are given, so that those who use t!ic work may know where to look for the history of each species. The Habitat is generally given from specimens in my own collection, thou[i;h sometimes taken from those preserved in the great herbaria at Kew and at Cambridge, or from facts kindly communicated by helpful corre- spondents. Under the Description, besides a more particular account Viii PREF. CE. of the Fern itself, there will often be found some remarks as to its history, or its relation to ether species, or perhaps some note as to its use in the arts of life, or as to the method of its successful cultivation. Little is said about the physiology of I'erns. It is a separate branch of botanical study, and persons wishing to pursue it can find excellent works suited to their purpose.' The Ophioglossacea- are included in this work, for, though they are not Filiccs, as is now well known, they are closely related to them, and are certainly Fn-ns, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. The drawings have generally l)een made either from living plants or from specimens which I have selected for the purpose. As many of our Ferns are very much larger than the plates, it has bee.i fo-md necessary to draw some <.f them on a diminished scale. The number of plates being fixed at little more thati half that of the species to be I Consult Kobinson-s •' l-i-UNS in tmk.k i.omks am. oi-ns," Thome's " Tf.xt- nooK OK s, HCCXUA,. ANP ..avs,o..o<>.cA,, nuTANV," translated by \. W. Honnctt, and especially the -Tuxr-nonK uv r.uT.xsv ,u,nvnoi.lnsiol.,o not only of l-e.ns. but of all the uv.lers of Ciyptoganna. an.l is illns- tratea with ,S, wo..,l.cnts contairiny very n.any fis^nres of a high onle. of cNCcllence. PREFACE. Jx figured, it has often been necessary to represent several different Ferns on a single plate, and sometimes to crowd the drawings more closely than I could wish. It remains for me to return thanks to Mr. Cassino, for the care he has taken in the whole work, and especially for his constant super- vision of the printing and lithography; to the artists, Mr. Emerton and Mr. Faxon, for their skilful delineations, and for the patience with which they have listened to my suggestions; and to Messrs. Armstrong and Company for the carefulness with which they have transferred the original drawings to stone. I am grateful to very many kind correspondents who have favored me with specimens of Ferns, or with valuable memoranda. iicm all parts of the United States and the Dominion of Canada. I have scarcely ever had occasion to ask for a specimen or for an item of information without the favor sought being granted most courteously and kindly. The names of these correspondents will be found recorded in connection with the species they have furnished. More than general thanks are due to a few persons who have taken pains to .send me unusually large and (me collections; and here I would speak of the tiisinterestcd kindness of lion. T. M. Pricks, Dr. A. P. GAunEK, Mrs. Ei.i.wood Cuopek, Mrs. R. M. Austin, Mrs. Mary F. Pui.siii;r Ami:s, and maii\- others. X ^ PREFACE. Mr. George E. Davenport has helped me in many ways during the preparation of this work, and Hon. J. Warren Merrill has fur- nished living plants of certain species for the u e of the artist. With the last Part of this work it is intended to print a Syste- matic Conspectus of all the Genera and Species of North American Ferns, giving brief diagnostic characters and references to the page and plate where each species is described and figured. Daniel Cady Eaton. New Haven, April, 1879. II ' LIST OF THE FERNS FIGURED AND DESCRIBED IN THIS VOLUME. Platf. I. Plate II. Plate HI. Plate IV. Plate V. Plate VI. Plate VII. Plate VIII. Lygodium palmatum, Swartz. Cheilanthes Cooperae, D. C. Eaton. Cheilanthes vestita, Swartz. Asplenium serratum, Linnaeus. Aspleniuin ebeneum, Aiton. Asplenium ebenoides, R. R. Scott. Botrychium Lunaria, Linnaeus. Botrychium lanceolatum, Angstrom. Botrychium boreale, Milde. Ciieilanthes lanuginosa, Nuttall. Cheilanthes Californica, Mettenius. Aspidium Noveboracense, Swartz. Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Link. Asplenium pinnatifidum, Nuttall. xu Plate IX Plate X Plate XI Plate Plate Plate Plate XII XIII XIV. XV. Plate XVI Plate XVII Plate XVIII Plate XIX Plate XX Plate XXI Plate XXII list of ferns in volume one. Notholaena Fendleri, Kunze. Notholaena dealbata, Kunze. Aspidium Nevadense, D. C. Eaton. Pellaea densa, Hooker. Pellaea pulchella, F6e. Cheilanthes viscida, Davenport. Cheilanthes Clevelandii, D. C. Eaton. Aspidium unitum, van glabrum, Mettenius. Ancimia Mexicana, Klotzsch. Aneimia adiantifolia, Svvartz. Asplcnium Ruta-muraria, Linnaeus. Asplenium septentrionale, Hoffmann. Polypodium aureum, Linn.neus. Botrychium simplex, Hitchcock. Botrychium matricariaefolium, Al. Braun. Adiantum pcdatum, Linnaeus. Blechnum serrulatum, Richard. Botrychium tematum, Swartz. Phegopteris Dryopteris, Fde. Aspidium Lonchitis, Swartz. Woodvvardia angustifolia, Smith. Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate Plate LIST OF ferns in VOLUME ONE. xUi XXIII. Phegopteris alpestris, Metcenius. Aspidium fragrans, Swartz. XXIV. Trichomanes radicans, Swartz. Trichomanes Petersii, Gray. SchizcTca pusilla, Pursh. XXV. Aspidium munitum, Kaulfuss. XXVI. Polypodium Scouleri, Hooker & Greville. Polypodium incanum, Swartz. Polypodium falcatum, Kellogg. XXVII. Pellaea andromedaefolia, F^e. Pellpea flexuosa, Link. XXVIII. Osmunda regalis, Linnaeus. XXIX. Osmunda Claytoniana, Linnaeus. Osmunda cinnamomca, Linnaeus. XXX. Aspidium Thelypteris, Swartz. XXXI. Polypodium vulgare, Linnaeus. * Polypodium Californicum, Kaulfuss. XXXII. Scolopendrium vulgare, Smith. Lomaria Spirant, Desvaux. XXXIII. Botrychium Virginianum, Swartz. XXXIV. Aspidium acrostichoides, Swartz. XIV LIST Plate XXXV Plate XXXVI Plate Plate XXXVII, XXXVIII. Plate XXXIX. E XL E XLI E XLII Plaje Plate Plate XLIII. XLIV. XLV. OF FERNS IN VOLUME ONE. Pteris aquilina, L. Asplenium Trichomanes, L. Asplenium viride, Hudson. Asplenium parvulum, Mart. & Gal. Adiantum Capillus-Veneris, L. Adiantum emarginatum, Hooker. Vittaria lineata, Swartz. Notholaena sinuati, Kaulfuss. Notholaena ferruj^inea, Desvaux. Notholaena Newberryi, D. C. Eaton. Aspidium Goldianuni, Hooker. Aspidium Filix-mas, Swartz. Polypodium pectinatum, L. Polypodium Phyllitidis, L. Pellaea Bridgesii, Hooker. Pellaea Brevveri, D. C. Eaton. Notholsena tenera, Gillies. Dicksonia pilosiuscula, Willdenow. Cheilanthes iomentosa, Link. Cheilanthes Eatoni, Baker. % Hi! I \w ■m j.'i l.niuitiiriidel. iliiiiiof ChiiibiiigKBrn LYGGDllJM PAL.MATUM ■SWAH'I'/. Armstf-'ig AC , M'ti mmmmimiimmmim I'^'mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm H Plate I. LYGODIUM PALMATUM, Svvartz. Climbing-Fern. Lygodium PALMATUM : — Root-stock very slender, widely creeping ; fronds two to five feet high, smooth ; the stalks twining or climbing, greenish, drying brownish straw-color; the branches scattered, forking near the base, and bearing in pairs on slender petioles cordate-reniform five-to-seven-lobed frondlets or pinnae, one to two or even three inches broad ; the upper portion of the fruiting-fronds paniculately decompound; the pinnules mostly three-lobed, the lobes with from six to ten alternate imbricating indusia, a single oval or acorn-shaped sporangium under each. Lygodium palmatum, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 154. — Scmkumr, Fil., p. 141, t. 140. — BiGELow, Florula Boston, ed. iii., p. 415. — Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 634, et ed. seq. omn. — Hooker, Filices Exoticae, t. 24. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 436. Gisopteris palmata, Bernhardi, in Schraders Journal, 1801, i., p. 129. Hydroglossum palmaium,Wiixx>Ziiovi, in Act. Acad. Erford, 1802, p. 25, t. I, f. 2 ; Sp., pi. v., p. 84. — PuRSH, Flora Amer. Sept. ii., p. 656. Cteisium paniculatum, Michaux, Flora Bor. Am., ii., p. 275. Ramondia palmata, Mirbel, " Bull. Soc, Phil., an. xi., p. 179." Hab. — In low, moist thickets, and damp, open woods ; from Massa- chusetts to Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, and even Florida ; not known far west of the Alleghanies. The fruit ripens in September. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. I Descrii'TIOn. — The climbing-fcm, crceping-fcrn, Hartford- fern, or Windsor-fern, as it is variously called, has a long and very slender root-stock, scarcely one line in diameter. This root- stock creeps just under the surface of the ground to a distance of several inches, or nearly a foot, in one season. The growing extremity of it is scantily furnished with short, semi-pellucid jointed hairs. The root-stock is of a very dark brown color, almost black : it bears on the under side short, straggling roots ; and from the upper side, some distance from the newest portion, arise, at a distance apart of one or two inches, the delicate climb- ing fronds. The stalk or stipe is dark at the base, but at a few inches above the ground becomes paler ; in the growing plant it is greenish, but becomes of a dull brownish straw-color when dried. It is very slender, — not more than half a line in thick- ness, — and yet has considerable strength. A transverse section is roundish triangular ; all the outer part composed of dark brown, firm, thick-walled wood-cells, while in the centre is seen a small circular portion of scalariform ducts and parenchyma. The fronds creep and climb and twine themselves over other plants to the height of three or four feet, or even more. The sterile fronds are strictly bipinnate, and so also is the lower part of the fertile fronds. Beginning at six or eight inches from the ground, the twining midrib or rachis bears very short branches one or two inches apart. These branches divide, at about one-eighth of an inch from the midrib, into two slender petioles something less than an inch long, and each petiole supports at its end a kidney-shaped, deeply-lobed leaflet or pinna. These pinnae are usually about an FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. J inch and a half broad, having a deeply-rounded sinus at the base, and arc palmately cleft into from four to seven, rarely more, oblong or linear-oblong, entire or obscurcly-crcnulate, obtuse lobes. The vcining resembles slightly the branching of our common maiden-hair. From the base of the leaflet arise two veins, which diverge, and are recurved to right and left. These bear, on the upper side, a few straightish primary branches, each forming the mid-vein of a lobe of the leaflet. From each mid-vein veinlets arise very obliquely, forking usually twice, and gradually curve outward to the edge of the lobes. The texture of the pinnae is rather delicate, — what maybe called papyraceo-herbaceous, — and the color is a fine, clear leaf- green. The surfaces seem to be smooth, though a few scattered hairs have been detected along the veinlets on the under surface. In the fruiting-fronds, several of the uppermost pairs of leaflets are paniculately decompound, being bipinnately divided, the pin- nules usually three-lobed or three-cleft, but sometimes two-to-fivc- cleft. The lobes are about two lines long, half a line broad, and have one central vein, along each side of which, on the under surface, is a row of four to eight convex ovate imbricating scales, or involucres, each one affixed tQ the upper side of a very short lateral branch of the central vein, to which branch, under each involucre, is attached a single obliquely-ovate reticulated capsule or sporangium. The sporangia are comparatively large, and have at the smaller end a sort of radiated cap, which is homologous with the incomplete vertical ring of the sporangia in such ferns as Polypodiwn and Aspidium. These sporangia open by a Ion- h II ! II ii 4 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. gitudinal cleft when ripe, and discharge the minute pellucid spores. The climbing-fern of our Eastern States is the only species of the genus in the territory of the United States ; and, indeed, no other Lygodium anywhere attains so high a latitude. The genus is characterized by the separately involucrate sporangia, by the climbing habit of the fronds, and by the leaflets, or pinnae, being arranged in pairs on short common foot-stalks. About six- teen other species are known, mostly inhabitants of trooical Amer- ica, tropical Asia, Australia and Polynesia, all of them larger plants than ours, the leaves more compound, and the fronds climbing often to the height of many feet. Lygodium scandens (Swartz), from Southern China, &c., is frequently seen in cu^'vation in conservatories, and two or three other species less commonly. The sub-order to which Lygodium belongs is usually named ScHiZ/EACE^ : it includes, besides this genus, the genera Schizcea, Aneimia, Mohria, and Trochopteris, and is characterized by the horizontal apical ring, or radiated cap, of the sporangia. Schizcea and Aneimia, genera of a considerable number of species, have each one or two species within the United States; while Mohria, of a single species, is confined to South Africa and the neighbor- ing islands ; and Trochopieris, likewise monotypic, is found only in tropical America. Lygodium palmatum grows abundantly in certain favored localities ; but between them are great regions where it seems to be utterly wanting. Near Concord in Massachusetts is its most north-easterly known station. It is found plentifully near Sun- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 5 derland, Mass. ; near Windsor, Plainville, and Manchester, Conn. ; in several counties of New Jersey; in Monroe County, and per- haps other parts of Pennsylvania; is named in a catalogue of Ohio plants ; and occurs, how profusely is not known, in Viiginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, probably Alabama, and even in Florida {Chapman). For many years it was un- known in New York; but in 1873 it was discovered by Miss Mary C. Reynolds in the town of Hunter, Greene County, N.Y. The carefully pressed fronds are much used as an article of parlor ornament or decoration in the cities of Connecticut, and the custom is spreading to other States. The plant is gathered in August and September, and is exposed for sale in Hartford, New Haven, and New York, in great quantities, both in the fresh condition and as pressed specimens. Indeed, the gathering of if became so destructive, that in 1869 the legislature of Connecticut passed a special law for its protection. This law has since been codified in the revision of the statutes of 1875; and under title XX., chap, iv., sect. 22, it is made an offence, punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisonment not more than twelve months, or both, to wilfully cut, destroy, or take away from the land of another person any " cranberries, creeping-fern, crops, shrub, fruit, or vegetable production." Probably this is the only instance in scatute law where a plant has received special legal protection solely on account of its beauty. The plate rcprcsc.;ts a frond of the climbing-fern, a fruiting seg- ment, magnified, and a sporangium, highly magnified. FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Plate II. Fig. I. CHEILANTHES COOPERS, D. C. Eaton. Mrs. Cooper's Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes CooPERiE: — Scalks densely tufted, variable in length, brownish, fragile, hairy, like the frond, with somewhat entangled or straightish nearly white articulated often gland- tipped and viscid hairs ; frond three to eight inches long, ovate- lanceolate, bipinnate ; the rather distant pinnas oblong-ovate ; pin- nules roundish-ovate, crenate, and incised ; the ends of the lobules reflexed, and forming herbaceous involucres; segments at first slightly concave, becoming flat at maturity. Cheilanthes Cooperes, D. C. Eaton, in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vi., p. 33 (May, 1875). Had. — California, in clefts of rocks and on mountain-sides ; near Santa Barbara, Mrs. Ellwood Cooper ; Dovvnieville Buttcs, Mr. J. G. Lem- MON ; near San Bernardino, Dr. C. C. Parry and Mr. Lemmon. Description. — The root-stocks are short, entangled, ascend- ing rather than creeping, and covered, especially near the growing end, with narrow, linear-acuminate, crisped, dark-brown scales. The stalks are crowded together, erect or curved; half to two- thirds of a line thick; two to four inches long; dark chestnut- brown; shining, but hirsute-pubescent, as is the whole frond, with pale-brown or whitish jointed hairs, which are more or less FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. t .fl ! m v\ viscid, and some of them evidently tipped with a minute globular gland. The frond is as long as the stalk, or even longer; is oblong- ovate or ovate-lanceolate in outline ; bipinnate, or, in the larger specimens, approaching tripinnate. The lower pinnae are rather distantly placed, opposite or alternate, oblong-ovate in shape, six to nine lines long; the pinnules crenately incised; the lobules with the ert,ds recurved, and forming separate herbaceous involu- cres. The upper pinnae are gradually smaller and more closely placed. As the sporangia ripen, the involucres are pushed back, so that the lobes and segmc;: ^; are at length flattened out. The hairiness of the frond is so abundant as to partially obscure the divisions of the pinnae. The texture is herbaceous, and the gen- eral color a dull grayish-green. This little fern bears considerable affinity to Cheilanthes vestita (Swartz), which is well known from New York to Illinois and Georgia, and has been collected as far west as Kansas. C. Coopera has the same general appearance, and similar herbaceous involucres, but is commonly of smaller size, and is very distinct in the character of the pubescence, as the hairs of the Eastern plant are never viscid and glandular. On first receiving it, I sup- posed it might be a Northern form of C. pilosa, from the Andes of Peru ; but, having now obtained a specimen of that fern through the kindness of Mr. Baker of the Kew Gardens, it is evident that the present is distinct in its smaller size, narrower pinnules, and in some other respects. Both species differ from C. vestita in bearing glanduliferous hairs. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 9 Mrs. Sarah P. Cooper and her husband, Ellwood Cooper, Esq., of Santa Barbara, are both well known as taking great interest in the development of California, especially in the direc- tion of education, agriculture, and natural history. Mrs. Cooper has sent to the Eastern States fine collections of ferns, and also of the marine algae which the shores of California produce in great abundance and in beautiful variety. Plate II., Fig. i.— An entire plant of Cheilantlies Cooperai, and above it, to tiie right, a portion of a pinna enlarged, and one of the gland-tipped hairs highly magnified. m FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. II SYNOPSIS OF THE SPECIES OF CHEILANTHES KNOWN TO OCCUR IN THE UNITED STATES. Cheilanthes, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 5, 1 26. §1. Adiantopsis. ^ — Involucres separate, one to each fertile veinlet. 1. C. Californica, Mettenius (California). §2. EucHEiLANTHEs. — Involucres more or less confluent, usually extending over the apices of several veinlets, but not, or very rarely, con. tinuous all round the segment. * Segments of the frond smooth. 2. C. Wrightii, Hooker (Texas to Arizona). 3. C. microphylla, Swartz (New Mexico). ■I. C. Alabamcnsis, Kunze (Carolina to Texas). •* Frond somewhat hairy, or hairy and glandtilar, but not tomentose, 5. C. ieucopoda, Link (Texas). 6. C. vesiita, Swartz (New York to Georgia, Illinois, and Kansas). 7. C. Coopers, D. C. Eaton (California). §3. Phvsai'teris or Mvriopteris. — Ultimate segments minute, round- ed ; involucre usually continuous all round the margin. Fronds, in all our species, twice to thrice pinnate, with the lower surface tomentose or scaly, the tomentum or scales at first white, often becoming tawny as the fronds mature. * frond tomentose beneath, but not scaly {^except along the rachises vt No. 1 1) K 12 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. t Upper surface nearly or quite naked; fronds rarely more than twice pinnate, 8. C. gracillima, D. C. Eaton (California to British Columbia). t1 Upper surface decidedly pubescent ; fronds thrice pinnate in well-developed plants, 9. C, lanuginosa, Nuttall (Illinois to the Rocky Mountains of British America, Colorado, and Arizona). 10. C. tcmentosa, Link (Carolina to Texas). 1 1. C Eatonit Baker (Texas to Arizona). •• Frond covered beneath with imbricated scales, but not tomentose. 12. C. Fendleri, Hooker (Texas to California). 13. C. Clevelandii, D. C. Eaton (California). •*• Under surface of pinnules both tomentose and scaly. 14. C, myriophylla, Desvaux (Nevada to Arizona). 15. C. Lindheimeri, Hooker (Texas to Arizona). I4. Aleuritopteris. — Involucres various, confluent ordistinct. Fronds covered beneath with a white or yellow powder. 16. C. argentea, Hooker (Alaska, doubtfully). I ,#* Pialell ir::H ■MK!;.i>N ^aji!^ *^&K^ ;:H M m j.l: Kmerlon.del riHKU.ANTHfcJS r'.fllJr'f.H/^; Kig.l, \).r, ':■:. : ,n. AriiisiruugJC'uJ Plale.ii iH£triiugi.\('u.l,iUi T FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 13 Plate II. — Fig. 2. CHEILANTHES VESTITA, Swartz. Clothed Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes VESTITA : — Root-stocks creeping, entangled, covered vvitli narrow light-brown scales ; fronds herbaceous in texture, six to fifteen inches high, oblong-lanceolate, hirsute, like the blackish and shining stalks, with straightish prominently articulated rusty hairs, bipinnate; pinnae triangular-ovate, the lower pairs rather distant; pinnules flat, ovate-oblong, obtuse, crowded, more or less toothed or incised, the ends of the roundish or oblong lobes reflexed, and forming separate herbaceous involu- cres, which are pushed back by the ripened sporangia. Cheilanthes vestita, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 128 (1806). — Sciikuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 116, t. 124. — Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 625. — Eaton, in Gray, Manual, ed. v., p. 659. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 134. — Mettenius, iiber Cheilanthes, p. 29. Adiantum vestitunt, Sprengel, Anlcit., p. 112 (1804) ; Eng. version, p. 135. Acrostichum liispidum, Bosc d'Antic, fide Sprengel. Adiantum hispidmn, Bosc, Jide Swartz. Polypodium lanosum, Miciiaux, in herb. ! Nephrodium lanosum, Michaux, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 270! (1803.) Aspidium lanosum, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 58. Cheilanthes lanosa, D. A. Watt, in Journal of Botany, February, 1874, p. 48 : not of Moore, Index Fil., p. 245, nor of Eaton, Mex. Boun- dary Botany, p. 234, which synonyms belong to Ch. lanuginosa, Nuttall. '4 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Har. — Cli-fis and ledges of rocks, from the Island of New York west- ward to Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas, and southward to the Carolinas and Georgia. Description. — Root-stocks creeping, much matted and entangled, and sometimes forming large tufts. They are nearly as thick as a goose-quill, and arc densely covered with amber- brown, linear-acuminate, ciliate-toothed scales. Stalks from three to six inches long, wiry, dark-brown or blackish, moderately pol- ished, and, like the rachis, hirsute with variously directed light rusty-brown jointed hairs. These hairs are mostly fine-pointed, and are composed of three, four, or five joints, with very evident articulations. The fronds are usually six to eight inches long, and one to one and a half inches wide, but are occasionally larger, and very often considerably smaller, than these dimensions : in outline they are narrowly oblong or oblong-lanceolate ; and they are bipinnate, or, in large plants, nearly tripinnate. The texture is herbaceous ; and the surfaces, especially the lower surface, are hirsute with rusty biirs like those of the stalks and rachis. The pinnae arc mostly opposite, the lower two or three pairs more dis- tant than the upper ones, triangular-ovate, sessile, or nearly so ; pinnules of similar siiape, and crcnately incised, or, in larger fronds, pinnatifid with crcnated lobes, the lobes rounded at the ends. In yoiuig fertile fronds the ends of the lobes are narrowly recurved, so as to cover the sporangia, forming an obscure herba- ceous involucre ; but, as the sporangia ripen, this is pushed back, and the lobes at length appear quite flat. The general color of the frond is a dull green, shaded with rusty-brown. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. lb Michaux's name, Nephrodium lanosum, is undoubtedly the first published of the various names for this fern, as a compari- son of the dates will show. But I can scarcely agree with Mr. Baker " to take up the oldest specific name independent of genus." The generic name is the " nomen substantiviim" the specific name only an adjective ; and I should decidedly prefer to retain, in use the first reasonably appropriate published name under which any species was correctly referred to its true genus. Moreover, I think the usage of many of the most distinguished systcmatists — ior instance, the De Candollcs, both the Hook- ers, Bentham, Gray, &c. — will be found to sustain this prefer- ence. Usually it is well to keep the oldest specific name when it is known ; but there is no absolute law requiring it ; and to endeavor to replace well-known specific names by older, but obscurer ones, is surely reprehensible. The station on Manhattan Island, on rocks with an eastern exposure, near Fort Tryon, is the most northern known, and was discovered in 1866 or 1867 by the late Mr. W. W. Denslow. The species was also collected on Snake Hill, in Hackensack Swamp, N.J., by Dr. F. J. Bumstead, in 1865. Plate II., the upper figure, represents a single rather large frond of Cheilanlhes vestita, witli the root-stock, &c. On the riifht arc fiirurc.s of a fruiting pinnule enlarged, and of one of the jointed hairs highly magni- fied. [i TY^ic. m . ildll F'1?L>:IIT FERNS or NORTH AMERICA. 17 Plate III. ASPLENIUM SERRATUM, Linn. Serrated Spleenwort. AsPLENiUM Serratum: — Fronds growing in a crown from a short thick erect root-stock, simple, subcoriaccous or charta- ceous, one and a half to two and a half feet high, three to four inches broad, spatulate or linear-oblanceolate, narrowed from the middle down to the very short stalk, the apex subacute or short- acuminate, the edges crcnulate or (more commonly) finely but irregularly serrate ; midrib stout, slightly channelled above, keeled and often blackish purple beneath ; veins closely placed, free, rising from the midrib at an angle of about sixty-five degrees, mostly once forked near the midrib, and running out into the teeth of the margin ; sori very much elongated, following the veins of the upper half of the frond from near the midrib half way to the margin; involucres single, the free edge entire. Asplcniuin serratum, Linn, Sp. PL, p. 1538. — Svvartz, Syn. Fil., p. 74. — WiLLDENOw, Sp. PI., v., p. 304. — ScnKUiiR, Crypt. Gcw., p. 61, t. 64. — Hooker, Fil. Exot, t. 70; Sp. Fil., iii., p. 81. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 193; &c., &c. Asplcniuin nidus, Raddi, Fil. Brasil, p. 34, t. 53 (not of Linnccus). Asplcnimn crcnulatuin, Presl, Tentamcn Ptcridographicc, p. 106 (founded on Raddi's plate). Lingua ccrvina longo lata serraloquc folio, PLU^nER, Traite dcs Fougeres de rAmerique, p. 108, t. 124. 1 M i8 IT.RNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. Hab. — "Six tufts of it in a low clamp hummock bordering on the Everglades, Florida;" discovered April, 1877, by A. P. Gaudkr, lisq. Common in the West Indies, and in Tropical America from the Isthmus of Panama {Scciiiantt, Hayes) to lirazil. Description. — Root-stock short and thick, erect, with abun- dant rootlets covered with crisp brown wool. The stalk or stipes is very short, — rarely more than an inch long, and often much less, — concave on the upper or inner side, and much carinatcd or keeled on the other, the lamina of the frond forming a very nar- row wing or border to the very base. Just where the stipes leave the root-stock there is an abundant growth of narrowly linear- acuminate, dark fuscous-brown scales, nearly half an inch long. Otherwise ilie stipes and the frond are perfectly smooth. The fronds are very numerous from one root-stock, and rise from it erect or obliquely, gracefully curving outwards in all directions, the tips often somewhat drooping. Their length is from a foot and a half to nearly three feet ; and, from the middle to near the end, they have a breadth of from two and a half to four inches. From near the middle they taper gradually downwards to the base, and become more and more concave or channelled, so as to carry the rain-water to the roots. When fresh, the texture is firmly chartaceous, or almost coriaceous; but specimens long dried become very brittle. The veins are closely placed, about twenty to the inch, a few of them unbranched, but most of them forking near the base, or even divided into three. They are very straight, and diverge from the midrib at an angle of from sixty to seventy degrees. The tips of the veins are within the mar- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. '9 ginal teeth of the frond, but do not reach to the very points of the teeth. The Florida specimens are quite sharply serrated, as are specimens collected in Cuba by Mr. Wright, and in Santo Domins^^o by the botanists attached to the United States Commis- sion of Inquiry; but specimens from Panama, collected by Mr. Sutton Hayes, and from New Granada (Mr. A. Schott), are obscurely crcnulated, like the Brazilian form figured by Raddi. The sori are mostly confined to the upper half of the frond, occa- sionally descending nearer the base, and arc very narrow and about an inch long, running along the superior side of the veins, or of most of them, frorii near the midrib half way, or a little more than half way, to the margin. The midrib is very stout in the lower portion of the frond, and is there much developed on the lower or outer surface; so that a section of it is triangular, and shows a double band of vascular tissue. The color of the frond is a fine Icaf-grcen, slightly glossy on the upper surface, and a little paler and duller beneath. The under side of the mid- rib shows more or less of a deep purple, especially in the living plant. This noble species is the latest addition to the fern-flora of the United States; and Mr. Garber is to be congratulated on so fine a discovery. The number of typical West-Indian ferns which have now been found in Florida is considerable; the list embracing Acrostichnm mtretim, Polypoditim Pliimiila, P. Phyl- litidis, P. aurctim, Pteris longifolia, Pi. Crctica, Vittaria lineata, Blcclimmi sernilatum, Aspicuinm scrratiim, A. dcntatmn, A. myriophyUmn, Aspidiwn patens, A. tmitiim, var. glabrum, Ne- ■WIBP i: i so FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. phrokpis exaltata, Aucimia adianfifo/ia, Ophioghssum btilbostim, O. midicanlc, and O. pa/niatitin, — eighteen in all. Three of these — Asp/, scnattiin, Aspid. ntiihtm, and Op/iioghssmn palmaiwn — have been brought to our knowledge within the last few years, since the publication of Dr. Chapman's " Flora of the Southern States ; " and it can scarcely be rash to hazard the conjecture, that there are yet in the swamps and hummocks of Florida more undiscovered tropical ferns to reward the diligent explorer. A few foreign ferns are more or less closely related to the present species. A. sinuatttm (Beauvois), from the coast of Guinea, is perhaps the most like it, having the same habit, and nearly as ample dimensions; but the midrib is very prominent on the tipper, not the tinder, surface. The bird's-nest fern {As- picniwn Nidus (L.), from South-eastern Asia and Australasia, is also similar in habit to our plant, and is even grander in its proportions; but it belongs to a separate section of the genus ^Thamnopteris), characterized by having the veinlets connected at their tips by a transverse intramarginal vein. There is cer- tainly no North-American fern with which Aspienium serratum could be confounded. Plate III. represents an entire plant, reproduced from a sketch by Mr. Garber, about one-eighth natural size; also a fruiting-frond, natural size, and a small portion from near the middle, magnified to twice the natural size. ;■" :\r fV Mil ].!i tinennn.diil. ASPi.ENIUM hiBENOJDES Fig.2 H.R.anri-rT. Anns!ruiigc\i' ASPLLNIUM KBENF;1JM Fi^.l -^^ rinsiruiig (!<.(-' uj t It f i FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 21 Plate IV. — Fig. i, ASPLENIUM EBENEUM, Aiton. Ebony Spleenwort. Asplenium EBENEUM : — Root-stock short, creeping; stalks short, dark reddish-brown or nearly black, and polished, as is the rachis; fronds erect, a span to a foot or more high; firm-mem- branaceous, narrowly linear-oblanceolate, moderately acuminate, pinnate ; pinnae numerous, mostly horizontal and alternate, usually crowded, oblong or oblong-linear, half an inch to an inch and a half long, sessile, dilated or auricled on the upper or on both sides of the base, crenate or serrate or even incised, mostly obtuse, the lower ones gradually shorter and dcflexed ; sori oblong, oblique, numerous, nearer the costa than the margin, often confluent at maturity. Asplenium cbcueum, Aiton, Hortus Kewensis, ed. i., iii., p. 462. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 79.— Willdenow, Sp. Pi., v., p. 329. — Bigelow, Flor. Bost., p. 422. — Torrey, Flora of New York, ii., p. 492. — GiiAY, Manual, ed. omn. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iii., p. 139. Acrosliclmm pla/yneuron, Linn/eus, Sp. PL, p. 1527. Polypodmm auriculalum, Linn/EUS, Herb, (in part) ! Aspleniwn pofypodioidcs, Swartz, " Schrad. Journ., 1800, ii., p. 53;" Syn. Fil., pp. 79, 272. — SciiKuiiR, Kr)-pt. Gew., p. 67, t. 73. Asplenium trichomanoidcs, Miciiau.x, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265 ! Hab. — Canada and New England southward to Florida, and westward ,f 22 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. to Indian Territory (Dr. Edward Palmer) and Louisiana. It is found commonly on sunny or partially-shaded rocky hillsides, but occurs not unfre- quently in moister places. The sporangia mature in' midsummer or early autumn. Description. — The ebony spleenwort, so called from the nearly black and shining stalks and rachis, has a short and rather stout creeping or ascending root-stock, which is covered by the bases of old stalks. The stalks are seldom more than two inches long : they are nearly terete, and contain a single slender vascular bundle. The young stalks, and the very bases of the mature ones, bear a few narrow, slender-pointed, black-fuscous scales, composed of thick-walled, oblong-rectangular cells arranged in longitudinal rows, looking under the microscope like some kind of lattice-work. The fronds are usually six or eight in number, and stand nearly erect, but commonly all facing towards the light, some of them making a twist to do so. They arc firmly mem- branaceous in texture, quite smooth, and remain green until late in the fall, or even in favorable places until the spring. The earliest fronds of each season's growth are sterile, and much shorter than the later fertile ones, which are commonly from six to twelve inches high, but sometimes in moist situations attain twice that height. The outline of the fronds is linear, tapering gradually to the base from near the middle, and with an acute pinnatifid apex. The pinnae are sessile and closely placed, often overlapping each other a little at the dilated and somewhat auri- cled bases. The auricles are commonly most developed on the superior margin ; but not unfrequently the lower margin is almost FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 23 as much auricled as the other, making the bases of the pmnae cordate-hastate, so that they nearly cover the upper side of the rachis. On any frond of ordinary size there will be found about forty pinnae, — the middle ones eight to ten lines long and about two lines broad, spreading at right angles to the rachis, often sub- falcate ; the lower ones gradually shorter, more and more deflexed, and the auricles on each side of the base more nearly equal ; the very lowest only two or th-'ee lines long. The margin is com- monly serrate ; in very small plants barely crenate, and in luxuri- ant ones incised, with serrated lobes. There is a well-marked mid-vein or costa, with simple or branched veins pinnately arranged on cither side. The sori, from eight to fifteen in num- ber, arc borne near the costa, always leaving unrovered the green herbaceous margins of the piYinae. The indusia are very delicate, three or four times as long as they arc broad ; and when the frond is young they give to the under surface a bright silvery appearance. The name "van scyratwn" has been proposed by Mr. Elihu Miller (Torrcy Bot. Club Bull., iv., p. 41) for the large form with incised pinnae ; but the normal condition of the pinnas is to be serrate. This fern is said to have been found in South Africr. also ; but I have not seen specimens from that region. Var. mimes (Hooker, Sp. Fil., 1. c), which is found from Ten- nessee to Mexico and Peru, will be described in a later number of this work under the name of Aspknium parviilum (Maitens and Galeotti). To this plant belongs the A. trie horn anoides 84 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA, of Dr. Mettenius, and probably of Kunze also, but not that of Michaux. Although the Linnaean name for the present fern is unques- tionably the oldest, it is scarcely probable that those authors who are disposed to insist upon an inflexible law of priority will attempt to replace the name which has been accepted by nearly all botanists for nearly a century by one so utterly inappropriate as platyneuron. Yet, lest they should do so, it may be worth while to note that this fern was named Asplenimn platyneuron by the late Mr. Oakes of Ipswich, in a marginal note in a copy of the old " Flora Virginica," now in my possession. Plate IV., Fig. i, represents a specimen of the common form in New England, together with a few pinnae of the more serrated or incised varie- ties, and a small portion of a pinna, somewhat magnified. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. as Pl.\te IV. — Fig. 2. ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES, R. R. Scott. Scott's Spleenwort. AsPLENiUM EBENOIDES: — Fronds four to nine inches long, broadly lanceolate, pinnatifid, pinnate near the base, the apex elon- gated and slender ; divisions lanceolate from a broad base, crenatc, some of them elongated and often proliferous, as is the apex of the frond ; the lowest divisions distinct, shorter ; sori numerous on the divisions and on the long apex, mostly single and opening obliquely upwards, but some of them double, and others facing each other ir pairs ; stalk blackish and shining, as is also the lower part of the rachis, especially on the under side. Asplcnium cbcnoidcs, R. Robinson Scott, MS. and in Berkeley's notice in Journ. Royal Horticult. See, 1S66, p. 87, t. 2, f. i. — Eaton, in Gray's Manual, cd. v., p. 66i. — Leggett, in Torrey Club Bull., iv., p. 17. Hab. — On limestone cliffs of the Schuylkill River near Philadelphia, Scott, F. Bourquin; near Havana, Central Alabama, Miss Tutwii.er; on limestone in Canaan, Conn., J. S. Adam. Description. — The stalk is slender, polished, and nearly black, the color extending on the under side as far as the middle of the frond, or a little farther. The frond is composed of a taper- ing crenate apex two or three inches long, and of a number of II 26 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. lateral segments on each side, the upper ones closely placed, and connected by a broad wing along the midrib, and the lower ones gradually more distinct, the lowest quite so, and often a little auri- cled above and below. The apex is often proliferous, and so are a few of the longest segments. The texture is firmly membra- naceous, and the surfaces perfectly smooth. The sori are in a single row on each side of the midrib of the terminal prolonga- tion, and similarly on the segments, rather short, and mostly of the proper Euasplenium type, — that is, single, and with the indu- sium opening upwards and inwards ; but near the base of nearly every segment are a few diplazioid or scolopendrioid sori, with double indusia placed back to back on the same veinlet in one case, and face to face on contiguous veinlets in the other. The veins are everywhere free. This curious plant has now been found in three or four dif- ferent and widely-distant localities, but always in the immediate company of the walking-leaf {Camptosonis) and the ebony spleen- wort {A. cbcneum). While it differs from the first by its dark and shining stalk and rachis, in its free veins, and by its pinnatifid or sub-pinnate frond, it resembles it strongly in the prolonged and slender apex, in the irregular sori, and especially in its proliferous habit; a.id, in the very respects in w'hich it differs from this, it resembles the other. For these reasons. Rev. M. J. Berkeley, in the article cited on the preceding page, is strongly inclined to suspect that it is a true natural hybrid of the two. That this view is correct certainly appears probable ; but it can only be established by a successful attempt to produce the present plant FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 27 by artificial hybridizing ; and I would strongly recommend this attempt to those persons who have facilities for experiments of the kind, Mr. Merrill of Cambridgeport has had A. cbcnoides in culti- vation for some time, and finds it easy to multiply plants by caring properly for the proliferous buds. There is an Asplenium Hcndersoni, figured by Lowe at Plate 1 2 of the fifth volume of his work on Ferns, which bears consid- erable resemblance to our plant, but lacks the long and slender apex, and apparently is not proliferous. It originated spontane- ously in the ferneries of Earl Fitzwilliam at Wentworth House, England. Asplenium pinnatifidiim (Nuttall) also bears consid- erable resemblance to A. cbcnoides, but has a green herbaceous midrib or rachis, a sinuous-margined prolongation, thicker text- ure, and is very rarely, if indeed ever, proliferous. Plate IV., Fig. 2. — A frond oi Asplenium ebenoides, the segments less elongated than usual. HU. 'i ' 4 ,4 PicU,; V •H'UM l,:JNAKJA b'lil. fiWAKTZ,. HriTRYCHFilM BOR^lAli. hd.CV '.],;,.! ,F. Arrnslrui.^iiC'j.l.iUi HYOHiUM lANlMi'OLATiJM P'if$^. ^iicC'j.l.iUi Ilf! ill FKRNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. «9 Pijvtk V. — Fk;. I. BOTRYCIIIUM LUNARIA, Swartz. Moonwort. BoTKYCHiUM Lunakia: — Plant smooth, fleshy, commonly four to ten inches high ; sterile segment sessile near the middle of the plant, oblong, rarely ovate, obtuse, pinnately cleft ; lobes or pinnae semi-lunar from a broadly cuneate base, the sides concave, the outer margin rounded, entire or obscurely crenulate, rarely incised ; veins flabcllately forking ; fertile segment twice to thrice pinnate. Botrycliinm Limaria, Swartz, in Schrad. Journ. Bot., iSoo, ii., p. no; Syn. Fil., p. 171. — ScuKunu, Krj'pt. Gew., p. 156, t. 154, — Wm.i.de- Now, Sp. Pi., v., p. 61. — Mooiu:, Nat. Pr. Brit. Perns, t. 51, A. — Hooker, Fior. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265; Brit. Ferns, t. 48. — Milde, Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., x.wi., pars ii., p. 657, t. 47, 48; Fil. Eur. et Atl, p. 192; Botr. Monogr., p. loi. — Eato.v, in Gray's Manual, cd. v., p. 671. Osmunda Limaria, Linn.ix's, Sp. Pi., p. 1519. Hah. — Dry elevated pastures and waste lands, from within die Arctic Circle to Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada, New York, Lake Superior, and the Rocky Mountains. Colorado, Dr. Parry. Europe, Asia, Australia, and Tierra del Fuego. Description. — The moonwort, and all other species of Botrychium, have a short, fleshy, nearly erect, cordlike rhizoma, ll i , J i I 30 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. and irreguhr, mostly simple, spreading roots, both containing starch in abundance. Commonly but a single frond is produced each year. This frond, in all the species, consists of a common stalk, a posterior sterile segment, and an anterior fertile seg- ment. The base of the stalk is enlarged, and encloses in a rudi- mentary condition the fronds for the next year or two. In the position of these rudiments, and in their development, v law of alternation has been observed ; that is, the sterile segment for one year occupies the position held by the fertile segment of the preceding year, so that a longitudinal section of the bud contained in the base of the stalk will show the rudiments for two or even three years packed closely away, and with the fertile and sterile segments placed below each other alternately to right and to left. In B. yirginiamim, the very base of the stalk is split open on one side, more or less disclosing the bud ; but in all the other species there is no such cleft, and the bud is completely enclosed. There is generally also present a loose outer, sheath-like covering, which is the withered base of the stalk of the preceding year. Botrydduju Ltinaria varies in total height from an inch and a half to a foot; but the ^reater part of specimens examined measure from six to nine inches long. Of this length, about a half — sometimes a little more or a little less than a half — is taken up by the common sta-k, which is erect, smooth, terete, and fleshy. The ' ter.ie segment is almost always closely sessile, and commonly from a fourth to a third part of the whole length 01 the plant, or from one and a half to three inches long. It is oblong and obtuse in outline, fleshy, and divided into from two to nine \l FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 3J (usually four to seven) pairs of nearly opposite divisions, besides a smaller (usually two- or three- lobed) terminal division. These divisions have a broad wedge-shaped base, but rapidly widen out on both the upper and lower sides, and have the outer margin rounded, so that they are more or less clearly moon-shaped : whence the common name of the plant. The outer margin is either entire, crenulate, or incised ; sometimes deeply so, as in var. inciswn of Milde. In var, tripartittmi (Moore, Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns, 8° ed., p. 324) the two lowest divisions arc elongated and pinnately parted, rendering the whole sterile segment ternate. The venation is essentially flabellatcly dichotomous. A single vascular bundle proceeds from the midrib of the sterile segment to each division : this vascular bundle or vein forks once at the very base of the division, and its two branches again where the division begins to widen, and these veinlets again three or fuur times before the outer margin is reached. The fertile segment is long-peduncled, and usually overtops the sterile segment consider- ably. It is twice or thrice pinnately compound, forming a panicle not unlike a miniature cluster of grapes ; and from this resem- blance the genus takes its name of Botrychittm, or Grape-fern. The spore-cases are globular, about half a line in diameter, and open transversely into two equal valves. Their te.xturc is sub- coriaceous, and no vestige of a ring can be observed. The spore- cases of all the species of the genus arc essentially alike in all respects. The spores are pale or colorless, roundish-tetrahcdral, having the general surface minutely roughened or granular, but with the three straighter edges marked by a smooth band. The 3i >fii 3= FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. plant is of course perennial, though only to be found during the spring and summer, as it is mature (in England certainly) in July, and soon afterwards withers away. My finest American specimens are from Nipigon Bay, Lake Superior, collected by Mr. J. Macoun, and presented to me, to- gether with others from various places in Canada, by Mr. Watt of Montreal. The Nipigon-Bay plants are finer and larger than the average European specimens, being fully nine inches long, the sterile segment with five pairs of ample pinnae, and the fruiting one fully tripinnate. The Colorado plants are small, but clearly of this species. In the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for October, 1877, Mr. George E. Davenport announces the discov- ery of the moonwort near Syracuse, N.Y., by Miss Jane Hosmcr, Mr. E. W. Munday, and Mrs. Stiles M. Rust, and describes a remarkable form with very distant, alternate, rounded lobes. Mr. Davenport has favored me with one of the Syracuse specimens, and with drawings of some of the others. The moonwort was anciently employed in alchemy and magic ; and, until a comparatively recent period, it was consid- ered " singular to heal green and fresh wounds." But its virtues were never rightly manifested unless the plant was collected by moonlight, — probably not an easy task. Plate v., Fig. i. — Botrychhim Lunaria, a plant of medium size, much like one of the Labrador specimens. The cluster of sporangia also belongs to this species ; tliough in respect to tlie sporangia there is little difference between several of the species of this genus. II FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 33 Plate V. — Fig. 2. BOTRYCHIUM LANCEOLATUM, Angstrom. Lanceolate Grape-Fern. BoTRYCHiUM LANCEOLATUM : — Plant two to eight inches high, scarcely fleshy ; the common stalk slender, and bearing high up, near the short-stalked fruiting panicle, a sessile deltoid mem- branaceous once or twice pinnatifid sterile segment ; divisions few, oblique or somewhat spreading, oblong-lanceolate, straight, acute, the base narrowed and dccurrent; lowest pair much the longest ; veins forking from a mid-vein ; fertile panicle with slen- der branches and seldom crowded sporangia. Botrychiicm lanceolatum, Angstrom, " Botaniska Notiscr, 1S54, p. 68 ; 1866, pp. 36, 37." — MiLDE, Nov. Acad., Acad. Nat. Cur., xxvi., pars ii., p. 674, t. "51, f. 178-181 ; Fil. Eur. ct. Atl., p. 197; Monogr. Botr., p. 132, t. 8, f. I (venation). — Eaton, in Gray's Manual, ed. v., p. 671. Osmuvia lanccolata, Gmeun, " in Nov. Comment. Acad. Pctrop, xii. (1768), p. 516, t. II, f. I." Botrychhnn riiiaccum, var. lanccolatum, Moore, Ind. Fil., p. 211. (For additional synonymy, consult Mildc's papers above cited.) Had. — Along mossy stream-banks and in moist pastures, from New Brunswick, Rev. J. Fowler ; to Colorado, Buandegee. Near Bethlehem, New Hampshire, Miss C. C. Haskei.i.. Goshen, Massachusetts, Rev. H. G. Jesup. Orange, Connecticut, Oscar Harger. Near Utica and Syracuse, 34 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. New York, Edwin Hunt, Mrs. Dr. Barnes, Mrs. Rust, etc. Dutchess County, New York, L. H. Hoysradt. Southern New York and New Jersey, C. F. Austin. Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, A. P. Garber. Cleve- land, Ohio, fide Milde. Lake Superior, H. Gillman. Also in Unalaska, Northern Europe and Siberia. Description. — This fern is usually about five to seven inches high ; small specimens being sometimes only two or three inches high, and very large ones attaining the height of eight or nine inches. The common stalk is more than four-fifths of the whole height of the plant, so that the sterile and the fruiting seg- ments are borne close together on the top of a slender common stalk. This stem or stalk is moderately fleshy, from half a line to a line and a half thick, and considerably swollen at the base, where it encloses the bud for the fronds for the next year or two. The sterile segment in full-sized plants is closely sessile and broadly triangular in form, measuring an inch in width, and scarcely more than an inch in length. There are about four pairs of pinnae or side-divisions, all set on obliquely ; the lowest ones decidedly largest, ovate-lanceolate in shape, sub-acute at the apex, the sides cut about half-way to the mid-vein into little obliquely- placed ovate-oblong lobes, and (.he base gradually narrowed, but attached to the central rachis by a manifest wing. The second and third pairs of lateral divisions are successively smaller, and are also lobcd or toothed, but less so than the lowest pair. There is sometimes a fourth pair of short, slightly-toothed divisions, and then the rhomboid-ovate apex, which is moderately acute, and either slightly toothed or entire. In very small specimens there .1* ! FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 35 are only two or three pairs of side-divisions, and these are oblong- lanceolate and nearly entire, the lowest pair longest, as in more fully developed plants. There is a single central vein in the main rachis, and this sends off a branch to each lateral division, and from these branches in turn a veinlet extends to each lobe. If the lobes are toothed, there is a smaller veinlet extending to each tooth. Every vein or veinlet leaves its parent-vein some distance below the base of the division or lobe to which it runs ; so that below each pair of pinnae there will be seen in the rachis a central vein and two gradually diverging lateral veins ; but these branch-veins unite with the central vein about opposite the upper side of the base of the next lower pair of side-divisions. The fruiting segment has a stalk from three to nine lines long, and is usually a little longer than the sterile segment. It is usually twice pinnate, the lower pinnae or branches nearly erect or slightly spreading, and nearly as long as the middle portion. All the branches and branchlets are more elongated than in the other small Botrychia, and the sporangia are rather distantly placed ; so that the whole panicle is seldom dense, but comparatively lax and sparingly fruited. As in the other species of the genus, it not unfrequently happens that some portion of the sterile segment will be much contracted, and bear a few sporangia. The whole plant is per- fectly smooth, and much less fleshy than B. Ltmaria or B. tey- natum. Very young plants of this species are not easily distin- 36 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. guished from young plants of B. matricariccfoUum ; and, indeed, small specimens of both these species were formerly confounded with B. simplex. In the "Synopsis Filicum " this is considered a variety of B. rutaccnm [= B. matrtcaricefolitim\ but the very careful and pains-talcing studies of Dr. Milde show them to be both well-marked and distinct species ; and this view is confirmed by a close inspection of the very numerous specimens of both species which I have received from numerous correspondents in New England, New York, British America, and Colorado. The differences between the two species will be carefully pointed out when B. matricaricefoUum comes to be figured and described in a later portion of this work. B. lanceolatum grows chiefly in damp mossy places along shaded rills, but sometimes on moist hill-side pastures. My first specimens were collected near Tappantown, New York, in 1857, by Mr. Coe F. Austin. The sporangia are ripe in New York about the middle of July. The drawing, Plate V., Fig. 2, represents a plant of Botrychium lance- olatum of full size : occasionally the huuit is a little stouter and more con- densed. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 37 PiJVTE V. — Fig. 3. BOTRYCHIUM BOREALE, Milde. IJorthem Grape- Fern. BoTRYCHiUM BOREALE : — Plant two and a half to seven inches high, smooth; the sterile segment dark green, fleshy, placed considerably above the middle of the plant, sessile, cordate- ovate or somewhat triangular in outline, pinnately cleft to a nar- row rachis ; pairs of divisions two to four, closely placed, some- times overlapping, the lowest ones rounded-ovate from a narrow base, cut half-way down into two to four broad obtuse lobes ; upper divisions successively smaller, entire or slightly lobed ; veins flabellately forking; fertile panicle with a stalk about as long as the sterile segment, twice or thrice pinnate, the sporangia crowded. Botrychium boreale, Milde, Botanische Zeitung, xv. (1S57), p. 880; Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Cur., xxvi., pars ii., p. 672, t. 51, fig. 175-177 ; Id. P- 757. t. 55. figs- I. 2 ; Fil. Eur. et Atl., p. 194; Botr. Monogr., p. 118. Botrychium Lmtaria, var. 4, Kaulfuss, Enum. Fil., p. 25. Botrychium Lunaria, var. boreale. Fries, Herb. Normale, xvi., 85. Hais. — Unalaska, Ciiamisso. Sweden and Norway, Lapland, Finland, and Eastern Siberia. Description. — The Northern grape-fern has scarcely a 38 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ily i|l t !idii::i riii^i place in our flora, having been collected within our territorial limits but once, and that sixty years ago by the distinguished naturalist and poet, Adelbert von Chamisso. The plant is commonly of smaller stature than the other species figured on Plate V. ; and the common stalk is long for the size of the plant, so that the sterile and the fertile portions of the frond are borne near epch other, as in B. lanccolatnm and B. matricayiccfolhtm. The sterile segment is closely sessile, broadly ovate or somewhat triangular in shape, but subcordate at the base. The divisions arc broad and foliaceous, and placed so closely that they are often imbricating or overlapping. The low- est divisions are nearly as broad as they are long, and are in shape rhomboid-ovate, with rounded contours. They are cleft nearly half-way to the base into a few lobes which are rounded at the ends. The succeeding divisions are similar in shape, but are gradually smaller and less lobed ; the terminal portion scarcely acute, and about three-lobed. The length of the sterile segment is an inch or a little less in several specimens from Dovrefjeld and Westrobolhnia, and the breadth at the base is about four- fifths of the length. The vascular bundle is already separated into two or three veins when it enters the base of the lateral divisions, and these veins are repeatedly forked, so as to be flabel- lately dichotomous. Milde says, " Nervatio cyclopteyidis." The fruiting segment is borne on a stalk rising from the base of the sterile segment, and about equal to it in length : the panicle itself is rather scanty in my specimens, but more generous in some of those figured by Milde ; and the sporangia are so dense t : J ■■' \ ■ ' ti \ ■ H f |||:j IB : i i FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 39 as to be fairly contiguous. Dr. Milde figures some specimens decidedly larger, and with more numerous lobes than those I have seen ; and in several instances the sterile segment is represented as producing a few sporangia. The thickish fleshy frond, and the flabellatc venation of the broader and more rounded pinnae, will serve to distinguish this fern from B. lanccohititni, if it should be found again in North America; while the whole shape and details of the sterile seg- ment will prevent any confounding of it with the commoner moonwort. Mr. George E. Davenport has recently been making a special study of the smaller species of Botrycliittm, and informs me that he finds some good sped fie distinctions in the character of the buds. His contributions to the literature of this genus will be read with great interest. Dr. Milde only notices the peculiarity in the bud of B. Virg'mianmn referred to in a preced- ing page, and uses the character of " buds pilose " and " buds never pilose " to some extent in separating the remaining species. Plate v., Fig. 3, represents a plant of medium size: the specimen drawn is from Sweden, and is preserved in the collection of Mr. Davenport. I VI. i* ; 'i CHKJLANTlll'JS LANLJGlNt.lSA, i iti. NUT' J I' ijm'i;iin.i)rtl -lF',i[,ANTHh:S GALiFUHNlCA, yi^^. Mp:;rT. Ann.'si.oli.v&Co.l.uh. :ti. Vf. Ii:ti M FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 41 Plate \'I. — Fig. i. CHEILANTHES LANUGINOSA, Nuttall. Woolly Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes lanuginosa: — Stalks densely tufted, slender, brownish-black, at first clothed with spreading woolly hairs, at length nearly smooth ; fronds two to four inches long, one to one and a half broad, ovate-lanceolate, tripinnate, or bipinnate with crenately pinnatifid pinnules; pinnae varying from deltoid to oblong-ovate, the lowest ones distant, the upper ones gradually closer ; the ultimate pinnules minute, not more than half a line long and broad, or the terminal one more obovate and a little longer, — all very much crowded; upper surface scantily tomen- tose, the lower densely matted with soft whitish-brown dis- tinctly-articulated flattened woolly hairs ; involucres very narrow, formed of the unchanged herbaceous margin of the segments. Cheilanthes lanuginosa, Nuttall, MS. in herb. Hooker!, and in Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 99 (where it is wrongly quoted as a synonym of Ch. vcsiila). — D. C. Eaton, in Gray's Manual, Mar. 1863, Addenda, p. ci. ; cd. V;, p. 659. — HooKiiu & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 139. Cheilanthes veslita. Hooker, Sp. Fil., 1. c., excl. syn., t. loS, B. — Gray, Man- ual, cd. i., ii., iii., not of Swartz, and Willtlcnow. Cheilanthes lanosa, D. C. Eaton, in Botany of Me.xican Boundary, p. 234, not Nephrodiiini lanosinn, Michx. Cheilanthes gracilis, Mettemus, liber Cheilanthes, p. 36. Myrioptcris gracilis. Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 150, t. 29, fig. 6. ilill 42 .liRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Hab. — In the United States from Illinois and Wisconsin to Utah, Colorado, New IMexico, and Arizona. In liritish America, collected by BouRGEAU at the eastern base of the Rockv IMountains, near lat. si°. Fort Independence, Mo., Nuttall! It grows in dense tufts on dry ex- posed rocks and cliffs. Description. — Root-stocks rather short, creeping, formiij^ a matted mass ; the chaff narrow and somewhat crisped, deep cinnamon-brown, with a blackened midrib; fronds densely clus- tered, two to four inches long, or sometimes very much smaller; stalks about as long as the frond, very slender, wiry, but rather fragile, very dark brown or almost black, scantily furnished with spreading, pale-fulvous, jointed ha'rs. In the larger specimen - the fronds art fully tripinnate ; the pinnx triangular and opposite at the base of the frond, but towards the apex gradually become ovate, and are alternate and crowded. The ultimate pinnules are very much crowded, very minute, — scarce!)' half a line in diame- ter,— rounded, or slightly obovatc; the terminal ones rather larger, and obscurely lobcd. The upper surface is scantily pro- vided with whitish webby hairs ; the lower surface heavily covered and obscured with pale-fulvous matted wool, the fibres of which a'"c flattened and plainly articulated. The involucres can be seen only by carefully removing the wool, and arc then found to be almost continuous round the lobule, and formed of its scarcely changed herbaceous margin. The general color of the plant is of a pale grayish-green, intermingled with light brown. This fern was originally discovered in Missouri by Thomas Nuttall; and his specimens, with, his manuscript name, are pre- served in the Iloukerian herbarium. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 43 In writing the "Species Filicum," Sir W. J. Hooker seems to have confounded it with Ch. vestita of Swartz ; but his descrip- tion and figure apply to the present plant. Dr. Fee's figure is also characteristic, though representing a specimen not so large as wc commonly see. Those persons who call the plant Clicilan- tJies gracilis (Riehl) are only perpetuating an error, or lapsus calami, oi Mettenius in quoting Fee; for Fee says plainly, "C//«- lant cs vestita (Riehl, non Sw.), No. 529." Plate VI., Fig. 2. — Clicilantlics hinnginosa, of natural size, with a small portion considirably enlarged, the woolly hairs removed to show the narrow involucre. I w FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 45 Plate VI. — Fig. 2. CHEILANTHES CALIFORNICA, Mettenius. Californian Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes Californica: — Stalks densely tufted, dark brown, glossy, four to eight inches long ; frond somewhat shorter, smooth and green on both surfaces, broadly delto'd-ovate, deli- cately quadripinnatifid, — i.e., the upper portion of the main rachis and all its divisions with a narrow herbaceous wing or border; lowest pinnae much the largest, triangular-ovate, more developed on the lower side ; upper pinnae gradually smaller and simpler ; ultimate pinnules lanceolate, very acute, incised or serrate, and, when fruitini,, with usually separate crescent-shaped membrana- ceous involucres in the sinuses between the teeth, which also are often at length recurved. Cheilanthes Californica, Mettenius, iibcr Cheilanthes, p. 44. Hypolcpis Californica, Hookeu, Sp. Ml., ii., p. 7 1 t. 8S, A. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil, p. 131. Aspidotis Californica, NuiTAr.i., MS. in licib. I look. — Houk., Sp. Fil., 1. c. Haii. — In moist and sliady ravines and caiions ; known only from the coast ranges ot liie soutla 1 11 pail (A California, and from .Sonora in Mexico. Description. — Root-stocks short, creeping, very chaffy, with rather rigid, narrow, d.irk-hrmvn scales :. stalks chestnut-brown, smooth and shining, usuallv about six to eight inches long, and % 1 '■il 1 j m 1 1 46 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. erect, or nearly so ; fronds smooth and green, herbaceous, mostly about three or four inches long and three-fourths as broad, triangular-ovate in outline, quadripinnatifid, — i.e., four times pinnate, but with a very narrow wing bordering the divisions of the rachis, as well as the upper half of the main rachis. The glossy-brown appearance of the stalk continues some distance up the rachis and its divisions, especially on the under surface. The two lowest pinnae are opposite, and very much larger and broader than the others. They are much broader on the inferior than on the superior side, the lowest inferior secondary pinna being about one-third as long as the rest of the whole frond. The quaternary or smallest divisions arc two or three lines long, rather less than a line broad, and are lanceolate and very acute. They bear two or three acute teeth on each side, and in the fruiting-frond a deli- cate, whitish, crescent-shaped involucre sweeps from the apex of each tooth half way up the side of the next tooth above ; but sometimes one involucre runs into the next. When the sporangia ripen, the teeth are usually reflcxcd partly over the sorus. This very pretty and dclicau little fern reminds one, by its general habit, of the still rarer Cystoptcris montana. The frond, however, is of rather firmer texture, and is still more finely divided. There is no other North-American fern \vhich it resembles even slightly. It was formerly very rare in collections, but of recent years has been liberally distributed by the botanists of Santa Barbara, \\hcrc it seems to be reasonably common. It certainly has nothing in common with the recognized species of Ilypohpis, a genus of large ferns, which is, perhaps. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 47 best arranged with the Aspidiece. Chcilanthcs Schimperi (Kunze) from Abyssinia, and Ch. incisa (Kunze). from Brazil, are its near- est alhes; and the three form a good subordinate group of the sub-genus Adiantopsis. The figure represents a fully-developed frond, quite as large as one often sees, and a small portion of a fertile segment, the latter much en- larged. and showing well the peculiar lunately-curved involucre. if; ': m mi / dioVJ ;il(,r/iM del U v.;piDUJM ndveb:jra;;ense, SWART Z. Tiiiri.'",i: ^i!,.i.iiii. V'J IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) « t 1.0 I.I 1.25 m |||2| 112.5 iM III 2.2 2.0 1.8 1-4 IIIIII.6 Photographic Sciences CoiDoration '^ ^^ i\ ^q\' \ \ O^ l>^,. \^ ,<•' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ i/x s ^ ; i I^Ml' FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 49 Plate VII. ASPIDIUM NOVEBORACENSE, Swartz. New -York Shield-Fern. AspiDiuM NovEBORACENSE : — Root-stoclc elongated, creep- ing,, cord-like ; stalks about one-third the length of the fronds, slen- der, at first sparingly chaffy, soon naked ; fronds one to two feet long, thin-mcmbranaccous, minutely ciliate and finely hairy along the midribs and veins, especially beneath, lanceolate in outline, with an acuminate apex and a gradually narrowed base, pinnate ; pinnaj sessile, lanceolate, acuminate, deeply pinnatifid, the lower four to six pairs gradually shorter and deflcxed, the lowest mere auricles ; lobes crowded, flat, oblong, obtuse, entire, basal ones occasionally enlarged and toothed; veins free, pinnate from the mid-vein, straight, simple, rarely a few of them forked ; sori minute, placed near the margin ; indusium reniform, glandular, and sometimes with scattered hairs, delicate and withering as the fruit ripens. Aspidium Novcboracc7ise, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 55. — Scukuiiu, Krypt. Gew., p. 47, t. 46. — WiLLDEXOW, Sp. PL, v., p. 24S. KUNZE, 10 Silli- man's Journ., 1S48, vi., p. S3. — Meite.nius, liber Aspidium, p. 7S. — ToRKEV, Flora of New York, ii., p. 497. — Gr.\y, Manual, ed. ii., p. 597. ct cd. omn. scq. — Eaiox, in Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States, p. 594. Polypodium Novcbor accuse, Lixn.eus, Sp. PI., p. 1552. I i I i» ■; i * ■ ■• $• m 50 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Dryoptcris Novcboracensis, GrvU', Manual, ed. i., p. 630. — Darungton, Flora Ccstrica, cd. iii., p. 396. Nephrodium Novcboraccnsc, Desvaux, Mdm. Soc. Linn. (Paris), vi., p. 257. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 89. — Hooker & Ba:.er, Syn. Fil., p. 267. Lastrca Novcboraccnsis, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 75. — J. Smith, Ferns, Brit- ish and Foreign, p. 153. Nephrodium thclyptcrioides, Miciiaux, Flor. Bor. Am., ii., p. 267. Aspidium tlielypterioidcs, Swautz, Syn. Fil., p. 57. Aspidium T/ielypleris, Hooker, Flor. Bor. Am., ii., p. 260; not of Swartz, Var. SUAVEOLENS: — Fronds narrower, slightly more rigid, very sweet-scented in drying ; the under surface copiously sprin- kled with minute glands, H.\B. — In moist thickets and wet grassy places from New Brunswick, Rev. J. Fowler; and Canada to Virginia, Curtiss. Also reported from Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, and west\vard to Michigan and Wisconsin ; but I have seen no specimens from those States. The variety was discov- ered in Essex County, New York, and again near Glens Falls, by Mrs. Lucy A. MiLLIXGTON. Description. — The root-stock of this fern is very slender, scarcely two lines thick, and creeps just beneath the surface of the ground several inches in advance of the growing fronds. The newest portion is sometimes downy with fine yellowish wool, and bears a few chaffy scales, which soon disappear. The older part of the root-stock is more or less furrowed, and produces slender branching roots. A transverse section cut at a distance from the base of the stalks is irregular in shape, and consists of an outside FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 5» layer of liard dark-brown cells {sclcrcnchyma of Mettenius and Sachs), and an interior mass of soft white parenchyma, through which there extend variously shaped threads and bands of fibro- vascular tissue, and at least one larger band of sclerenchynia also. A section near the insertion of one of the stalks will show outside of the cortical sclcrenchyma a smaller mass of parenchyma trav- ersed by one or two little fibro-vascular threads, and a scanty cov- ering of sclcrenchyma again outside of all. Very few of our ferns have been carefully studied with reference to the anatomy of the root-stock, and I may say that in this direction there lies a broad and interesting field for investigation. The stalks which are to bear fronds in the year to come form little stems near the growing extremity of the root-stock. The stalks which support the fronds of the present year are few in number (two to four), and stand either close together, or some lines apart, but always at some considerable distance from the end of the root-stock. The stalks are commonly from four to si.x inches high, slender, brownish straw-color ; and only when very young are they furnished with a few little chaffy scales near the base. The fronds are from one to two feet long, and from three to six inches broad. In outline they are lanceolate, tapering upward to an acuminate and slender apex, and gradually contracted from the middle downwards to a very narrow base. The pinnae are from one and a half to three inches long, lanceolate, sometimes slightly narrowed but more often a little enlarged at the base, pin- natifid almost to the midrib, and with the apex slenderly acumi- nate. Sometimes the pinnx diverge from the rachis by an angle SUP \'-i i r il m t 53 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. of sixty degrees ; but more frequently they spread out nearly at right angles with it. The lower pinnae arc gradually more distant than the middle ones, and are shorter and more dcflcxcd towards the base of the frond, so that the very lowest ones are often not more than two lines long. The lobes or segments of the pinnas are flat, slightly oblique, oblong, round:)d-obtuse, and entire or slightly toothed. The lowest segments of each pinna arise from the \cry base of its midrib, so that the pinnae are absolutely sessile on the main rachis. These lowest segments arc some- times a little shorter than the higher ones ; but in other specimens they arc found rather larger than th.e rest, and more decidedly toothed. The venation is free : each lobe has a central mid-vein, and on each side of this about six or seven pinnately arranged vein- lets. These leave the mid-vein at an angle of about forty-five degrees, and run straight to the margin of the lobes. They are normally simple ; but in fronds with enlarged and toothed basal lobes they are sometimes forked, or the lowest vein of several lobes may be forked. The texture of the fronds is thin, so tliiit they wither quickly when gathered, and die at the first approach of cold weather. The rachis, midribs, veins and veinlcts, espe- cially along the lower surface of the frond, are minutely pubescent with straight whitish hairs, and the lobes arc ciliatc with hairs of the same kind. The sori or fruit-dots are much smaller than they are in some of the other common Aspidia. They are seated one on the back of each veinlet, nearer the margin of the lobe than the mid- Mtil I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 53 rib, and arc almost alvays distinct. The fruit, when it is present at all, usually occupies the whole of the fruiting frond, which, as in most ferns, is rather narrower than the stei.le frond, and has narrower divisions. The indusia are reniform and attach'^d by the sinus, and very delicate. The cellules are irregular in shape, and may be called roundish-polygonal. The margin is bordered with minute yellowish globules, or glands ; and sometimes a few occur on the surface also. Besides the glands, the indusia often bear a few short and straight whitish hairs. Schkuhr's figure, quoted above, gives an excellent representation of the indusium. The spores arc ovoid-rcniform, very much the shape of a kidney- bean, but with a muricate surface and more or less of a semi- transparent border or wing along the slightly hollowed side. The sweet-scented variety has been noticed by Mrs. Milling- ton for several successive years. It differs little from the common form. The specimens sent me are narrower and more rigid. The glands with whi^^h they are sprinkled on the under surface are nearly black in the diiod plant, and the indusium is more per- manent. Mrs. Millington writes that " a few plants dried in the open air will perfume a room deliciously for a long time." My specimens, gathered in 1873, are still pleasantly fragrant. This fern has been confused at times with Aspidium ThelyP- teris. In the "Flora Boreali-Amcricana " Sir W. J. Hooker united the two ; and many years later, in writing the account of this species for the "Species Filicum," he appears to have still entertained doubts as to its distinctness. But the only specimens in his herbarium at that time were imperfect fronds from Canada, i « If - ! in t[ ^^H ll i i 54 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. and one from Dr. Torrey with the lower part of the frond missing ! Aspiditnn Thclypteris is sometimes found with most of the veinlcts simple, and the lower pinnx a little contracted, so that it is perhaps well to indicate some of the most important distinc- tions in parallel columns. A. NOVEBORACENSE. Stalk shorter than the frond. Frond with a long and slender apex, and much contracted at the base. Pinnae closely sessile. Lobes flat. Veinlets mostly simple. Sori near the margin. Spores slightly wing-margined. A. THELYFIERIS. Stalk often longer than the frond. Frond short-pointed ; the base but little contracted, if at all. Pinnae with a very short but evident stalk. Fiuiting lobes oftenest slightly re- flexed over the sori. Veinlets commonly forked. Sori midway between mid-vein and margin, or nearer the mid-vein. Spores wingless. The specimen of Polypodium Noveboraccnse in the Linnaean herbarium lacks the lower part of the frond, but has simple vein- lets, and is slightly pubescent ; so that there is little doubt of its being the present species. Mr. Emerton has drawn a plant of ordinary size : the long creeping root-stock is very characteristic. A portion of a pinna, enlarged, shows the venation and the position of the sori ; and the indusium, highly magnified, shows the marginal glands and the hairs. evm / ^a^^^ fr^. muii-': 1 i FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 55 PiJVTE VIII. -Fig. i. CAMPTOSORUS RHIZOPHYLLUS, Link. Walking- Leaf. Camptosorus RiiizornYLLUs : — Root-stock short, creeping or ascending ; stalks tufted, slender, flaccid, green, but becoming brown near the base ; fronds a few inches to a foot 1 mfr, siib-cori- accous, evergreen, smooth, gradually narrowed from a deeply cor- date and auricled base to a long and very slender prolongation decumbent and often rooting at the end ; vci...- reticulated near the midrili and having free apices along the margin, ori elon- gated, variously placed on cither side of the veins, often face to lace in pairs, or extending around the upper part of the meshes ; indusium delicate. Camptosorus 7-hizopliyllus, Link, Hort. Hcrol., ii., p. 69 ; Fil. Sp. Hort. Hcrol., ]). Sv — Pki-si., Tent. Pterid., p. 121, t. 4, fig. S. — HooKKR, Gen. Fil., t. 57, C; Fil. Exot., t. 85. — Gkav, Manual. — Darling- ton, Flora Ccsir., cd. iii., p. 393. — Mi:ni;Nius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 67, t. 5, fig. 6. Asplcnium rhizophyllum, Linn/Kus, Sp. PI., p. 1536. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 74. — VVii.DKNow, Sp. PI., v., p. 305. — MiciiAux, FI. Bor. Am., ii., p. 264. — HiGixow, I'l. Boston. Anligramma r/tizopliyl/a, J. Smith, in Hook. Journ. Bot., iv., p. 176; Ferns, British and Foreign, p. 226. — Torrey, F1. New York, ii., p. 494, t. 159 {^Asplcnhini) . 56 FERNS '>J NORTH AMERICA. fW-'^' Scolopendrium rhizop/iyllum, Endlicuer. Gen. Fl.. Suppl. i., p. 1348. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 4. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 248 Hab. — On mossy rocks, especially limestone. Not uncommon from Canada to Virginia and Alabama, and westward to Wisconsin and Kansas. It occurs in many places in Western Nev England, but is rare to the east. It has lately been found a few miles from Boston ; but there is a doubt whether the station is truly natural. Description. — The walking-leaf is usually found in patches of considerable extent. It seems to prefer mossy calcareous rocks, and the finest specimens arc usually firmly rooted in the crevices. In Cheshire, Connecticut, it grows freely on moist cliffs of sand- stone bordering a deep ravine ; and in Orange, in the same State, it is found on scattered ledges of serpentine. The root-stock is very short, but creeping : it bears a few dark-fuscous scales, and is covered with the remains of decayed stalks. A few fronds grow from the end of the root-stock, and are supported on slender herbaceous stems a few inches long. A transverse section of the lower part of the stalk is semicircular, and shows a very slender triangular central thread of dark sclerenchyma, with two some- what roundish fibro-vascular bundles close beneath or behind it. A section higher up shows that the stalk is there narrowly winged on each side, and the two fibro-vascuiar bundles have coalesced into one of a roundish-triangular shape. The frond is long and narrow, and rarely rises erect, but usually is decumbent or reclined in position. The wings of the stalk widen out into a wedge-shaped base, which is sunken in a sinus between two basal auricles of the ■I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 57 frond. These auricles are scantily developed in small fronds ; but in larger ones they are more or less prominent, making the base of the frond either cordate or hastate. In specimens from Cheshire, Connecticut, and in some from Indiana, the auricle:: are drawn out into slender points, in one instance fully four inches long. The fronds are deep-green in color, and sub-coriaceous in texture. The fronds of mature plants are from six to twelve, or even fifteen, inches long ; and their greatest width, measured just above the auricles, is about one-twelfth of the length, or from six to fifteen lines. The midrib is a little paler than the rest of the frond, and is rather prominent on the under surface. The margin of the frond is gently undulating or entire, rarely incised.^ The upper part of the frond is scarcely wider than the stalk, and commonly produces a proliferous bud at the apex, where it very frequentiv takes root, and develops a new plant. In this way a single plant in a favorable position will become a whole colony in a few years' time. The venation is peculiar, and the disposition of the sori depends mainly on the peculiarities of the venation. Dr. End- lichcr's description of them is so clear, that it is well to repeat it here: "Veins anastomosing [i.e., reticulating] in two series of hexagonal areoles [mcshcsj, the angles of the marginal areoles sending out free, simple or forked, veinlcts. Sori linear, solitary in the costal areoles [those nearest the midrib] and on the mar- ginal veinlcts : the indusium of the latter free toward the margin ' See the "Flora of New York" for some figures of laeiniatcd ami forking fronds. 58 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. u'-'^ iV ii ti ! of the frond ; of the former, toward the costa. In the areoles of the second series the sori are opposite : the indusium of the lower one free toward the costa; of the other, in the opposite direction." To this it may be added, that in some of the areoles the two sori meet and are confluent at the outer angle of the areole ; and in this case the two indusia are sometimes, though not always, united into one. The indusia of the areoles next the midrib are also often bent at an angle, and the two portions plainly united. It was from this condition of some of the sori that the genus was named Camptosorits (bent fruit-dot) ; and it is only on this pecul- iarity that the genus can be kept separate. The indusium is thin and delicate, composed of sinuous- margined cellules, and is more or less wavy along the free edge. The spores are ovoid, and have a crenated pellucid wing-like iifi Sir W. J. Hooker referred the Camptosorus, together with the species of Aittignimma, and the very peculiar Mexican fern Scliaffiio'ia, to the genus Scolopcndriuvi ; making the distinctive character of the genus to rest on the sori being " in pairs, oppo- site to each other, one originating on the superior side of a vein- let, the other on the inferior side of the opposite veinlet or branch." In this he was essentially anticipated twenty years by Dr. Kndiicher; to whom, however, Schaffncria was unknown. It is by no means impossible that future botanists will refer all these species to the old Linn;ean genus Asplcuinm ; for it is now pretty generally adn".itte(l that differences in venation do not constitute valid generic distinctions, and a radicant bud on the ■I -f-M "k FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 59 frond is common in many undeniably genuine Asplet.ta: and since Diplazium, with double involucres placed back to back on the same vein, is inseparable from Aspletiium, it is by no means impossible that Scolopendfiwn and Camptoscrus should be thought to have no better claim to rank as genera. Probably the earliest notice of the walking-leaf is in Ray's " Historia Plantarum," vol. ii., p. 1927, published in 1688. It is there called " Phyllitis parva saxatilis per summitates folii pro- lifera." Other early accounts may be found in the " Species Plantarum " of Linn/EUS and of Willdenow, and in the second edition of Gronovius's " Flora Virginica." In the latter work it may be seen that Gov. Golden long ago described the auricles as being "also often acuminate." A second species, with membranaceous fronds acute at the base (C Sibiricus), occurs in Northern Asia, but is apparently very rare. Plate VIII., Fig. i. — Camptosorus rhizophylltis. The specimens are of the form with acuminate auricles. A portion of a frond with rounded auricles is drawn about twice the natural size, to show the peculiar arrange- ment of the veins and sori. t' 1 I \ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 6i Plate VIII. — Fig. 2. ASPLENIUM PINNATIFIDUM, Nuttall. Pinnatifid Spleenwort. AsPLENiUM PINNATIFIDUM : — Root-stock short, creeping, branched; stalks numerous, clustered, brownish near the base, green higher up ; fronds six to nine inches high, herbaceous or sub-coriaceous, mostly erect, lanceolate-acuminate from a broad and sub-hastate base, pinnatifid ; lower lobes roundish-ovate or rarely caudate, sometimes distinct, the margin crenated, the upper ones gradually smaller and more and more adnate to the winged midrib, the uppermost very short, and passing into the sinuous- margined long acumination of the frond ; veins dichotomous or sub-pinnate and forking, free ; sori few on the lower lobes, soli- tary on the uppermost, those next the midrib occasionally dipla- zioid. Asplenium pinnatifidum, Nuttall, Genera of N. Amer. Plants, ii., p. 251. — KuNZE, in Sill. Journ., July, 1848, p. 85. — Gray, Manual. — Eaton, in Chapman's Flora of Southern U. S., p. 592. — Hooker, Icones Plantarum, t. 927; Sp. Fil., ill., p. 91. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 72, t. ID, figs, i, 2; Asplenium, p. 126. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 194. Asplenium rhizophyllum, var. pinnatijidum, Muhlenberg, Catalogus Plant. Am. Sept., cd. ii., p. 102. — Barton, Compendium Florae Philad., ii., p. 210. — Eaton,^ Manual of Botany, ed. iii., p. 188, etc. — Torrey, Compendium, p. 383. ' Prof. Amos Eaton, grandfather of the present writer. Eaton's "Manual of Botany" went through eight editions from 1817 to 1841. ■Hi- \-^^ iliiiii ?■*': ■ t! ■;i : ' Saif ,i ' 6a FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Hab. — Discovered by Thomas Nuitall in crevices of rocks along the Schuylkill Rive.-, near Philadelphia ; also found along the VVissahickon Creek in the same vicinity. Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Prof. Thomas C. Porter. On moist cliffs of sandstone in the Cumberland Mountains, East Tennessee, Prof. F. 11. Bradley. Hancock County, Alabama, Hon. T. M. Peters. Mine-la-Motte, Southern Missouri, on sandstone rocks. Dr. Engelmann. Description. — The root-stocks of this little fern arc creep- ing, branched and often entangled, and chaffy with narrow lance- acuminatc dark-fuscous scales. The cellular structure of these scales is similar to that of the scales of ^. cbcneum, the cells being oblong-rectangular, and arranged in straight longitudinal rows. The stalks are from two to four inches long, and slightly chaffy when young: they are brown and shining at the base, 1 ut green higher up, except that a narrow line of brown is continued up the under side of the stalk nearly or quite to the base of the frond. A section made near the lower extremity of the jtalk is nearly semicircular, and discloses two roundish fibro-vascular bundles side by side near the middle, and a minute thread of sclerenchyma, or hard dark tissue, on the inner side of each bundle. A section just below the frond shows the two fibro- vascular bundles united into one, and the angles of the stalk slightly extended, forming very narrow wing-likc borders. The minute inner filaments of sclerenchyma are never continued far up the stalk, and are sometimes wanting altogether. The frond is from three to six inches long, and usually half an inch to an inch broad at the base, from which the general out- 1 1 f >' FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. «.1 line tapers to a long and slender point, not so long as the prolon- gation of the walking-leaf, and very rarely, if ever, rooting at the apex.' The fronds arc mostly erect, sub-coriaceous or firmly membranaceous, smooth above, but with a few minute sctulose .scales beneath, deeply pinnatifid in the lower and middle portion, and sinuately lobed above, the long terminal portion undi.late on the margins. The midrib is broad and well defined : it is winged throughout its length ; the wing narrow at the base of the frond, but constantly widening upwards. The lobes are irregularly roundish-ovate, sinuate, crenate or slightly toothed ; the lowest ones occasionally drawn out into an acuminate point an inch long. Most of the lobes are attached to the wing of the midrib by a broad base : the lower ones some- times have a short stalk. The veins arc cvcry\\here free : in the lower lobes, if these are acuminate, the veins arc pinnatcly branched from a mid-vein ; elsewhere they arc forked or dichotomous. The sorl are mostly single, though here and there one will be diplazioid, — most com- monly the lowest one on th'; superior side of the lobe. The indu- sia are very delicate ; and the free edge is directed toward the middle of the lobe, excepting the indusia of the sori nearest the midrib, and these open toward the midrib. The sori are usually very full of sporangia, and, when ripe, nearly cover the back of the frond : even the narrow acumination bears a sorus at each undu- lation of the margin. Spores ovoid-bean-shaped, with reticulating ridges and an irregular winged border. ' I lind one or two instances of a slight enlargement of the ape.\, as if there were an attempt to form a proliferous bud. t III II •iiii Hi I itl 04 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. This is now admitted by all pteridologists to be a distinct species ; though it was formerly confounded with the Campiosorur, from which it is clearly distinguished by the free veins, the mostly single indusia, and the usual absence of a proliferous bud at the iipex of the frond. Some of the less compound and more attenu- ated forms of yl. motttanum come much nearer to it ; but in its simplest form this other species always has the fronds fairly pin- nate, and its more compound forms resemble the A . pinnatifidum very little. I take occasion to express my thanks to Hon. Thomas M. Peters of Moulton, Alabama, who has sent me abundant and fine specimens of this fern and of other rare species which are found in the northern part of Alabama. In Plate VIII., Fig. 2, Mr. Emerton has represented a portion of one of the Alabama plants, together with a part of a frond moderately enlarged, to show the venation and son. i ct ly le u- its n- m VI. ne nd >nti ed. t il yi 5 > i i i i,f ,1 n il i : I r: 11 lilf "J 'i^ Hi J. '.J il >iai f i FERNS Ol" NORIII AMERICA. <5 VlATF. IX. — Fifl. I. NOTHOLyENA FENDLERI, Kunze. Fendler's Notholaena. NoTiioLyENA FiiNDLiiRi : — Root-stock sliort, creeping or assurgent, thickly covered with narrow light-brown chaffy scales ; stalks numerous, tufted, wiry, dark-brown and polished ; fronds two to four inches long, broadly deltoid-ovate, four or (ivc times pinnate, the rachis and all its divisions flexuous and zigzag, diva- ricate and often entangled, brown and shining ; primary, second- ary, and tertiary pinn.-e alternate; ultimate pinnules sometimes opposite, one or two lines long, obovatc-oval and entire, or two- to three- lobed, the upper surface scantily and the under surface abundantly whitened with a waxy powder ; sporangia seated on the upper portions of the veins, bursting through the ceraceous coating. Notholana Fcndlcri, Kunzk, Die Farrnkrauter, il., p. 87, t. 136. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v., p. 113. — PoKTEK, Syn. Fl. Colorado, p. 153. — Eaton, Ferns of the South-West, incd. Notholcena dcalbata, Torkky, I'acif. R. Rep., iv., p. 160, not of Kiinzc, Cincinalis Fcndlcri, Fle, Gen, Fil., p. 160. Gyninogramvie Fcndlcri, Mettenius, Chellanthes, p. 7. Hau. — Clefts of exposed rocks, from the mountains of Colorado to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, many collectors. '!'*;! !;'! 66 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Description. — The rooL-stock is rather stout, not more than one or two inches long, and is heavily clothed with narrow I right- brown scales. Tho remains of old stalks still adhering to it con- siderably increase its apparent size. The stalks are commonly about four inches long, s'^raight or slightly curved, wiry, dark- brown or almost black, and polished, though not so shining as the stalks of most species of Adiantnm. The fronds arc about as long as the stalk, and nearly as broad as they arc long ; so that the generil outline is broadly triangular. They are pinnately decom- pound to the fourth and even to the fifth degree of sub-division, and bear at the ends of the ultimate branchlets very minute obovate or often two- or three- lobed pinnules, having the upper surface of a pale bluish-green, and the under surface covered with a dense white powder. The main rachis and its primary and secondary branches are singularly flexuous, being bent at an obtuse angle alternately to right and left, and bearing a branch or branchlet on the outer or convex side of each angle. From this habit it results that the branches arc never opposite or in pairs, but almost uniformly alternate. It sometimes happens that the branchlet is nearly as large as the branch from which it springs ; and then the method of division is dichotomous, or forking, rather than pinnate. The lowest pinna (for there is but one lowest, not a pair) and tlie next to the lowest have not infrequently two, three, or even four branchlets arising from the upper side before any are developed from the lower. This may perhaps arise from suppres- sion of the branchlets of the inferior side, or from a twisting of the seco.idary midrib. It is most noticeable in the figures given 21' iill FERNS OF NORTH AMERfCA. 67 by Kunze, and in specimens collected in Arizona by Dr. Edward Palmer. These specimens arc exaggerated examples of what Dr. M'lde has called anadromy ;'^ while the plant from which Mr. Emerton has taken his drawing has the first branch of the lowest pinna placed on the inferior side, and is therefore catadromous. All the branches and branchlets are dark brown and smooth, like the stalk ; and they are so much refracted and divaricating, that the several fronds of one plant are almost always much entangled, so that they are difficult to separate without injury. The sporangia are comparatively few : they are placed on the upper part of the free veinlets, and appear as a row or narrow band of dark-brown particles breaking through the white powdery mas=;. This powdery mass is found in ferns of several differ- ent genera, — Notholcena, Chcilant/ics, and Gymnogramme. It is either white, creamy, pale yellow or deep yellow, the color varying even in fronds of the same species. In one Notholccna from Natal the powder is even pinkish in color. The powdery species of each of these genera have been separated by various authors into special genera, named respectively Cincinalis, dleitritopteris, and Ceropteris. But these genera have been rejected by the more ;feli ' Mildc, Fil. Europac ct Atlantidis, p. 8: "Segments of the second degree, especially at the base of the lamina, arc commonly arranged according to a most distinct order, which arrangement is not rarely most useful in safely distinguishing related species. This arrangement is cither aitadrovious or catadromous. Those segments of the second degree are called aiiadromous of -.vhich the first cue is placed on the superior side of the segment of the first degree [primary pinna] : there- fore those are catadromous of which the first one is observed on the lower side." 68 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. mh -t judicious systematists, as not resting on a character of sufficient importance. The learned Dr. Fee, in speaking of the colored powder, says, " L'exsudation jaune, blanche ou rose qui couvre la lame inferieure de toutes ces plantes, est de nature ceracee, et cette sorte de cire vdgetale est soluble dans I'alcool et I'ether. Elle est produite par des glandes en massue, ct presente sous le micro- scope I'aspect de petits filaments d'une tcnuite extreme." The genus Notholcena is closely related to both ChciLvithes and Gymnogramme. It comprises scaly, woolly, powdery, and naked-leaved species, just as C/ieilaut/ies does, and is distin- guished from that genus only by the absence of a proper involu- cre. Even in this character some of the species are ambiguous ; and it must be observed that the careful Mettcnius rejected the genus, referring some of the species to Cheilantlics, and some to Gymnogramme. Keyserling {Adiantum, p. lo) makes Notholccna a sub-genus of Cheilantlics, with the character " rhachis teres." Hooker and Baker keep the genus distinct, and it is perhaps most convenient to do so. Very few genera of ferns can be so abso- lutely defined as to leave no species of doubtful affinities or ambiguous position. The name of this genus is variously writ- ten N^ot/iolccna, Notochlcena, and NothocJilcena. I have retained Robert Brown's original orthography. 'is ' n Plate IX., Fig. i. — Nolliolccna Fcndlcri, drawn from very fine and unusually large specimens collected in Fremont County, Colorado, by Mr. T. S. Brandegek. The details show small portions of the frond consider- ably enlarged, the ceraceous mass abundant on the lower surface, and spar- ingly present on the upper. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 69 Plate IX. — Fig. 2. NOTIIOL^NA DEALBATA, Kunze. Whitened Notholaena. NoTHOL^NA DEALBATA : — Root-stock vcry short, chaffy with narrow scales ; stalks clustered, wiry, very slender, dark-brown or nearly black and shining, one to three inches long ; fronds rather shorter than the stalks, triangular-ovate in outline, delicately three to four times pinnate; the rachises and branchlets capillary, and in color like the stalks ; pinnae and pinnules mostly opposite in pairs, the ultimate segments oval or obovate and entire, distinct or united by a narrow wing, scarcely one line long, glaucous- green above, white-farinose beneath, often with the margins much rolled under; sporangia seated on the free veinlcts. Notholcena dealbata, Kunze, in Silliman's Journal, July, 1858, p. 82; Die Farrnkriiutcr, ii., p. 57, t. 124, fig. i. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v., p. 1 13. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fi!., p. 374. — Eaton, Ferns of the South-West, incd. Notholccna piilchclla, Kunze, in " Bot. Zcit., !., 1843, Sp. 633;" Linna:a, xvii., p. 567. Cheilanthcs dealbata, Pursii, F1. Am. Sept., ii., p. 671. — Nuttall, Gen. N. Am. Plants, ii., p. 253. Cincinalis dealbata, Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 160. Gymnogramtnc dealbata, Mettenius, Cheilanthes, p. 6. Had. — " In the crevices of rocks on the banks of the Missouri River, II !; IP . l 111 I ;o FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. i - 1 I'll : i l! 1 If; 11 i' i' 1 -t .i J I I i i about fifty miles above its coiilluence," Puusii, Nuitall. " Dry calcareous rocks, on their perpendicular faces, and chiefly where sheltered by the over- hanging projections ; rather common in Middle and Southern Kansas," E. Hall, Parry. Texas, Herb. Durand. New Mexico and Arizona, Parry, ROTHROCK, Mrs. SUMNKR. Description. — This little fern is in many respects like the species last described. It has the same dense white ceraceous or farinose coating on the under surface of the pinnules : the frond is decompound, the pinnules equally minute, and very similar in shape. The stalks and rachises are perhaps more nearly black, and have a somewhat higher polish. The most evident distinc- tions are, however, (i) the smaller size and greater delicacy of the present species, and (2) the fact that in this fern the pinnae and pinnules of every degree are opposite in pairs, or nearly opposite. The ultimate pinnules are more generally entire than in the larger species, and have a stronger tendency to become revolute, or strongly rolled under from both margins. The specimens from Missouri and Kansas are very delicate, the whole plant not more than four inches high, and the nearly black branchlets almost as fine as horse-hair. The specimens from Arizona collected by Dr. Parry are equally delicate ; but those from the Sonoita Valley in Arizona, collected by Dr. Roth- rock, and from Camp Bowie in South-western New Mexico, col- lected by Mrs. Sumner, are considerably larger, and with heavier stalks and rachises. In the "Species Filicum " Sir William Hooker intimated that it is difficult to see how this plant is to be satisfactorily dis- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 71 tinguished from N. nivea, a native of Tropical America ; but the latter species is much coarser in every way, has longer and less compound fronds, far heavier stalks qnd rachiscs, and larger ulti- mate pinnules. Plate IX., Fig. 2. — Notholccna dcalbaia, drawn from Mrs. Sumner's specimen, showing the under surface only. \'.\ ri ,»' / I'ifft if M £^¥^^.^^^, >^ 't\) \ ■. ■ j\S^^-\ A .w' tlKlIlM- I ■PM HI U '2! u II FRRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 73 Plate X. ASPIDIUM NEVADENSE (n. sp.). Sierra Shield-Fern. AspiDiUM Nevadense : — Root-stock rather short, creeping, densely covered with the persistent bases of former stalks ; fronds standing in a crown, one and a half to three feet high, thin- membranaceous, lanceolate in outline, pinnate ; pinnae sessile, linear-lanceolate from a broad base, deeply pinnatifid, the lower pairs distant, and gradually reduced to mere auricles ; lobes crowded, oblong, entire or sparingly toothed, slightly hairy on the veins beneath, and sprinkled with minute resinous particles ; veins about seven pairs to a lobe, simple, or a few of the lower ones forked ; sori close to the margin ; indusium minute, reni- form, furnished with a few dark-colored marginal glands, and bearing several long straight jointed hairs on the upper surface. Aspidiiim Ncvadcnsc, Eaton, Ferns of the Soutli-Wcst, ined. Had. — In moist meadows and along creeks in the Sierra Nevada of Northern California, especially in a meadow containing also the Darling- tonia, near Quincy, Plumas County, Mrs. R. M. Austin and Mrs. Pulsifer Ames; also in Berry Creek Canon, Butte County, Mrs. Ames. DESCRirTiON. — Except in the nature of the root-stock, and the consequent position of the fronds, standing in a crown, this fern has a very close resemblance to the New- York shield-fern. ) m I'Ml >^, i. -I ' ,! life ■St. i I i 74 FERNS OP NORTH AMKRICA. The fronds arc similarly short-stcmmcil ; they arc similarly lance- olate ill outline, with an acuminate apex and a gradually narrowed base; the texture is much the same; the pinnie and lobes very like those of the other species ; and even in the disposition of the veinlets, and the character of the indusium, there is but very little difference. But while As/)i(/ium Novcbomccnsc has a long and slender cord-like rhi/.oma, which creeps far in advance of the position of the fronds, the present species has a short and somewhat stouter rhizoma, covered by the imbricated or over- lapping bases of former stems ; and the fronds, several in number, arc produced apparently from the advancing end of the rhizoma, and stand together in a crown, or circle, just as in the common y4 . spimilosum and its allies. A comparison of Mr. Emerton's drawings in Plates VII. and X. will show both the great resem- blance of the two ferns, and their essential distinction. The lobes of the pinnae in A. Ncvadcnse are a little more apt to be crcnated, or even slightly toothed, than those of the other species. The pubescence on the under side of the veins is scantier in this species, and the lobes are not at all ciliated. Another constant character seems to be, that the under surface of the frond is copi- ously dotted with minute shining resinous globules. The lower part of the stalk bears a few chaffy scales, and similar scales are found on the root-stock. Mrs. Austin, to whom I am indebted for a full scries of fine specimens of the ferns of Plumas County, Criiifornia, has noticed in this fern a sort of sleeping and waking, .'■'he s.iys, "The new Aspidinm Xcvadense has one peculiarity :>l)out the fruiting fronds FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. 75 which I have noticed in no other fern ; that is, the divisions of the pinnaj are closed or folded together early in the day. I noticed this last fall. When I went early (while it was yet cool) in the mornin{j for specimens for the press, I would not gather them, as I did not think they would make nice specimens, but went farther up the creek, collecting other plants, and did not return till two or three o'clock, when I found the pinnae all open, and the fronds fit to press." Some later observations confirmed her in the opinion that this fern at least has its daily periods of contrac- tion and expansion ; but whether the change is caused by alterna- tions of light and darkness, dampness and dryness, or heat and cold, is yet undetermined. This fern is more or less closely related to that group of Tropical-American species which clusters about Aspidium con- tcrminum ; but that species has an erect, not a creeping, rhizoma, and a heavier and more rigid frond. But our plant clearly belongs to the same section of the genus, and would, accordingly, be a Nepiitodium, § Lastrca, of Baker, though, as well as can be seen from the withered indusium, scarcely an OocJihimys of Fee. The same name, Aspidium Ncvadcnse, was given by Bois- sier to a Spanish fern; but, as that has proved to be only an already well-known species, there is no impropriety in conferring the name on a fern from the Sierra Nevada of our own country. Plate X. — Aspidium A'tvadcnsc. An entire plant, reduced to about one-third or one-fourth of the natural size, and colored, occupies the middle of the plate. Two fronds, and tiieir root-stock, of natural size, arc drawn in outline. At the left is a single segment in fruit, magnified about ten diameters ; and at the right an indusium, highly magnified. m i m 11 ill 1 i PI ate XI •I ' N ^>- ^•; )»> ' ii.Knifjrt'ii del •ri.iMA ^[•;N;;A llodk Fl(Jg PEI.l.MA PUl.CllHI.i.A Kef Annntiung iVjJn.Liti, late XI iV.L'o.Litl. i'l '! R. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 77 Plate XI. — Fig. i. PELL^A DENSA, Hooklr. Oregon Cliff-Brake. Pell/EA DENSA : — Root-stocks rather slender, entangled, chaffy with very dark narrow scales ; stalks densely tufted, three to nine inches long, wiry and slender, dark chestnut-brown, dull or moderately polished ; fronds ovate or triangular-oblong in out- line, one and a half to two and a half inches long, closely tripin- nate ; segments linear, three to six lines long, nearly sessile, sharp-pointed or mucronate, the lower ones distinct, the upper ones often confluent by a narrowly winged rachis ; fertile fronds with the segments entire, having the margin narrowly recurved, and provided with a distinct delicate involucre ; sterile fronds very rare, the segments broader and sharply serrated, especially towards their apices. Pellaa densa. Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 150, t. 125, B. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 149. Onychium dcnsum, Bkackenridge, Filices of the U. S. Expl. Exped., p. 1 20, t. 13, f. 2. — ToKREY, Pacif. R. Rep., iv., p. 160. Had. — Clefts of rocks. Oregon, on the banks of Rogue River, Brackenridge ; near Fort Orford, Gen. A. V. Kautz, U.S.A. Not rare in the Sierra of California, at elevations of six thousand to eight thousand feet, from the Castle Mountains to the Yosemite, Brewer, Bolander, Mrs. Austin, S:c. Also collected at Jackson's Lake, in Wyoming Territory, by Haydcn's Expedition. I f.W 1 ffl pi* ■s '\r ^Hh^I J, t^ ■ iB i li 78 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Description. — The habit of this fern is very dense, as the specific name happily assigned to it by Brackenridge implies. It grows in dense tufts among rocks ; and the pinnae and segments are so- crowded as to overlap each other, and render it difficult to see exactly what is the method of branching. The stalks are usually less than a span long, rigid, dark-brown, and rather brittle. The fronds are often only an inch long, and rarely as long as two and a half inches. The primary pinnae are either alternate or opposite, — more frequently the former. The lowest ones are considerabl)- laigc. * and in the larger specimens are fairly bipin- nate. The see chises, and, indeed, the upper part of the primary rachis, are green and herbaceous ; as are also the seg- ments, which r .;- narrowly oblong-linear, acute or mucronate at the apex, having the luges rerurv.'d, and bearing a very delicate erosely-toothed proper involucre. The segments, for this reason, are somewhat pod-like. The veins are mostly simple, though occasionally one is forked. They seem to be entirely free ; although from Fig. i, a, of the illustration given by Bracken- ridge, one would suppose they were reticulated. Bracken ridge's specimens were very old, and somewhat shriv- eled ; and the anastomosing lines which his artist represented are merely the depressions of a contracted surface. Sir W. J. Hooker has noticed on the upper surface of the pinnules, when highly magnified, " an appearance of white, close-pressed, parallel hairs lying in the direction of the margins, tapering at each end, like the hairs of some malpighiaccous plant. A high magnifying power shows that these are not separable from the cuticle, but are rather lodged in it. Can they be looked upon as raphides ? " lil^ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 79 The cellules of the upper surface are oblong-linear, with sinuous outlines, much as shown in the figure in " Species Fili- cum ; " but I have failed to discover any thing in the least degree resembling raphides. The sterile fronds are very rarely found ; but, when they do occur, their segments have serrated margins, — an uncommon thing in this genus. Plate XL, Fig. i. — Pellaa densa. A plant of the natural size, show- ing one frond contracted from drought, as is often the case, and one care- fully spread out, so as to display its true form. The smaller drawing shows three fruiting segments enlarged. \ ini i iP! 3^? FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 8l Plate XI. — Fic. 2. PELL^A PULCHELLA. Fee. Pretty Cliff- Brake. Pell/EA PULCHELLA : — Root-stock very short, rather stout, nearly erect; stalks numerous, clustered, three to eight inches long, chaffy at the base with narrow crisped scales, nearly black, and polished, like the rachis and branchlets ; frond as long as the stalk or longer, deltoid-ovate, quadripinnate at the base, becoming gradually simpler above ; ultimate pinnules numerous, very small, one to three lines long, distinctly stalked, oval or cordate-ovate, obtuse, sub-coriaceous, smooth, the edges often much rolled in ; involucre herbaceous. Pellcea ptiUhclla, Vv.v., Gen. Inl., p. 120; Foiigeres Mexicaines, Catal., p. 8. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 150. — Eaton, in Botany of Mexican Boundary, p. 233. — Hooker & Baker, Svn. Fil., p. 150. — Four- NiER, Mcx. PI. Enum., p. 119. Allosorus pulchdlus, Martens & Galeotti, Syn. Fil. Mex., p. 47, t. 10, f. i. AUosonis formosus, Liebmann, Mexicos Bregner, p. 68. Cincinalis pulchella, J. Smith, Ferns, British and Foreign, p. 178. Pellcea microphylla, Meitenius, Kuhn, in Linnaea, xxxvi., p. 86. Pcllaa pulchella, var. microphylla, Baker, Syn. Fil., ed. ii., p. 477. Hab. — Western Texas and New Mexico, Wright, Bigelow, Schott; Mexico to Peru. Description. — This fern probably grows in the clefts of ■■m I 82 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. it 'I ' • ill'' exposed rotks ; but noiic of the collectors seems to have made a note of the kind of place where he found it. The fronds are thickly clustered on a short and nearly erect root-stock, which is hidden by the broken remains of old stalks. The stalks are wiry, brittle, shining, and of so dark a brown as to appear almost black. The fronds are broadly triangular-ovate in outline, and in the Texan and New-Mexican plant are about four inches long, and at the base nearly as broad ; so that, while they are fully thrice and even four times pinnate at the base, they rapidly become simpler above, and are only bipinnate near the top, and simply pinnate at the very apex. The primary pinnae and the larger secondary pinnae are mostly alternate; and the rachiscs, which are dark and polished like the stalk, arc slightly bent from side to side in a zigzag manner, though much less markedly so than in Notholana Fcndleyi, figured in the last part of this work. The pinnae all have rather long stalks, and even the ultimate pinnules are dis- tinctly stalked. These pinnules arc mostly roundish-ovate, cor- date, and very obtuse. Their length is not more than two lines in our plant ; though in specimens from Chiapas collected by Dr. Ghiesbrcght (No. 227), and in Bourgcau's specimens from Esca- mcla, Mexico, some of them measure two and a half lines. They are sub-coriaceous in texture, smooth, and almost always strongly revolute, or else with the sides folded together so as to hide the fruit ; and the texture of the pinnule is somewhat thinner along the margin, so that there may be said to be an herbaceous invo- lucre. The sporangia form a narrow band not remote from the margin of the pinnules. ; ll'' FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 83 Among the ferns named by Mcttcnius, and published after his decease by Kuhn, is Pcllcca microphylla ; which name was bestowed 'fon the Northern specimens of the species above described to distinguish them from the Mexican form, the distinc- tion being, according to Kuhn, that the Northern plant has " fur- rowed rachises, and the ultimate pinnules smaller, and cordate." The difference in size and form of the pinnules is too slight to be noticed: but our specimens certainly have the rachises slightly sulcate, or furrowed ; and no furrowing is visible on the Chiapas specimens, which are, moreover, considerably taller and heavier than our form. But I am as yet unwilling to admit that the dif- ference in size, &c., and in the terete or the furrowed rachises, amounts to a valid specific distinction. Fournier, in the admirable report on the Cryptogamia of Mexico, has expressed the strange opinion, that Pcllcca androme- dafolia (Fee) should be united with P. pitlchclla ; and some of the specimens which he refers to the latter species surely belong to the other one. As the synonymy shows, Mr. John Smith, the veteran ex- curator of the Kew Gardens, has considered this fern a Cinciiialis, wrongly supposing the pinnules to be farinose. Plate XL, Fig. 2. — A single frond of Pcllcca pulchella, showing the upper surface with the root-stock antl the remains of old stalks. Below it arc seen three segments or pinnules slightly magnified. i in y 'ill 'il ! 1 I im P;alrX!! i ■ iJt.- ,.1 • r, !^ ilKllANiHF.y VISCIDA, Uavouporl ■fi^,? f;ilh;ii,AN'l'HK3 CI,KVKl.AN!'i., hdWn I 1 WfMI ill: m FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Plate XII. — Fig. i. 85 CHEILANTHES VISCIDA, Davenport. Sticky Lip- Fern. Cheilanthes VISCIDA : — Stalks tufted, three to five inches high, wiry, dark-brown or blackish and shining, chaffy at the base with narrow crisped bright-ferruginous scales ; fronds herbaceous, minutely glandular and everywhere viscid, three to five inches long, narrowly oblong in outline, pinnate, with four to six rather distant pairs of nearly sessile deltoid bipinnatifid pinnae five to six lines wide and long ; segments toothed ; the minute herba- ceous teeth recurved, and each covering one to three sporangia. Cheilanthes viscida, George E. Davenport, in Bulletin of the Torrey Botan- ical Club, vi., p. 191 (December, 1877). — Eaton, Ferns of the South-West, ined. Had. — At the White-water Canon in the Colorado Desert, Arizona, and at Dovvnieville Buttes, California, Lemmon ; and on the eastern slope of the Sierra, near San Gorgorio Pass, California, Parry, Lemmon. Description. — The root-stock I have not seen ; but, as the fronds seem to be tufted, it is probably very short, and heavily covered with the same narrow crisped light-brown scales which adhere to the base of the stalk. The stalks arc very slender and fragile, terete, very minutely striated, very dark-brown, and moder- ately polished. The rachis and the upper part of the stalks arc slightly roughened, and bear minute sessile or short-stalked viscid 1 f m % 86 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. glands, which also abound on both surfaces of the pinna;, render- ing them very viscid. There are about six pairs of pinnas ; and these, especially the lower pairs, are distant from each other. The pinnae are broadly triangular in outline, and rather loss than half an inch long and broad. They have a short dark-brown viscid-puberulent secondary rachis, which soon passes into an undefined herbaceous midrib. The basal primary divisions of the pinnae are therefore distinct, and the superior ones confluent. These divisions are ovate-oblong, and are cut into a few pinnatcly arranged ovate slightly-toothed lobes, the minute teeth recurved to form an involucre. The sporangia arc few in number, — prob- ably not more than three to a sorus. The spores are obscurely tctrahcdric or almost spherical, and covered with finely reticulated ridges or narrow wings. In the shape and cutting of the pinnae, this fern is most like C. IVrightii ; but the fronds are rather taller, and are everywhere excessively viscid, in places appearing as if varnished over with the resinous (?) exudation from the glands. The involucre, too, is more herbaceous in C. viscida. The stalk, which is furrowed in C. IVriglitii, is perfectly round and without furrow in the present plant ; a character which would throw it into Keyserling's § Notholasna of the genus Cheilanthes, but its general affinities are plainly with such species of Cheilanthes as C. IVnglitii and C. temiifolia. The only specimens I have seen are from the collection of Mr. Davenport. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 87 Plate XII.. Fig. I. — A plant of Chcilanthcs viscida, with three fronds, that to the right showing the under surface. The magnified drawings rep- resent a scale from the base of the stalk, a fruiting pinna, one of the pccul- iar glands and a spore, the two last magnified many diameters. i M 1 f| I5 ! u /, FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 89 Plate XII. — Fig. 2. CHEILANTHES CLEVELANDII, Eaton. Cleveland's Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes Clevelandii : — Root-stock creeping, elon- gated, covered with narrow rigid dark-brown scales ; stalks scat- tered, two to six inches long, rather rigid, dark-brown, scaly, but at length nearly smooth ; mature fronds four to six inches long, ovate-lanceolate, tripinnate or quadripinnate, smooth and green above, beneath deep-fulvous-brown from the dense covering of closely imbricated ovate-acuminate elegantly ciliated scales, which grow from the rachises and the midribs, and from the under side of the ultimate segments; segments otherwise naked,, flattish, nearly round, sessile, one-third to one-half of a line broad, the terminal ones a little larger, the margin narrowly recurved, and unchanged in texture or color. Clieilanthcs Clevelandii, Eaton, in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vi., p. 33 ; Ferns of the South-West, ined. Hab. — Discovered in 1874 on a mountain about forty miles from San Diego, California, at an elevation of about twenty-five hundred feet, by Mr. Daniel Cleveland. Imperfect specimens of possibly the same thing were collected in the San Bernardino Range, in 1875, by Dr. Parry. Description. — Root-stock nearly as thick as a goose-quill, several inches long, covered with appressed rigid pointed nearly :|| i 90 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. black scales. Stalks of various ages, from undeveloped buds to weather-beaten fronds, rise from different points along the root- stock. They are about one line in diameter, rigid, and perfectly terete, thus completely invalidating the distinction proposed by Keyserling (see p. 68). The stalk and rachis, when young, are covered with appressed narrow tawny-white scales ; but these wear off from the stalk as the frond matures. The fronds are three or four times pinnate ; the primary pinnce either opposite or alternate, and rather closely placed ; the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary pinnae, and the ultimate segments, usually crowded. The ultimate pinnules, if terminal or solitary along the upper part of the tertiary rachises, are roundish-ovate, half a line long, and marked by a slight depression on the upper surface at the base ; but the lower lateral segments are perfectly round, and only one- third of a line long and broad, flattish-convex above, concave and with narrowly recurved margins beneath. The scales, which completely hide the under surface of the frond, are at first nearly pure white, but become tawny as the frond matures, so that, when the frond is fully developed, they are of a rich cinnamon-brown. In shape they are ovate-acuminate, with a cordate base, and are elegantly fringed with curving cilia, especially near the base, and sparingly from the surface also. The scales arc only half as large as those of C. Fetidkri, and are composed of much more tortuous cells. This fern may prove, in the end, to be only a form of C. myriophylla ; but that species is woolly as well as scaly, and the scales are larger and not so closely imbricated as in the fern here described. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 9» Plate XII., Fig. 2. — Chcilanthcs Clcvclandii. A plant with two fronds, one showing the upper and one the under surface. In the middle of the plate are three magnified views of a fragment composed of seven of the ultimate segments or pinnules. The upper one represents the under surface, covered with scales ; the middle one, the same with the scales removed ; and the lower one, the upper surface of the same fragment. To the right are given, at the bottom, a scale from the root-stock ; and, above it, a scale from the under surface of the frond. lif "'I! ■■ ■!.; ii)' i^'.' n If i' >vi 'ii " I i.i m li ' ! I I iiif ! 1 ! f i i "''i^'^^^^y Armplrong ii-'oiitli ASPIDIUM UNITUM, var. GLABRUM, Mott. I 1! ¥'■ i hi- ' WW I'iA FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 93 Plate XIII. ASPIDIUM UNITUM, var. GLABRUM, Mettenius. Rounded Shield-Fern. AspiDiUM UNITUM, var. GLABRUM : — Root-stock elongated, creeping in advance of ihe fronds ; stalks few, scattered, smooth, one to two feet liieh ; frond nearly or quite as long as the stalk, oblong in outline, rigid, sub-coriaceous, smooth, pinnate, the apex abruptly contracted and pinnatifid ; pinncTC numerous, short-stalked, sub-equal, or the lowest ones a little shorter, pinnatifid about half way to the midrib into rounded or obtuse closely-placed lobes ; veins pinnate, the lowest ones of contiguous lobes united, and sending out a veinlet to the sinus between the lobes, where the second pair of veins meets it, and sometimes the third also ; the upper veins straight and simple ; sori forming a continuous in- tramarginal line around the pinna?, and often extending down nearly to the midrib ; indusium rather persistent, round-reniform, commonly quite smooth. Aspidiiim uni/uvi, var. iilabrum, Meitknius, in Ann. Mus. Hot. Liigd.-Batavi, i., p. 230. — Eaton, in Bull. Torr. Club, iv., p. 19. — Chapman, in Botan. Gazette, iii., ]). 20. Ncpltrodium unitmn, «, gongylodcs, Bakici^, .Syn. Fi!., p. 2S9. Aspidium gogt^ylodiis, Sciikuiir, Krypt. Gew., p. 193, t. 33, c. Aspidium gottgylodcs, MerrENius, iilier Aspiilfum, p. loi. Aspidium Ecklonii, Kunzk, in I.inna-a, x., p. 546. — MrriENius, I.e., p. loi. ■■'f'l 94 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. I ft hi i 1 4 " & Had. — Swamps and bogs of Southern Florida, C. E. Faxon, Dr, Palmer, W. R. Tomi'. jns, Dr. Chapman, &c. Widely distributed through- out the West Indies, Guiana, Brazil, West Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon Java, Sumatra, Borneo, &c. Description. — The root-stock creeps beneath the surface of the ground, and extends often more than a foot in advance of the fronds : it is angular or furrowed, almost naked, and nearly black in color. It is commonly about one-sixth of an inch in thickness. Scattered along the newer portion are a few short stems, which represent the fronds of the copiing year. The stalks are nearly naked, blackish in the lower portion, but becoming green towards the frond : they are erect, and quite rigid. The fronds of the Florida specimens are from one to two feet long ; but both larger and smaller specimens occur in foreign collections. The fronds are elongated-oblong in general outline, scarcely or not at all con- tracted at the base, but abruptly narrowed to a more or less devel- oped slender finnatifid apex. The pinnas are from twenty to thirty on each side, from four to six inches long, and from five to eight lines wide. They arc usually nearly straight, placed on the rachis at an angle of from fifty to eighty degrees, the lowest ones with a stalk a line long, and the upper ones successively more nearly sessile. Their shape is linear-acuminate, — in the lower half closely pinnatifid into somewhat roundish lobes about half way to the midrib ; but the upper half of each one is less deeply lobed, and for the last inch or so only toothed. The sides of the lobes and teeth are often slightly recurved, making the lobes seem more acute than they really arc, and giving the apices FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 95 of the pinnae a more serrated appearance than properly belongs to them. The frond is sometimes perfectly smooth ; but more fre- quently a few little scales and a very scanty and minute pubes- cence may be detected along the midribs and veins, and especially along the margin of the lobes. This pubescence is very decidedly developed in van liirsutum (Mcttenius),' which has not been found in our territory, but occurs in nearly all other regions where our form has been observed. The veins are simple, and very prominent on the under sur- face : usually there are about seven or eight pairs of them to each lobe, but sometimes a larger number. The lowest vein on the inferior side of the mid-vein does not branch out from that mid- vein, but from the costa of the pinna, just below the insertion, or starting-point, of the mid-vein. The lowest vein on the superior side of the next lower lobe starts sometimes from' the costa also ; but perhaps as frequently from the mid-vein, very near the costa. These two veins unite at an angle, and send out a single vein to the sinus, or end of the incision between the two lobes. The next pair of veins, and occasionally the third pair also, extend likewise to the sinus ; but the superior veins are all free, parallel, and nearly straight. ' It may be well to give some of the synonymy of this form : — Aspidium unitiim, var. hirsutum, Mettenius, in Ann. M\is. Dot. I,iig(i.-I!.-it.iv. 1. c. Nephrodium unitum, A, propinquum, Bakf.k, S\n. I'il., p. 289. Aspidium unitum, Schkuhr, Krypt. Gll i 5 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 99 Plate XIV. — Fig. t. ANEIMIA MEXICAN A, Klotzsch. Mexican Aneimia. Aneimia Muxicana : — Root-stock short, creeping, covered with narrow curling blackish scales ; stalks four to eight inches long, pale, smoothish, wiry, furrowed on one side ; fronds coria- ceous, glabrous, shining, paler beneath ; sterile ones deltoid-ovate, four to six or even nine inches long, having about four to six short - stalked sub -cordate ovate- acuminate minutely but very sharply serrulate pinnae on each side, and a terminal one nearly as large as the rest ; veins free, forking from a distinct mid-vein, closely placed, and giving the surface a striated appearance ; fer- tile frond like the sterile, except that the two lowest pinnae are changed into long-stalked erect narrow pinnately-compound pani- cles of fructification ; the ultimate divisions narrow but flat, and bearing on the under surface a double row of sessile acorn-shaped sporangia, which have a reticulated surface and a radiated cap at the top. Aneimia Mcxicatia, Ki.otzscii, in Linn;ua, xviii., p. 526. — Kunze, in Lin- na^a, xxiii., p. 223; Die Farrnkriiiitcr, ii., p. 75, t. 131. — Hooker, Ic. Plant., t. 988. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. V\\., p. 443. — Eaton, in Botany of the Mexican Boundary, p. 235. Aneimia speciosa, Presi,, Suppl. TlmU. Pteritl., p. 89. — Lhcdmann, Mexicos Brcgncr, p. 151. (A smaller mountain-form, figured as var. paiui- folia by Hooker, Second Cent, of Ferns, t. 65.) '% s 1 ,.i S \ ' ": ■'. m iil Ji jiil* \ m} "i '• y '%■ '■■ ''W Ii I ^ ill M VV I ill; i i ill;i 100 FKRNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. Haii. — On sliady rivcr-clilfs near New I?raiiiift;ls, Texas, I.indiikimer. Mc'(.lina, in Western Texas, and in a rocky arroyo at tlie mouth of the River Pecos, Wrujiit. Not colloctccl in recent years. It was first di-scribed from Ascmkniioun's Mexican specimens, and is now reporteil as found also in Guatemala. Di'.scKii'TiON. — Tlic root-stock is crccpinj^^ thouirh probably not greatly elongated ; it is covcrcil with narrow fuscous or black- ish scales, which arc curled rather than crisped, and is developed slightly in advance of the growing fronds. These are nearly erect, and their whole height is from six to about fifteen inches. Fully half this height consists of the stalk, which is slender and straw-colored, — at least in drietl specimens. The sterile portion of the fertile frond, and the sterile frond, arc exactly alike: the general shape is triangular-ovate. 'J'he pinna- are sid>coriaccous, and commonly about five or six on each side besides the terminal one, — the lowest ones with a distinctly cordate base, the upper ones with a rounded or truncate base, usually having the upper side a little fuller and rounder than the lower. All the pinna- are short-stalked, — the lowest ones with a stalk two lines long, the upper ones having them gradually shorter. The general shape of the pinniL' is between ovate and lanceolate. The pinnae have a well-marked mid-vein, distinct to the very apex, and very closely- placed forking veins on each side of it. These veins give the surface a striated appearance. The tips of the veins extend to the apices of the minute but very sharp and incurved serratures along the margin of the pinna-. In the fertile frond there are two narrow pinnately-compound panicles, which arc raised on if w ill: FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. lOl stalks almost as long as the sterile portion, ami appear to be its two lowest pinnaj developed into fruetification. Kimze notes that the fruiting hranchlets are herbaceous-margined, glandular-pubes- cent, and more or less dilated and confluent at the apex of the panicle. The spor.ingia have a horizontal apical ring, much as in Lygodium; but arc attached b)' the bottom, not by the side as in Lyi^iniiiiw. They are arranged in a double row on the divisions of the fruiting panicle. The spores are very beautiful : they are roundish-tetrahedral, the sides covered with curious elevated and sometimes forked ridges, which Kunze considers characteristic of the genus. The genus Ancimia has but two species within our limits, but is represented in the tropics — principally in Tropical America — by about twenty-seven species. The generic character is this: Sponwgia acorit-slwpcii, loith a transverse apical riug, like a racliatcd cap, sessile in livo roTos on the branchlets of a panicle. Panicles either separate fronds, or in pairs, — in the latter case being the changed ami long-stalked lower pinnce of an otherwise sterile and pinnately-divided frond. As alrcatly pointed out on page 4, the genus is associated with Lygodium, Mohria, Schizcea, and Trochopteris. The name was originally written Anemia by Swartz, w lio took it " from the < ".reek word Avi\mv, not clothed, naked, because the capsules, without any covering, rest naked in the spikelets." But as the Greek word is really Avii\mv, Kaulfuss wrote the word Aneimia ; in which orthography he has been gen- erally, though not universally, followed. The curious reader will find an amusing note in regard to this matter on page 23 of Link's " Ferns of the Berlin Garden." i 1 eif it lOJ FF.RKS OF NORTH AMERICA. PiiUe XIV., Fit^. i. — Aiu'iv/ia iMcxicana. A root-stock bearing a single frond, the stalk cut in two for convenience. One udc of a sterile pinna is drawn twice the natural size, to show the venation ; and to the left is a single sporangium, greatly magnified, and exhibiting the apical ring. «i'5i^ J\*S > V, I : 4 1- /. i- i A wi u ^PL FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 103 Plate XiV. — Fig. 2. ANEIMIA ADIANTIFOLIA, Swartz. Maiden-hair Aneimia. Anetmia ADIANTIFOLIA: — Root-stock crccpuig, terete, and covered with fine blackish-fuscous scales ; stalks somewhat scat- tered, erect, a span to a foot high, brownish and sparingly chaffy- tomcntosc near the base ; fronds shorter than the stalk ; the ster- ile portion deltoid-ovate, sub-coriaceous, pubescent along the rachises, more or less glossy on both surfaces, twice or thrice pinnate ; pinnae triangular-lanceolate, acute or obtuse ; pinnules obovate or ovate with a cuneatc base, often lobcd, or the larger ones pinnatifid, toothed at the apex, striated by the free forking veinlets ; fertile panicles long-stalked from the base of the sterile segment, pinnately compound, the branchlets flattened, and bear- ing the sessile acorn-shaped sporangia in double rows. Aneimia adiautifolia, Swartz, Syii. I'll., p. 157. — Wii.ldenow, Sp. PL, v., p. 94. — Ku.NZK, in Linnaa, ix., \). 21 ; xviii., p. 309 ; xxiii., p. 221. — PuESL, Siippl. Tent., p. 85. — Hooker & Gkevii.i.e, Ic. Fil., t. 16 (var. asphiiijolici). — 1"ato.\, in Chapman's Flora of the Southern States, p. 59cS. — (iRiseisacii, Md-a of Brit. \V. Ind. Isl., p. 650. — Hooker & Raker, ,Syn. Fil., p. 434. — Fee, Foiig. Mex. Cat., p. 41. — I'OLRMLR, Ml'x. pi., Crypt., p. 139. Osmunda adianti folia, Liw.r.us, S[). PL, j). 1520. Ornitlwptcris adiautifolia, Permiardi, in Schraders N. Journ. Bot., 1S06, ii., p. 50, t. 3; fiy. 15 h. \M\n' 104 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Anemirhiza adiantifolia, J. Smith, in '.^eemann's Bot. Voy. " Herald," P- 243- Osmunda Filicide folio major, Pi.u.mier, Fil. Anier., p. 135, t. 15S. Ancimia asplcnifolia, Swautz, Syii. I'il., p. 157. Ancimia caniifoiia, Presl, Reliq. Ha:nk., i., p. 74; Suppl. Tent., p. 85, &c. H.\]i. — Southern Florida, Biscayne Bay, Kf:y West, &c. It is found in one form or another in the West Indies, Me.xico, Central and South America, growing in pine woods, WKUiur ; and on old ruins, A. Sciiorr. Descrh'TION. — -This fern has a terete creeping root-stock, about the eighth of an inch in diameter, and several inches long, covered with minute nearly black suoulate chaff, composed of a single series of cylindrical cells. The stalks arise in a single series from the upper side of the root-stock. The lower portion of the stalk is dark-colored, antl moderately pubescent with slen- der brown articulated hairs ; but the upper part is much lighter, and almost smooth. In large specimens from the West Indies the stalk is a foot long; but in the Florida specimens it is several inches shorter. The sterile fronds are placed on shorter stalks than the fertile ones, as is very commonly the case in most genera of ferns. The sterile fronds, and the sterile portion of the fertile fronds, are triangular-ovate in shape, from four to eight or nine inches long, and at the base about three-fourths as broad. They are sub-coriaceous m texture, rather rigid, and more or less hairy along the rachises and on the under side of the veins. The upper surface has a striated appearance, and is glossy, but still bears a few minute scavtered hairs. The sterile frond, or segment, is bipinnate in ordinary spcci- ;- I 'J FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 105 mens, and tripinnate in very large ones. The pinna: are pinnately lobed or divided, and often have an acuminate apex, especially in very large plants. The segments aio lobed or not, according to the size of the frond ; but the ultimate segments and lobes are rhomboid-ovate or obovate, — broadly or narrowly so in different specimens, — the apex obtuse or barely acute, and always with a few minute teeth. The veins are free and flabellately forking, so that the lobes have no distinct mid-vein. As in the Mcy'ran Atteimia, so in this one, the fertile pani- cles arc long-stalkeu, and rise from the top of the stalk, just at the base of the sterile portion of the frond. They arc usually twice pinnate, and have short pinnately-divided pinnules, the seg- ments of which are flattened, and bear two rows of acorn-shaped sporangia provided with a terminal transverse apical ring, — the characteristic of the sub-order to which the plant belongs. The spores are roundish-tetrahedral, and have minute ridges on the surface, but not so well developed as those of the species last described. The Florida specimens arc not very large, and belong to the form figured by Hooker and Greville under the name of var. asplcnifolia, having the sterile frond barely bipinnate, and the divisions obtuse. Authors have attempted to separate from the genus Aneimia those few species which have anastomosing veins, and to make of them the genus Ancmidictyon, and in like manner to place the species which have the fertile fronds destitute ol ,1 foliaceous sterile portion under the separate genus Copt ophyll urn ; but it ■«1 fc s! i io6 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. seems more natural to keep all the species together, and to use the characters of venation and of tne combination or separation fertile and sterile fronds only for making sections. Mr. John Smith's proposition (in the Botany of the Voyage of H. M. S. "Herald"), to establish the genus Ananirhiza for the present fern, because " the fronds are distant, and produced in a single series from an elongating creeping axis, which assumes the form of a rhizome," he seems to have abandoned in his later writings, Plate XIV., Fig. 2. — An entire plant of Aneimia adiantifolia of the natural size. The details are a portion of the fructification enlarged, and a highly-magnified sporangium. 1 1 ' '9 ii ..ii '^4v "^ Mi-' f| >1 t. \; I i i t, 1 i J i' .VI If FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 107 Ma '3' Plate XV. — Fig. i. ASPLENIUM RUTA-MURARIA, Linn^.us. Wall-Rue. AsPLENiuM RuTA-MURARiA : — Plants of small size; root- stocks short, creeping, entangled ; stalks tufted, one to three inch.;s long, green, brownish at the base ; fronds evergreen, sub-coria- ceous, smooth, nearly as long as the stalks, deltoid-ovate in out- line, laxly bi-tripinnate at the base, pinnate towards the apex, the divisions alternate ; ultimate segments few, stalked, two to five lines long, varying from narrowly cuneate to broadly rhomboid or even roundish-obovate, the apices or outer margins crenate, toothed, or deeply incised ; mid-vein none, veinlets free, flabcl- lately forking ; sori linear-oblong, two to four to a segment, con- fluent when ripe ; indusium very delicate, having a ciliated margin. Aspletiiiim Ruta-muraria, Linn^icus, Sp. PI., p. 1541. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 85. — WiiXDENOw, Sp. PI., v., p. 341. — ScHKUiiR, Krypt. Gcw., p. 75, t. 80, h. — Mettenius, liber Asplenium, p. 143. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 176. — Moore, Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. 41, A. — Heufler, Aspl. Sp. Eur., p. 329. — Mii.de, Fil. Eur. ct Atl., p. 76. — MicnAUX, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 266. — Pursh, F1. Am. Sept., p. 667. — BiGELow, Fl. Boston., ed. iii., p. 422. — Darlington, F1. Cest., ed. iii., p. 393. — Torrey, Fl. New York, ii., p. 492. — Gi^w, Manual, ed. omn. — Eaton, in Chapm. Fl., p. 593. m\ io8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ;!' '1 'o. \' W Asplcniiiin miiroruiii, I.amauck, l''lorc Fran(,-aise, i., p. 28. Aspkniinn miiralc, Bkkniiardi, in Scliradcrs Journal fiir die liotatiik, 1801, i., p. 19. Scolopmdrmm Ruta-muraria, Roth, Fl. Germ., iii., p. 52. Tarachia Rtita-mitniria, PRiisi., Epiincl. Bot., p. 81. IIaii. — Clefts of calcareous rocks, from Vermont to North Carolina, and westward to Indiana and Tennessee, but not .seen on walls in America. It is common throughout Europe on walls and on rocks, especially calca- reous rocks. It has been noticed in Algeria, and in Asia as far cast as Cashmere. DE.SCRIPTION. — Root-stocks short, creeping, entangled ; cov- ered, like the base of the young stalks, with narrow slender- pointed blackish scales. These scales are composed of irregular oblong cells, with the dissepiments very heavy and black. The slender tips are composed of two series of cells ; and it is only the wall l)ctween the adjacent cells that is thickened, the walls along the edges of the scale being thin and transparent. The analogy to the structure of a tooth of a moss-peristome is notice- able. The stalks are of variable length, according to the size of the plant and its place of growth. In bare, sunny spots, the whole plant will be scarcely an inch high ; while, on damp and shaded rocks, specimens fully six inches long have been collected. The stalks are green and herbaceous except at the very base, where they are deep-brown and more rigid, and, as Dr. Milde has espe- cially noticed, furnished with globose unicellular glandules of a grayish color, " so large that you might take them for unicellular nil FICRNS OK NOR'lII AMICRICA. 109 alga-'." The fibro-vasciilar Inindlc seems in the? livinj,^ plant to be flattened-cyliiulrical in shape, and at the very base of the stalk to have a blackish mass of sclcrenchyma in front of it. Near the base the surrounding tissue is semi-transparent, with an exterior layer of dark cells ; but higher up the surrounding tissue is filletl with chlorophyll, and the outside layer is colorless. A more care- ful study of the stalk would probably discover other peculiarities which have escaped my observation. The frond is generally a little shorter than the stalk, and is triangular-ovate or deltoid in outline. It is simply pinnate near the apex, but twice pinnate, or even three times pinnate, near the base. It is, when mature, perfectly smooth, and of a sub-coria- ceous texture. The rachis and its divisions are quite slender, and green like the scgmc.Us. These arc extremely variable in form, so that from their shape no less than nine varieties have been distinguished by Ileutlcr. In small plants, grown in dry exposed places, the segments arc roundish-obovatc, with a cuneate base, and the outer edge merely crenate. More frequently the form is cuneate-rhomboid with the outer edges toothed ; and specimens, either large or small, with narrower and deeply-incised segments, are by no means rare. These forms all occur indiscriminately ; and it seems better to simply record the great variability of the form of the segments than to s[)lit up the species into nine varie- ties, with Ileufler, or ten, with JNIilde. The sori are long or short, and variable in number, according to the size and shape of the segment. When fully ripe, the spo- rangia nearly cover the under surface, so that the fern has been : :::( ■ i! :i I • 1^ i; , m IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // ^/ V .0 ^:^ . c.. < ^<° M, ^ V. I.O I.I |5o ||3v mil n n tUUu mil 1.8 1.25 1.4 III 1.6 ^ 6" ► V] <^ w / °% \> y ^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 ,716) 872-4503 I ■ li no FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ^ll jil mistaken for an ^crostichum. The indusia are mostly single ; but now and then a double, or diplazioid, indusium will be found. They are very delicate, and have, as Schkuhr has well shown in his figure, a beautifully cillate margin. Spores ovoid-bean-shaped, with a minutely-roughened surface. This species need not be confounded with any other in North America. Aspienium montanutn and A. scptentrionale are the nearest, and from both of these it is very easily distinguished. There is in Europe a a. ore closely related species, — A. Germani- cum, — which may hf- known by the fewer, narrower, and decidedly incurved segments, and especially by having the indusium entire, and not ciliated. The wall-rue has been known to botanists for three hundred and fifty years ; and in Heufler's work on European Asplenia there may be found many references to ante-Linnsean descriptions of it, as well as a more abundant citation of later references th^n I have thought necessary to give. See also Moore's Index Filicum and Milde's European and Atlantic Ferns. Mr. Emerton's illustration represents one of the commonest American forms of this variable little fern. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Ill Plate XV. — Fig. 2. ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE, Hoffmann. Forked Spleenwort. AsPLENiUM SEPTENTRIONALE: — Root-stocks short, Creep- ing, densely tufted, covered with narrow blackish chaff; stalks very slender, three to six inches high, dark-brown at the base, green above, alternately forked, the branches gradually widening into two to five very narrow cuneate and acuminate segments, which are six to fifteen lines long, scarcely a line wide, and incisely toothed at the apex ; texture sub-coriaceous, and rather rigid ; veins forked, closely parallel ; sori elongated, one to three on a segment ; indusia delicate, entire, or very sparingly ciliate. Asplenium septentrionalc, Hoffmann, Deutschlands Flora, ii., p. 12. — SwARTZ, in Schraders Journal, ii. (1800), p. 50; Syn. Fil., p. 75. — ScHKUiiR, Krypt. Gew., p. 62, t. 65. — Willdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 307. — Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 106, t. 3, fig. 8. — Moore, Brit. Ferns, Nat. Print., t. 41, C. — Mettenius, iiber Asplenium, p. 141. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iii., p. 174; Brit. Ferns, t. 26. — Milde, Fil. Eur. et Atl., p. 81. — Eaton, in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 235. — Porter & Coulter, Syn. Fl. Colorado, p. 154. Acrostichum scptcntrionale, Linn/EUS, Sp. PL, p. 1524. Pteris scptcntrionalis. Smith, in Mem. Acad. Turin, v., p. 412. Scolopendrium septcnirionale. Roth, Fl. Germ., iii., p. 49. Acropteris septentrionalis. Link, Hort. Berot, ii., p. 56 ; Fil. Sp. Hort. Berol., m r II m ! 1 I 1 W\ If 112 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. p. 8o. — Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 77, t. 6, A. — Heukler, Aspl., Sp. Eur., P- 344- Amesiutn septentrionale, Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii., p. 265. Hab. — On Ben Moore, New Mexico, Bigelow, Wright. Colorado, Hall & Harbour ; and growing with Asplctiium Trichomanes along the brink of the Grand Canon of the Arkansas, Brandegee. It is found in crevices of rocks and on walls in Great Britain and in the mountainous regions of Europe, and in Asia as far as Cashmere and Kumaon. Description. — The habit of growth is very much as in the wall-rue, except that this species forms still more extended tufts. The scales of the root-stock are very similar to those of the spe- cies just named, but bear a few pedicelled marginal glands. The stalks are commonly longer than in the other species ; and, after the upper greenish portion has broken away, the lower or dark- brown part persists a long time. The section of the upper part of the stalk shows that it has three longitudinal furrows, though two of these may be due to drying. The fibro-vascular bundle is oval in section, and the central or more truly vascular portion of it is triangular with hollowed sides. The stalk is cither forked or alternately branched at the top, and bears from two to five very narrow segments. These taper both at the base and apex : they arc sometimes forked, but more frequently toothed and incised towards the apex. The veins are forked near the base of the segment into as many closely parallel veinlcts as there are teeth to the segment. The sori are often nearly an inch long and, when the sporangia are ripe, nearly cover the back of the segment. The indusia open towards the median line of the seg- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. "3 ment, and are so broad as to sometimes overlap each other. They are composed of cellules with very sinuous borders, and have a usually entire edge, though here and there a few short marginal hairs may be detected, — a point which seems to have escaped the close and usually accurate observation of Milde. The spores arc ovoid-bean-shaped, and minutely roughened. It is a somewhat remarkable thing in the geographical distribution of ferns, that this curious little fern should be by no means uncommon in the mountainous regions of Europe and of Western and Southern Asia, and should occur in America, not in those parts of the con- tinent nearest to Europe, nor in the more northern regions, but in what may be called the very heart of the continent. I believe Dr. J. M. Bigelow was the first to detect it, in 1851 ; though it may have been collected by Mr. Charles Wright a little earlier. A glance at the synonymy will show the very great diversity of views which authors have formerly held as to its generic affin- ities ; but the more recent writers on the subject, with scarcely an exception, have considered it an Asplenium. Mr. Newman, who proposed to erect the genus Amesium for this plant and for A. Ruta-muraria and A. Gcrmaniciim, was disposed to doubt whether all the three might not be so connected together by intermediate forms as to constitute but one really good species. Mr. Enierton has taken his illustration frop". a plant, with five fronds, collected by Mr. Brandcgee in Colorado. C:ie segment is shown, some- what magnified. r i;": fit! kv !'! ' li;' i :i • * * •*-'"■*•*' • •• * • ;m • * ' ^ * * * ^ _ # • ^ * • ■eoi. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. "5 • ••» . » ;» * • * ^ Plate XVI. "Wrtr-^MBP^VPODIUM AUREUM, Linn>eus. Golden Polypody. PoLYPODiUM AUREUM : — Root-stock stout, Creeping, very chaffy, with narrow bright-brown scales ; stalks scattered, rather strong, six to eight inches high, brownish, smooth, and somewhat shining; fronds a foot or more long, sub-coriaceous, smooth, glaucous-green, especially beneath, ovate in outline, deeply pin- natifid ; lobes three to six inches long, five to eighteen lines wide, oblong-lanceolate from a broad base, undulate on the margin, but otherwise entire, the terminal one as large as the others ; veins reticulated, forming narrow areoles along the midrib, outside of these one or two rows of larger ones enclosing sorifcrous veinlets, and between these and the margin numerous small sterile areoles ; sori in a single row each side the midrib of the segments, or in large fronds in two or three rows, the outer row irregular, com- monly seated on the connivent tips of two included veinlets. Polypodium aureum, Linn/eus, Sp. PI., p. 1546. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 32. — ScHKUiiR, Krypt. Gew., p. 13, t. 12. — Willdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 169. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v., p. 16. — Eaton, in Chapman's Flora, p. 588. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 347. Pleopeltis aurea, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 193. Chrysopteris aurea. Link, Fil. Sp. Hort. Berol., p. 121. — Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 265. ( Ii6 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. y ..I I' Phkbodium aureum, R. Brown. — J. Smith, "in Hook. Journ. Dot, Iv., p. 58." — Hcx)KER, Gen. Fil., t. 112. — Moore, Intl. I-'il., p. Ixxiii. Hab. — Epiphytic on trees, especially on the palmetto, in the penin- sula of Florida. Common in the West Indies, and in South America as far as Brazil. Description. — The root-stock is creeping, and properly but little thicker than a goose-quill ; but it is so abundantly covered with bright-brown acuminate ciliated chaff, that the apparent diameter is half an inch. As in all the true Polypodia, the root-stock bears scattered prominences, or knobs, to which the separate stalks of the fronds are articulated, and from which they fall away when finally withered.' The height of the fronds in the Florida plant is from a few inches to two feet, of which about one-third is stalk, and two-thirds frond proper. The stalk is rather rigid, perfectly smooth, when fresh somewhat glaucous, but in herbarium specimens of a brownish color. It passes grad- ually into a strong midrib. In very young plants the frond is simple, or three-lobed ; but ' This mode of growth, Mr. John Smith, the former curator of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, now a man of venerable age, has described, and care- fully distinguished from the commoner mode which is seen in Aspidium, Asple- nium, Phegopteris, &c. The former he calls " Ercniobryoid," and the latter " Des- mobryoid." In the Eremobrya "each frond springs from a separate node, more or less distant from its neighbor, and is there articulated with the rhizome ; so that, when it has passed its maturity, it separates at the node, and leaves behind a clean concave scar. . . . The essential distinction between the Eremobrya and Desmo- brya rests in the fronds of the former being articulated with the axis, while those of the latter are adherent and continuous with the axis." I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. "7 in larger plants it is ovate or oblong-ovate in outline, and con- sists of a variable number (five to twenty-five) of ample oblong- lanceolate segments, which are separated by more or less rounded and open sinuses, leaving a border a third of an inch wide along each side of the general midrib. The two lowest segments arc somc;imes distinctly separated from the rest, and are usually slightly dccurved. The central wing widens gradually upwards, and at the apex of the frond is continued out into an undivided terminal segment, which is nearly or quite as large as any of the others. The segments are undulate or wavy, but entire, and have a very narrow cartilaginous line-like border. The texture of the frcnd is firm and sub-cartilaginous ; and the color is a glaucous- grccn, becoming on the under surface paler and more decidedly glaucous. The venation is peculiar, and, as the synonymy shows, has puzzled those authors who have endeavored to divide up PolypO' dium into a dozen or more genera, based principally on differences in venation. Each segment has a central midrib, and on each side of it numerous reticulated veins and veinlets. Closely bor- dering the midribs (both general and partial) is a series of narrow elongattu meshes or areoles. Outside of these are one or two irregular rows of broader areoles, with smaller ones variously interposed. These larger areoles generally contain each a large round or slightly oval sorus or fruit-dot, which is placed some- times at the apex of a single included veinlet, or more frequently at the united extremities of two or even three included veinlets, which, when the sori are in but a single row each side of the mid- Ii8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Il :i rib, rise from the back, or outer margin, of the narrow basal (or paracostal) arcoles. Outside of the fruit-containing arcolcs are other smaller arcolcs, usually in the shape of narrow hexagons, and destitute of included veinlcts. The group of ferns to which this plant belongs was first clearly distinguished by the learned Robert Brown, under the name of Phlcbodium, probably in "Plants Javanicne Rariores," — a work to which, unfortunately, I have not access. But his remarks upon it are quoted in Hooker's " Genera Plantarum." Phlcbodium has been accepted as a genus by John Smith and Moore, Ijut was reduced — very properly, as I think — to a section of Polypodium by Hooker. With Met- tenius, the name has been applied to a much larger assemblage of Polypodia; but, as used by Hooker and Baker, it includes only three species, — P. uigtipes (Hooker) from Venezuela, P. aureum, and P. decnnmnum. With P. aureitm arc associated as varieties P. areolatum (H. B. K.) and P. pnlvinatitm (Link). These vary somewhat from the character of P. aurcnm as given above, but are probably not specifically distinct, although so considered by many authors of high reputation. They occur in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. The first variety, areolatum, which includes P. sporadocarpum (Willd,), is thus defined by Hooker and Baker: '' Frond smaller, more coriaceous, very glaucous, the lobes closer, the sori uniscrial, and barren arcoles with no free veinlcts." The latter, pidvinatum: " Like areolaium m sori and venation, but the frond hardly at all glaucous, and the terminal lobe very small." The Golden Polypody takes its name undoubtedly from the FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 119 luxuriant golden-brown chaff of the rhizoma. It was discovered long ago in the West Indies, and received from ante-Linnasan botanists a variety of names. Plumicr fijrured it at Plate 76 of his magnificent folio, "Traitii des Fougiires de lAmcrique" (pub- lished in 1705), and named it Polypodium majus aurettm. He says, " Co Polipode a la racine grosse environ d'un poucc, ct longue bien souvent d'un pied, ronde, noiieusc, ramei'sc, tharnuc, vcrdastre en dedans, d'un goust astringent, ct toute couvcrte de petites (I'cailles dorces," It forms one r\^ the finest ornaments of the ferneries, in which it is frequently i ultivated. The genus Polypodium — even when limited, as by Mettcnius, to the ferns having round or round 1 !i naked sori, composed of ' t)orangia with an incomplete verticil ring, tli Ualks of the fronds articulated to the rhizoma — contains several hundred species. Mettcnius gives two hundred and sixty; and, in the second edition of "Species Filicum," Mr. Baker brings up the numbu to three hundred and forty. The great differences in the size and outlines of the frond, in the venation, in the texture, and in the surface, — whether smooth, hairy, tomcntose, or scaly, — and in the presence or absence of peltate scales among the sporangia, have induced writers on the subject, especially Link, J. Smith, Presl, Fee, and Moore, to propose dividing the genus into many genera, founded on the characters just referred to. But Mettcnius has satisfacto- rily shown that the intermediate forms are so many and so per- plexing, that the whole is best regarded as forming but one natural genus; and in this view he has been followed by Sir W. J. Hooker and Mr. Baker, who, however, retain in Polypo- i m' t i^^Ui 1 20 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. cfiu/n those ferns which differ from y^spidium (or Nephrodiuni) only in the absence of an indusium, — a character whicn is often the result of accident or of arrested development. These species, nearly one hundred in number, constitute the genus Phegopteris, and are technically distinguished from the true Polypodia by having the stalks continuous with the rhizoma. The true Poly- podia of the United States and Canadas arc but eight in number. Three of these have the veins free, — P. Phmuila, P. vulgarc, and P. fakattim ; two — P. Californicttm and P. incanum — have the veins sometimes free, and sometimes sparingly reticu- lated; and three — P. Scoulcri, P. aurcum, and P. Pliyllitidis — have the veins regularly reticulated, but in three different methods, representing respectively the sections Goniophhlcbium, Phhlebo- dinm, and Campyloncunim. Plate XVI. — Polypodium aurcum. The principal drawing represents a frond collected in Florida many years ago by Mr. S. B. Buckley ; but the coloring is from living plants in Mr. Merrill's collection. A young plant, collected by Dr. I'Alward Palmer, is also figured ; and the enlarged drawing shows the peculiar venation and the position of the sort. ■\h h ** 1 J iiH U'M §\ M FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 121 Plate XVII. — Figs. i-8. I30TRYCHIUM SIMPLEX, Hitchcock. Hitchcock's Moonwort. BoTRYCHiUM SIMPLEX : — Plant smooth, fleshy, not often over six inches high ; sterile segment petioled, set near the base of the plant, rarely above the middle, varying from simple and roundish-obovate in small plants to triangular-ovate and deeply- lobed, or even fully ternate with incised divisions in more devel- oped forms ; segments broadly obovate-cuncate or slightly lunate, the outer margin obscurely crenulate, sometimes lobed ; veins flabellatcly forking ; fertile segment once or twice pinnate. Botrychium simplex, Hitchcock, in Silliman's Joiirn., 1823, vi., p. 103, t. 8. Hooker & Greville, Ic. Fil., t. 82 (right-hand figure). — Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265. — Toruey, Flora of New York, ii., p. 507. — Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 635; cd. v., p. 671. — Milde, Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., xxvi., ii., p. 664, t. 49, 50, figs. 138-174 (t. 54, fig. 204, epidermis); Fil. Eur. ct Ad., p. 197; Botr. Monogr., p. 137, t. 8, fig. 9; t. 9, figs. 4, 16 (details). — Daven- port, Notes on Botrychium Simplex, p. 5, etc., t. i. Botrychium Virginicum, var. (?) simplex, Gray, Manual, ed. iii., p. 602. Botrychium Kanncnbergii, " Klinsmann, in Bot. Zeitung, 1852, p. 37!:." — " Lascii, in Bot. Zeitung, 1856, p. 606" (Milde). The following varieties are given by Milde in " Botrychiorum Mono- graphia : " — i 1 laa FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. y, \V I.I Var. sim/>/ictssimum, LAscir. — " Plant eleven lines to two and three- fourths inches high. Sterile lamina two lines long besides the petiole, elliptical or obovate, entire, the base cordate or narrowed into the petiole ; spike composed of three to six sporangia." \'ar. iiicisum, Mildk. — "Plant two inches or more high. Sterile lamina ovate or elliptical, incised, as much as nine lines long besides the petiole ; the lobes one or two pairs. The common form." Var. sitbcomposi/iim, Lascii. — " Sterile lamina ovate-rotund ; primary segments three or four pairs, the two or three upper pairs sessile, contigu- ous, nearly entire or inci.sed, the lowest pair remote, narrowed at the base into petioles. A less common form." \'ar. compositum, Lasch. — "Sterile lamina up to one inch long, ter- nate, or composed of three segments like the sterile lamina of var. incisiim. Very rare." \'ar. angus/itm, Milde. — " Sterile lamina oblong, up to six lines long besides the petiole, segments two pairs, remote, erect-spreading, sub- spathulate from a narrower base." \ar. /a//ax, Mii.de. — " Sterile lamina above the middle of the piant ; otherwise as in var. incisum," Hab. — In pastures and on hillsides from New Brunswick and New England westward to Lake Superior, Wyoming Territory, and California ; also in Northern Europe. Description. — Plant of small size, varying in my speci- mens from barely an inch high to seven inches, but commonly about four inches high. The short root-stock is erect, as in the rest of the species of Botrychium, and bears at the top a peculiar bud, such as is described at p. 30 of this work. In the present species, this bud is usually enclosed in the dried sheathing bases FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 123 of the stalks of several former years, giving it an almost bulbous appearance. Mr. Davenport notices * that both the sterile and fertile segments are perfectly straight in the bud, and that the latter is smooth, as it is in all our species except B. tcniatum and B. Virgiuianum. The common stem is usually very short, forming only from one-twelfth to one-fourth of the whole height of the plant : but it is occasionally longer in proportion ; and in some of the specimens collected by Macoun near Lake Superior, and in a few of Mrs. Barnes's fine specimens from Northern New York, the common stalk forms fully one-half of the total length of the plant. In Milde's var. fallax, the common stalk is more than half. The whole plant is fleshy, — almost as much so as in B. Ltinaria, and decidedly more so than in B. lanccolatutn and B. matyicariafoliiim. The sterile segment is distinctly petioled, the stalk being from one-fourth to three-fourths as long as the segment itself, rarely even equalling it. In very small plants the sterile segment is but three or four lines long, stalk included : it is then roundish-obovate, and nearly or quite entire (var. simpii- cissimum).. In plants a little larger it is more ovate in shape, and three- to five- lobed (var. incisum). It becomes ampler in dimensions, — nine to twelve lines long, — and more decidedly * Sec an admirable paper by this excellent pteridologist on "Vernation in Botrychia," in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for January, 1878. He discusses very carefully the differences in vernation in our several Botrychia, and Kivcs also a concise statement of the distinctions which he has observed, illus- trating them by seveia! figures from Mi. luiicrtini's pencil. I find that on p. 39, supra, I have not given Dr. Milde sufficient credit for his observations on the buds of this genus. ill 124 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. (I . t, 1 I! iiHli 4^ ' ' pinnatifid, the lowest lobes well developed, and even slightly incised, in var. sub-compositum ; and in the next stage, var. com- positum, it is decidedly ternate, and consists of three stalked ovatc-oblong divisions, which are pinnately lobed or incised. Var. aiigustum is simply a slender form, drawn out, perhaps, by grow- ing in an unusually moist and shady place. The sterile segment is rounded at the apex, as are all the divisions and lobes. The veins are dichotomous, or forking. The midrib of the sterile segment usually contains two slender vascular threads, and from these the veins for the lateral lobes branch off some little distance below the insertion of these lobes. The vein for each lobe forks just at the beginning of the narrowed base of the lobe, and continues to branch dichotomously ; so that the lobe is well supplied with vcinlcts, but has no one special midvein. The fertile segment considerably overtops the sterile, and varies, according to the size of the plant, from a. simple spike to a fairly bipinnate panicle. The sporangia are commonly somewhat crowded, though more so in the shorter and more compound forms of the plant than in the slender and drawn-out specimens. All the Botrychia occasionally produce a few sporangia, or even a complete panicle, from some usually sterile portion of the plant ; and B. simplex is no exception to this rule. The panicle may fork in the middle, or be divided down to its insertion on the common stem ; or a second panicle may be borne on the sterile segment ; or even some particular lobe of the sterile seg- ment may bear a few sporangia. The spores are the largest of the genus, and are thickly dotted with minute points. i' M' FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. "5 Mr. Davenport has sufficiently established the probability that some of the specimens on which President Hitchcock founded this species were really young plants of B. matncaricc- folium : but the original figure and description point plainly to the B. simplex of recent authors ; and two of the Conway plants, which were sent me from President Hitchcock's collection some years ago, are unmistakable simplex. One of them, with a per- fectly simple sterile segment placed just below the middle of the plant, is represented at Fig. 2 of our Plate XVH, : the other, about the same size, has a three-lobed sterile segment near the base of the plant. This fern was very scantily represented in American herbaria until about thirteen years ago, when Professor J. A. Paine began to collect it in Oneida County, New York, and Professor Sidney I. Smith brought fine specimens from Maine. At a time when B. lanccolatum and B. inatncaricefolium were not recognized as American plants, every little Botrychium was thought to be the simplex ; and hence the descriptions given of it in the various manuals of botany were made wide enough to include the other species also. But the character given by Dr. Torrey, in "The Flora of New York," is very clear : " Frond from the lower part of the scape, oblong, irregularly three- to four- lobed or pinnati- fid, with the segments roundish, obovate, cuneate, and entire or somewhat incised ; spike pinnate." In Dr. Milde's various pajjcrs, and especially in Mr. Daven- port's monograph on Botrychium simplex, may be fountl very full accounts of the history of this little fern, together with a careful i > ri 136 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. I: < "J' If 1; It i' I 1^ Hi: t if: III review of its relationship to other allied species, and its dis- tinctions from them. From B. Lunnria it is distinguished by the more decidedly petioled sterile segment, commonly placed low down on the plant, so that it seems almost to grow separately from the root-stock. The tendency towards the production of a ternatc sterile segment in well-developed plants also separates it from B. Lnnaria. "From B. lanceolatitm and B. niain'caricc/o- liuiii, the same basal or nearly basal position of the sterile seg- ment distinguishes it ; as docs also the flabellatcly-dichotomous, rather than sub-pinnate, character of its venation. From all of them the perfectly straight vernation and the character of the spores also separate it satisfactorily. Stations for this fern have been reported in Maine, Massa- chusetts, Vermont, Northern New York (abundant and fine speci- mens, showing all or nearly all the forms, have been collected and freely distributed by Mrs. Barnes and Rev. J. Herman Wibbe '), and in the Highlands, on Long Island (Mr. E. S. Miller), near Lake Superior (Mr. Macoun), ;n Yellowstone Park (Dr. Parry), and in several places, at high elevations, in the Sierra of California (Mr. J. Muir, Miss Pelton, Dr. Gray). The Western specimens have a stocky, condensed habit, and belong to the more compound forms of the species. While I have given Dr. Milde's "varieties," with translations of his characters, I am entirely of the opinion expressed by Mr. ' Dr. Wibbc's plants arc from a sandy liill, called Lewis's I?luff, on llio shore of Lake Ontario, six miles west of Oswego. Mrs. IJarnes's specimens were mostly col- lected in what is called " The John Brown Tract." ir! w n- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 197 Davenport, that the form called " compositum " is the true form of the perfectly matured plant, and that all the ochcr forms are merely undeveloped conditions, anil do not present those perma- nent differences which arc characteristic of var/e/ies in the proper sense of the term. Plato XV'II., Figs. 1-8.— Bolrychitim simplex. Fig. I. — A plant from ke •. J. M. \\'il)bc, representing var. sub-cont' positum : the sterile segmcni h.igher u[) than usual, and the panicle forked. Fig. 2. — \'ar. simpHcissimum, A f)Iant sent from President Hitch- cock's herbarium, collected in Conway, Massacluisctts. I'ig. 3. — \'ar. subcomposHiim, from Dr. Wibbc. A plant of unusual stature, l)earing a second spike rising from near tlie base of the sterile segment. Fig. 4. — Var. iiicisiiin. A specimen in Mr. Davenport's herbarium. Fig. 5. — The fully-developed typical form, var. compositum. From Yellowstone Park, Dr. Parry. F"ig. 6. — A bud, the olil sheathing stalk removed, showing the erect vernation. Fig- 7- — A lobe of a sterile segment, showing the forked veinlcts. Fig. S. — A spore. Figs. 6 and 7 arc moderately enlarged ; Fig. 8, highly magnified. The others are of the natural size. '' mi : FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. i«9 Pi^TO XVII. — Fk:s. 9-14. HOTRYCIIIUM MATRICARI/IU'OLIUM, Al. Praun. Matricary Grape- Fern. « PoTRYCiiiUM MATRiCARi/i'i'OLiuM : — Plant two to twclve inches high, moderately fleshy ; sterile segment lx)rne high up on the common stalk, distinctly pctiolcd or rarely sessile, membrana- ceous, oblong, ovate, or even deltoid in outline, in simpler forms pinnately divided or lobed into a few nearly equal oblong or ovate or rounded entire or crenated obtuse lobes, but in larger forms twice pinnatifid, the primary divisions several pairs, the lowest ones largest, and all pinnatifid into oblong-ovate toothed and obtuse lobes ; midvein of the lobes usually distinct, and bearing on each side forking veinlcts ; fertile segment short-stalked, vary- ing from a simple spike to an ample panicle of racemed spo- rangia. Dotyychium malricaria-foliiim, Ai.. Braun, In Doell, Rhcinische Flora, p. 24 (1843). Kocii, Syn. V\. Germ., cd. ii., p. 972 ; ed. iii., p. 729. — Mu.oE, Nov. Act. Acad, Nat. Cur., xxvi., ii., p. 679, t. 51, figs. 182-1S8, t. 52, figs. 189-196, p. 761, t. 55, figs. 5-8; Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 195 ; Hotr. Monogr., p. 123, t. 8, fig. 2, t. 9, figs. 7, 17. — H. Hunt, in HuIIetin of the Torrcy Hotanical Club, iii., j). 33. — Davkntort, Notes on Botr. simplex, p. 17, t. 2, figs. 7, 8, 10-12, 30, 32-43 ; and in Bull. Torr. Club, vi., p. 196, etc., t. i, fig. 6. I' ! 1:7! I t 130 FF.RNS or NORril AMERICA. Botrychium rtitaccnm, Swaut/, "in Scliradcrs Journ. Bot. 1800, ii., p. no, in part;" Syn. l'"il., p. 171, in part. — Nkwman, History of IVitish ' Ferns, cd. iii., p. 320. — Mooki:, Index Fiiicum, p. 211. | Here may he found aljiindant references to works in wiiich tliis plant is referreil to or descriljcd.] Botrychium simplex, IIookkk & Gkkvii.i.k, Ic. Til., t. 82, left-hand figure. [Tile /)*. simplex of American writers generally included this spe- cies with the true? simphx\\ Botrychium simplex, var. hipinnatijidum, Viv.\\, in Amer. Nat. Aug. 1S75. Botrychium uegleclum,\^oovt, Class-Book of Hotany, cd. of 1851, p. 635 (and perhaps earlier editions which I have not seen). Had. — Dark, wet woods, and in bods of moss along rivulets: from New Hampshire, Professor Wood, Miss Haskki.i., (i. \\. I'l inam ; \'(!rmont, Mrs. I,. V. Morgan, C. G. Pkinc;i.f, ; and r>lassachusetts, Rev. H. G. Jrsip, etc. ; to New York, especially Northern New York, Y.. Hi n r, Professor Paink, ^Irs. Baknks, etc. ; Pennsylvania, Professor Pourrk; and Lake .Supe- rior, H. G11.1.MAN, ISI.\coi.\ ; Dutchess County, New ^'ork, L. H. Hov.siuivr. Canada, Unalaska, and luirope, from Westrobothnia to Italy. DnsCRii'Tiox. — Thi.s species of ^n-apc-fcrn or moonwort is commonly a somewhat larger plant than the kind last descril)ed. Though the smallest specimens arc only two inches high, yet the average height of fair specimens is six or eight inches, and a few in my collection are fidly ten inches high ; while Mr. Davenport says, ' two to twelve inches high, rarely more." As in B. lanceo- lafuiii, to which this species is most nearly related, the greater part of the whole height consists of the common stalk, though the '•elative. proportion of common stalk is subject to considera- ble variation. The stalk is rarely as little as one-half of the %m-^ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 131 whole, more commonly two-thirds to three-fourths, and sometimes as much as five-sixths. It is either slender or moderately stout, usually fleshy, and somewhat enlarged at the base, where it encloses the bud for the growth of the next year or two. The bud is smooth, and in it " the apex of the fertile frond is bent downward toward the sterile frond, which clasps it with its side divisions, and bends its apex downwards over the whole" {Daven- port). The sterile segment is extremely variable in shape, so that Milde has based several " varieties " on the diversities which it presents ; but as these seem to be only indicative of stages of development, and not variations transmissible to successors, they are, perhaps, best omitted. In the smallest examples the sterile segment is scarcely three lines long, obovate-cuneate, and slightly three- to five- toothetl along the sides. Such specimens were for a long time marked B. simplex in American herbariums, and it is very probable that a portion of President Hitchcock's original plants were of this sort. In somewhat larger plants the sterile segment is one or two inches long, oblong-ovate in outline, and has a petiole a third of its own length. The petiole is continued up- wards into an often narrowly-winged midrib, which bears on each side three, four, or five ovate or oblong-ovate obtuse lobes, more or less toothed or incised, but nearly all of one size. This is the commonest form of the species in America, and is represented by the figure in Hooker and Greville's Icones Filicum, cited above. Professor Wood's B. iicglectuni^ a specimen of which he mos: kindly placed at my disposal, is also this form of the species. ' It sliDiilil bo noticed tluit Professor Wood was the first American botanist to separate this species from B. simplex. m 13a FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. :,i«ill In the most fiilly-dcvclopcd form the sterile segment is trian- gular in outline, about three inches long, and two and a half inches wide at the base. There are about five pairs of primary divis- ions, the lowest, of course, much the largest, and the others successively smaller. These lowest divisions are an inch to an inch and a half long, six to eight lines wide, and are pinnately divided into four to six pairs of oblong or ovate more or less toothed obtuse lobes. The next two or three primary divisions are also pinnately divided ; but the lobes are smaller, and either obscurely toothed or entire, and the uppermost primary divisions are merely toothed lobes. Thus the sterile segment is broadly triangular and bipinnatifid. The fertile segment is also ample, and has the lower branches nearly as long as the central portion. The lobes have a rather faint midvein ; which, however, is lost in the forking oblique veinlets about the middle of the lobe. The lowest veinlets separate from the midvein at the very base of the lobe, or even below it in the rachis. The spores are thickly sprinkled with roundish warts. The name B. rtitaccniii was applied by Swartz, mainly to a form of B. tcniatitiii, but incidentally to this species also. It was to remedy the resulting confusion that Professor Braun pro- posed for the present plant the new specific appellation of luntri- cai'ioidcs, referring to the resemblance of the sterile segment to the lca\es of Matricaria Parthcniuui (Linniuus). It was, how- e\er, according to Koch, as long ago as 167S, called Lunaria ra- ceniosa minor Mat ricarice folio by Breyne (Cent., p. 184, t. 94). In Dutchess County, New York, as Mr. Hoysradt informs us. :t \ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 133 the matricary grape-fern fruits in the latter part of June or early in July, and the empty sporangia are shrivelled by the time that B. lanccolatjim is mature. Other persons make a similar report ; so that there can be no doubt that the species now under consid- eration is from two weeks to a month earlier in maturing than the other. Thin species is, however, more closely related to B. lanccola- tuin than to any other of our grape-ferns : and, indeed, the two are united as one species by several authors of high reputation; as, for instance, by Mr. Baker in the " Species Filicuni," and by Moore in his various writings. To redeem the promise made on p. 36 of the present work, the differential characters of the two species are indicated in parallel columns: — B. LANCEOLATUM. Sterile segment sessile, spreading at a wide angle, deltoid even in small plants. Divisions and lobes lanceolate and sub-acute. Midvcin of lobes continuous nearly to the apex. Panicle with a very short stalk. " Bud wilii the fertile segment re- curved its whole length, and the B. MATRICARL'EFOLIUM. Sterile segment petioled, diverging but little, and embracing the fer- tile when )oung ; oblong, and only in the largest plants deltoid. Divisions and lobes oblong or ovate and oljtuse. Midvcin dissipated in the middle of the lobes. Panicle with a stalk usually half as long as the sterile segment, and sometiines longer than it. " Buil with the aj)ex of both seg- ments turned down, the sterile " ij^rc: •si hi i\ 1 ( . I 134 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. shorter sterile frond reclined upon it" i^Davcnporf). Time of fruiting, July and August. segment clasping the fertile, and its apex overlapping the whole " {^Davcnporf) . Time, two or three weeks earlier than the other. Plate XVII., Figs. 9-14. — Botrychiiiin malricaria-foliutn. Fig. 9 is a plant of small size, though not so small as is sometimes seen. It is from Bethlehem, New Hampshire, collected by Mr. Granville B. Putnam. Fig. 10, a large and fully-developed specimen from near Utica, New York, collected by Mr. Fdwin Hunt. Fig. 1 1 shows the commonest form. The specimen is from Mrs. Hathaway, who collected it in Otsego County, New York. I'ig. 12 represents the vernation. Fig. 13 the venation, of a roundish- ovate segment, and Fig. 14 a spore. More decidedly ternate foi-ms than Fig. 10 have been found in Lewis County, New York, by Mrs. Barnes, some of them with the sterile segment bearing scattered sporangia. W I ^^^R| i r ^^Kj ', , i ir. ^ w IkJ: ll!IIMi!ililPiilB!> Mm liii h ii' i H; ll \ i>' l?f FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. >35 Plate XVIII. ADIANTUM PE DATUM, Linn/eus. American Maiden-hair. Adiantum pedatum : — Root-stock creeping, scaly, and copi- ously rooting ; stalks scattered, a foot or more high, dark-brown and polished, forked at the top ; fronds six to fifteen inches broad, membranaceous, smooth, spreading nearly horizontally, composed of several (six to fourteen) slender divisions radiating from the outer side of the recurved branches of the stalk, and bearing numerous oblong or triangular-oblong short-stalked pinnules hav- ing the lower margin entire and often slightly concave, the base parallel with the polished hairlikc rachis, the upper margin lobed or cleft and bearing a few oblong-lunate or transversely linear reflexed involucres ; sporangia on the inner surface of the involu- cres (as in all Adiantd), borne on the extended apices of the free forking veinlets, which proceed from a principal vein closely parallel to the lower margin of the pinnule. Adianttim pedatum, LiNN/EUS, Sp. PI., p. 1557. — Thunberg, Flora Japonica, P- 339- — SwARTZ, Syn. Fil., p. 121. — Sciikuhr, Krypt. Gevv., p. 107, t. 115. — WiLLDENow, Sp. PI., v., p. 438. — Micn.\ux, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 263. — PuRsii, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 670. — Torrev, Fl. of N. Y., ii., p. 4S7. — GuAV, Manual. — Ruprecht, Distrib. Crypt. Vase, in Imp. Ross., p. 49. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 28. — Brack- ENRiDGE, Filices of the U. S. Expl. Exped., p. 100. — Eaton, in is; i|: f f 11 l!ii , 1?' pit' I3« FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Parry's Expcd. to Japan, ii., p. 329. — Maximowict:, Priinitin: Fl. Amurcnsis, p. 341. — Mi;Tri:Mt's, I'll. Ilort. IJps., p. 47 ; Prolu- sio Fl. Japon. in Ann. Mus. Hot. Lugd.-natav., iii., p. 171. — HooKF.K iS: n.\Ki;R, Syn. Fil., p. 125. — Mikdk, Fil. Fur. ct All., p. 31. — Keyserung, Gen. Acliantum, in Mem. Acad. I'ctrop., .scr. vli., xxii., No. 2, pp. 5, 28. Adiaiitum Amcn'ca/tum, Cornutu.s, Canad. PI. Hist., p. 7, t. 6 (1635). Afaidcn Hair, or Cappcllus veneris vcrus. Josselyn, New Englands Rarities Discovered, p. 55 (1672). Adianlum frondc supra-dccomposita bi partita, foliis partialibus alter nis, foUolis trapczifonnibus obtusis, Guonovius, Flora Virginica (1739), p. 123. (For other ancient references see Linn/EUs, as quoted above.) Adiantum borcalc, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 158. Had. — In rich, moist woods, especially among rocks. Common from New Hrunswick and Canada southward to Central Alabama, Professor Fugeni; a. Smith, and westward to Lake Superior, Wisconsin, ami Arkan- sas. Also in Utah, California, Oregon, British Columbia, the islands of Alaska, Kamtschatka, Japan, Mantchooria, and the Himalayan provinces of India. Ruprecht speaks of specimens from Newfoundland, and Professor Gray informs me that it e.xists in Ue La Pylaie's collection from that island. Description. — The root-stock is elongated and creeping. It is about the diameter of a goose-quill, is covered with minute ovate scales, roots copiously from beneath and along the sides, and produces fronds from the right and left sides alternately. The stalks are usually from a foot to fifteen inches high, and from half a line to a line in thickness. When very young, they bear a few scattered narrow scales ; but these soon fall off, leaving FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. «37 minute pointed scars. The mature stalic is roundish in section, the convexity beinjf greatest on the siile which corresponds to the under surface of the frond. The two convexities, anterior ami posterior, are separated by two obscure angles or ridges, whicli extend the whole length of the stalk. The anterior, or flatter, convex surface is nearly black, while the other side is a dark pur- plish brown. The fibro-vascular bundle is U-shaped near the base of the stalk ; but higher up it is more like a broad, open V ; and just below the forking of the stalk it separates into two por- tions. The two branches of the stalk diverge at an angle of about fifty degrees, and rise obliquely, gracefully recurving till they nearly meet again. From the outer side of the curve each branch sends out from two to seven slender diverging branchlets, which are the rachises of the pinnae. The branchlets nearest the forking of the stalk are from four to fifteen inches long, those more remote successively shorter. Thus the whole frond is from five or six to fifteen or eighteen inches broad, and, while some- what funnel-form in the centre, radiates nearly horizontally towards the circumference. A pressed specimen can give but little idea of its graceful position. The pinnules, or leaflets, arc from six to twelve lines long, and three or four broad, and arc placed alternately on the rachises of the pinn.T. They are very numerous, seldom fewer than twelve on each side of one of the middle (or lower) rachises, and in large fronds sometimes as many as forty on each side. The outer rachises bear fewer and fewer pinnules, and the outcrinost of even a very large frond will not have more than eight or ten on each I i vi llli 138 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. I'Vi'i Ml side. They arc attached to the rachis by a very short and slender stalk. Their usual form is diinidiate-oblonj; ; that is, they appear as if cut in two longitudinally, and the lower half removed, so that the lower edge is entire, and straight, or often slightly hol- lowed ; the base, or edge nearest the rachis, is also straight and entire ; it is parallel with the rachis, or even overlaps it a little ; the upper edge is more or less lobed or incised, but in general nearly parallel with the lower, and the end is rounded and slightly lobcd. The point of attachment is, of course, at the angle between the lower and basal edges. The terminal pinnule of each pinna, and the basal one, which, indeed, very often proceeds from one of the recurved branches jus/ bcloic the origin of the pinna, are broadly cuneate or transversely oblong in shape, the two sides which meet at the point of attachment being equal ; and the few pinnules near the basal one are shorter and more triangular than the middle ones. The texture is delicately membranaceous, but elastic ; the color is a lively green, and both surfaces are very smooth. The upper surface appears to be destitute of stomata ; and this may be the reason why water will not adhere to the pin- nules, but cither falls off, or stands in spheroids ready to fall. The veins are free : in the symmetrical basal and apical pinnules the veinlcts fork repeatedly from the very base ; but in the oblong middle pinnules there is r. faint principal vein running close to the lower edge; and from this the veinlets diviTge obliquely, and fork about three times before reaching the superior margin. The inc's- ions of the superior margin arc usually very narrow, and extend only to about one-third of the breadth of the pinnule ; but in some . -y ii I if FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. '39 specimens from California and Oregon they are wider and consid- eral)ly deeper. The lobes are from four to six or seven in num- ber; in sterile fronds they are minutely toothed at the entl ; but in the comuiuncr fertile fninds they are reflexed and chanj^^ed in character, so as to form somewhat crescent-shaped or transversely elongated involucres of a pale-brownish color. The tips of the vfinlets extend into these involucres, and bear the sp tit lb 14a FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Bh'chnum angusHfolium, Willdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 414. Blcchnum calophyllum, Langsdorff & Fischer, Ic. Fil., p. 20, t. 23.— Willdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 415. — Brackenridge, Perns of U. S. Expl. Fxpcd., p. 132. Blcchnum stagninum, Raudi, Fil. Bras., p. 54, t. 62. Blcchnum striatum, R. Brown, Prodr., p. 152. — Hooker, Sp. Fil.. iii., p. 55- t. 159- Bicchnopsis scrrulata, Presl, Epim. Bot., p. 119. Had. — Tn wo« places, chiefly along str ins and about ponds, appar- ently not Hire i) ' uithem part of Florida, Michaux, Buckley, Bum- stead, Palmer, Gai.„. . , c^^. West Indies and Central America to Southern Brazil. Also in Malacca and various parts of Australia. Description.-- Fh'.- root-stock is hard and woody, at least when dried. It is from a third to half an inch thick, and creeps apparently below the surface of the ground, but occasionally rises at the advancing end. It is covered with fine fuscous-brown chaffy scales, which also ascend the stalks a short distance. The stalks are continuous with the root-stock, and are developed from the growing extremity, but remain in position while the root- stock advances a few inches beyond them. They are commonly more than a foot high, nearly as thick as a writing-quill, smooth, and very rigid. There is a deep channel extending all along the anterior side, and continuing along the rachis to the topmost pinna. The color of the stalks in dried specimens is a palish fuscous-brown. A section of the stalk shows about five sub- cylindrical fibro-vascular bundles arranged in a semicircle. The fronds in the Florida specimens are from a foot to a foot and a ■> FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 1 43 half long ; but Hooker gives the extreme as three feet. Their general outline is oblong-linear, tapering somewhat toward the apex, and occasionally a little toward the base also. They curve away from the erect position very gracefully, so that the apex often droops a little, and, growing in their native swamps, must constitute objects of great beauty. They are rigidly coriaceous, glossy above, and somewhat paler beneath, and simply pinnate with very numerous often imbricated sessile pinnae, which are attached to the rachis by an evident articulation, and leave a slightly elevated ovate scar when detached. The sterile pinnae are elliptical or linear-oblong, with a rounded or obtusely cuneate often unequal base, and an obtusely pointed rarely acute apex. They measure from two to four inches in length, and about half an inch in breadth. The midrib is straight, and slightly channelled above, but very prominent beneath, where it is commonly furnished with a few little ov^ate scales. The edge is very finely serrulate with cartilaginous teeth. The veins arc placed very close together, arc frequently forked close to the midrib, but are uniformly free, and are most promi- nent on the upper surface, giving it a finely striated appearance. The fertile pinnae are usually confined to the upper half of the frond : they are narrower and often longer than the sterile ones, and consequently more cuneate at the base, and more acute at the apex. The venation differs from that of the sterile pinnae in that the veinlets arc reticulated so as to form a scries of elongated narrow areoles following closely along each side of the midrib : ': m I'i ii;i !tf m 4} 144 FERNS OF NORTH AMFRICA. outside of these areoles the vcinlets run obliquely to the mar- gin, as in the sterile pinnae.* A special line-like receptacle is formed on the under surface nearly following the outer bound- ary of these areoles, but not exactly coinciding with it. This receptacle bears abundant sporangia, and outside of them a long and narrow involucre, which is free along its inner margin, and at first covers the sporangia, but is pushed back as they mature, and is at length ref.exed. This band of sporangia each side of the midrib, covered at first by a special involucre which is remote from the margin of the frond, is characteristic of the genus Blechuum. The venation of the fertile pinnae varies somewhat in the different species. About twenty species are now recognized : more than half of them arc natives of tropical or south-temperate America ; and the rest arc found in the East Indies, in Africa, in Australia, or in Polynesia. One species has Oi.cn simple lanceolate fronds; a few have pinnatifid fronds ; several, like our plant, have pinnate fronds ; and one has very much elongated bipinnatc fronds, with the climbing and twining habit of a Lygodium. This species, B. vohibile (Kaulfuss), occurs in the West Indies and South America, and has been considered the type of a separate genus {Saipichhcna) by John Smith and Presl. The genus Blcchmim, with Lotiiaria, Sadleria, of the Ha- waiian Islantls, IVood-jjardia and Doodya, compose the tribe Bleclmcce or Lomariece, a group which is intermediate between ' To sec these areoles, remove the sporangi.-i and the involucre from a fertile pinna, anJ view it with a strong lens hy transmitted light. The areoles may also be seen faintly from the upper surface by reflected light. ■rli FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Hi Pteridca and Aspieniece, and is characterized by having more or less elongated sori parallel to the costa, cither near it or remote from it, but not properly marginal, and provided with a special involucre attached to the receptacle outside the sorus, and open- ing along the edge nearest the costa. Loinana approaches Pteridece with inconvenient closeness, and is referred to that group by Mr. Baker; while by Mettenius it was united with Blechnum, and put in his tribe Aspieniece. Sadlcria is probably peculiar to the Hawaiian Islands. The plants have erect trunks a few feet high, and large coriaceous fronds, with numerous elongated pinnatifid pinnae. The sori are arranged like those of Blcclinum along each side of the midveiiis s» FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Il'i ^ opposite, but one is an eighth or a quarter of an inch below the other. These divisions, as is almost universally the case in a ternately compound leaf or frond, have their sides somewhat unequal, being broader or more developed on the lower side, so that their outline is unsymmetrically triangular-ovate. The middle primary division is, of course, symmetrical, and broader than either of the side divisions. In the smallest and simplest fronds which I have seen, each of the three primary divisions consists of three little denticulate, rather obtuse ovate segments, not more than three lines long. From this, up to the ample decompound fronds of var. australe, or the delicately multisect var. dissccfum, there are many degrees of complexity of incis- ion, and of diversity in outline, of subdivisions and lobes. In var. lunarioides, the lobes or ultimate segments are mostly dis- tinct and roundish-reniform, very much like those of B. Lunaria. In var. rutccfolium, only the lowest lobes are distinct; and they are very obliquely ovate, being cordate on the lower side, and rounded or truncate on the upper. The upper lobes are less and less distinct, and finally unite in an ovate, barely pointed terminal lobe. In var. australe the plant is usually of much larger size, and the sterile segment correspondingly more com- pound, being often fully four times pinnatisect. The lobes are obliquely ovate, the terminal one not long-pointed, and the mar- gin more or less denticulated. Var. obliqtium is characterized by having ovate-lanceolate long-pointed terminal lobes, the basal lobes being obliquely ovate. The margin is more or less den- ticulate ; and, when the denticulations become very deep, the \X FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. »53 form passes into var. dissecttim, reaching at last a condition in which all the divisions are laciniately cut up into very narrow and minute lobes and teeth.^ The hairs of the bud remain on the frond until it is fully developed, so that the plant is more or less hairy, though in old fronds this pubescence gradually disappears. The frond is very fleshy ; perhaps more so than in any other species of the genus. The fertile segment, unless dwarfed by some accident, con- siderably overtops the sterile, and varies, according to the size of the plant, from a little bipinnate raceme up to an ample panicle. Rarely two distinct fertile panicles are developed from one plant at the same time. The spores are thickly covered with very minute roundish protuberances. The new fronds come up in New England and the Middle States in July, and the spores are matured in early autumn. During the winter the fertile panicle withers away ; but the sterile segment remains until spring, or, not unfrequently, until * llie following is Dr. Milde's final arrangement of the forms of this species. His campestris and montana are simply larger and smaller plants, and his millefolium is nearly ur quite identical with dissectum. A) EuROP-^^u^f. «. campestris. (3. montana. B) AUSTRALASMTICUM. «. vulgare. Forma sub-bifoliata, §, dentatum. Botrychium ternatum. B) AusTRALASiAXiortJ {continued). f. era sum. S. millefolium, C) Americanum. a. lunarioides. ^. obliquum. y. dissectum. i! if >54 TERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. the new frond has made its appearance : so that a plant with two fronds, one of them the growth of the previous year, is not rarely seen. While the species, as a whole, extends round the north temperate zone, and is spread to the southward as far as Vene- zuela and Tasmania, some of the forms have a more or less restricted range. Var. lunayioides, as here considered, has been found only in South Carolina and the Gulf States ; var. ntta- folitim, though the only European form, occurs in America only in Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and the neighboring region ; var. australe is found from Japan to Tasmania, in the Sand- wich Islands, in Central America, Venezuela, New Granada, and Mexico, and thence through California to Unalaska, and again, in a somewhat reduced form, in Wyoming, the Middle States, and New England, where it passes by imperceptible and undefinable changes into var. obliqntim. This transitional form, which we may call sub-variety iiitcriiicdiuni, is the typical B. lunarioides of Gray's Manual. Dr. Milde's figure of B. rutcc/oliiim, var. robtistiini (Nov. Acta. Acad. Nat. Cur., xxvi., ii., t. 55, fig. g), from Unalaska, well represents it. Var. obliqiium is common from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and extends, according to Milde, to Hudson's Bay and to Mexico. Var. disscctum is less com- mon, but occurs from Canada to Florida, and is apparently identical with a plant in New Zealand. The colored plate represents at the right a plant of var. lunarioides from Burke County, Georgia ; in the middle is var. obliquuni, from Med- ford, Massachusetts ; and at tlie left is var. dissectum, from Maine. Of (^ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. '55 the enlarged segments, the uppermost is var. lutiarioidcs, the middle one var. disscctum, and the K^\vest var. obUqtmm. At the left arc shown a group of sporangia enlarged, a highly magnified spore, and a bud I)oth whole and in section. More finely divided plants of var. disscctum are not very uncommon. In the uncolored plate, the largest plant, behind the other two, is var. auslralc, from Plumas County, California, collected by Mrs. Austin ; the middle plant is also var. auslralc, from Lewis County, New York (Mrs. Barnes) ; and the plant in front of the others is sub-var. intermedium, from Shclbourne, in New Hampshire. The larger detached segment is from another very large Californian plant, and the smaller one is from a second plant from Lewis County, New York. I have to express my thanks to Mr. Davenport for having selected most of these specimens, and for the great pains he has taken in assist- ing Mr. Emerton to arrange them for drawing. : j" ; |: ! 1 . :. ! m. ■ I tfW- K H %' (til T^ERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 157 T .'9 Plate XXI. PHEGOPTERIS DRYOPTERIS, F^e. Oak-Fern. Phegopteris Dryopteris : — Root-stock slender, cord-like, widely creeping ; stalks scattered, slender, chaffy near the base, six to twelve inches high ; fronds thinly herbaceous, smooth, deltoid, four to ten inches wide and long, ternate ; primary divis- ions stalked and widely divergent, pinnate with usually opposite linear-oblong pinnae, which are pinnately lobed or divided ; lobes oblong, obtuse, slightly curved, entire or crenated, in very large fronds those of the middle division again pinnatifid ; veins pin- nately branched; sori rather small, seated, in the back of the veinlets near the margin of the lobes. Phegopteris Dryopteris, Fee, Genera Filicum, p. 243. — Metfenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 83 ; Phegopteris, p. 9. — Eaton, in Gray's Manual, ed. v., p. 663. — MiLDE, Fil. Eur. et Atl., p. 98. Polypodium Dryopteris, Linnaeus, Sp. PI., p. 1555. — Swartz, Syn. Fil, p. 41. — ScHKUiiR, Krypt. Gcw., p. 19, t. 25. — Torrev, F1. New York, ii., f 1.85. — Ruprecht, Dist. Crjpt. Imp. Ross., p. 52. — Gray, Manual, ed. i, p. 623, etc. — Hooker, British Ferns, t. 4; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 250. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 309 (excl. var. Robcrtiantint) . Nephrociiitm Dryopteris, Michaux, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 270. Polystichum Dryopteris, Roth, 1*'1. Germ., iii., p. 30. jili iPlIf ^\ . ,Ji' ^' 1*1 L 'b^ 158 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Polypodium calcarcum, Pursh, F1. Am. Sept., ii. p. 659 (not of Smith and vVilldenow). Hab. — Open, rocky woods, not rare in Canada and the Northern United States, and extending to the mountains of Colorado, to Oregon, Unaiaska, Labrador, and perhaps Greenland. It is found also throughout Northern Europe and Asia, from the British Isles to Kamtschatka, the southern limits being the Pyrenees and Northern Italy in Europe, and Tibet and Cashmere in Asia. Description. — The oak-fern has a cord-like creeping root- stock, scarcely a line in diameter, but often a foot or more in length. It creeps several inches in advance of the growing fronds, the newer portion bearing a few thin ovate chaffy scales, and producing rudimentary stalks which grow up and bear fronds the coming year. The stalks are continuous with the root-stock, as in the Aspidin, and not articulated with it as they are in Polypodium. This is the best technical distinction between Phe- goptci'is and Polypodium : the former being, as Mr. John Smith has termed it, desmobryoid ; and the latter, ercmobryoid.^ The stalk is erect, very slender, greenish in the living plant, but stramineous in the dried specimen. The lowest portion is commonly somewhat flcxuous, dark brown, and clothed with a few thin ovate scales like those of the root-stock. The frond is thin-mcmbranaccous, perfectly smooth, and of a clear leaf-green. It is broadly triangular in shape, and meas- ures from four to eight or ten inches in breadth, and nearly as much n length. It is divided into three spreading parts, which ' Sec tlic explanation on (>. 1 16, ante. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. '59 have distinct stalks from half an inch to an inch and a half long. The stalks of the side divisions join that of the middle division by a slight articulation. The middle division is considerably wider than the others, broadly and symmetrically triangular in shape, and is composed of several pairs of opposite sessile bi- pinnatifid pinnae, the lowest of which is the largest, though much smaller than the stalked primary divisions below it. The two lateral primary divisions arc also broadly triangular, but are not symmetrical, as the lower side of each is much more devel- oped than the upper. The pinnae of these are usually opposite, though not invariably so, and are once pinnatifid. The first pinna on the lower side of a lateral primary division is com- monly equal in size and similar in cutting to the second pinna of the middle primary division. The lobes of all the pinnae are oblong, obtuse, slightly curved upwards, and vary from entire to crenate or toothed, according to their size. Every lobe has a midvein, from which the veinlets proceed on cither side. The veinlets are either simple or forked, and bear the small roundish naked fruit-dots near the margin of the lobes. The sporangia are smooth ; and the spores, \\hich are bean- shaped, are furnished with scattered warty prominences. Closely allictl to this species is the Phcgoptcris cakarca of Fee. It is more rigid in habit, has proportionately smaller lower pinna,' of the primary lateral divisions, and is everywhere dotted with minute sessile glands. It is found in Europe and Asia; and, though it has frequently been attributed to America also, I ha\e never been so fortunate as to sec an American specimen, and am persuaded that none has ever been discovered. : m % ! . !1 i6o FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Plate XXI.. — Phcgoptcris Dryopkris. The specimen represented was collected near Brattlcborough, Vermont, by my venerable and excellent friend, Mr. Charles C. Frost, in 1858. It departs a little from the common type in having the lowest pinnae of the side divisions not e.xactly opposite, but the superior one a little lower down on the partial rachis than the inferior one. ,iil;! i 1?^ 11' ^.^r^^««.,^«.^-,^^^^^ ti I' I: ' : I I 4 a u i w ®ll II I }>?' m Hi FERNS OF NORTH AMFRICA. I6l P1.ATK XXII. — I'lC. I. ASPIDIUM LONCHITIS, Swautz. Holly-Fern. AsriDiUM LoNcnrris : — Root-stock stout, ascending, very chaffy ; stalks short, clustered, bearing large ferruginous scales intermixed with finer chaff; fronds evergreen, sub-coriaceous, six to eighteen inches long, one to two and a half inches wide, linear- lanceolate, narrowed moderately at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex, pinnate ; pinnne very numerous, crowded, broadly lanceolate, falcate, spinulose-serrate, acute ; the lower ones sym- metrically triangular ; the upper ones strongly auricled on the upper side, and cuneate on the lower ; sori in a double row on the pinna; and the auricle ; indusium orbicular, attached by the centre. Aspiditim Lonchitis, Swautz, in Schratlers Journal, 1800, ii., p. 30. — SruKNGEi., AiikMtiing, p. 125 (Engl, version, p. 138). — Swaktz, Syn. Fil., p. 43. — ScuKunu, Krypt. Gcw., p. 29, t. xxix. — Wiu.- DKNow, Sp. PI., v., p. 224. — Mettenius, FIl. lion. Lips., p. 8S ; Phegopt. & Aspid., p. 41. — Gkay, Manual, cd. ii., etc. — Mookku, Brit. P'crns, t. ix. ; S]). Fil., iv., p. 8. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 250. — Mu.DE, Fil. Eur. et Adant., p. 104. Polyppdiiwi Loiii/iilis, Linx.eu.s, Sp. PI., p. 1548. Pofyslic/iuni Lonchitis, Rotii, "Tent. Fl. Germ., iii., p. 71." — Sciiorr, Gen. Fil. (with a plate giving details of structure). — Pkesl, Tent. 1 i: i i 'II 1 ■■ H ■ 1 162 FKRNS OF NORTir AMKRIi'A. Pt«ri(l., p. S2. — Im':i:, (icii. I'il., p. 27S. — C/Uav, Manual, cd, i., p. 632. — Mooui:, Nat. Print. Brit, i'crns, t. ix. — Rui-kkciit, Hist. Crj'pt. Vase. Imp. Uoss., p. 3S. — W. I). VViiitnky, in Foster M: VViiitney's Ri;p. on CJcol. of L. Superior, part ii., p. 3H0. H.\'!. — i'locky places, from the vicinity of (ieorgian May, Lake Huron, Canada, IVofessor Minck.s, Mrs. Rov, Mr. Wait, to the southern shore of Lake Superior, Professor Wiiitnm.v, etc., and westward to tlu; Cascade Mountains of Pritish Columbia, Dr. I,\ai.[.. .Soutluvaril it occurs along the mountains as far as Utah, having heen f.iuiul in the Wahsatch Mountains by Mr. Watson, and near Spring Lake by Dr. P.\ki * 1 .'M it ul' t 172 I'KRNS ()|- NdRlll AMK.KICA. .-U/iyrinin alpcslrc, " Nvi.ANLiiik ; " Miini', I'll. lui. & All., p. s.v Po/ypodiiini rlueticum, Linn.i-us, Sp. I'l., |). i$^2, Jidc Schkuhr, I.e.; I)ut Moore thinks the phiu not tlic saiUL". Aspidiitm rlueticnm, Swakiz, Syii. I'il., p. 59. — \V'ii,i.iii:.\o\v, .S[). I'l., v., p. 2 So. Had. — Among rocks at liigli i'I('\;uioiis ; on l.asscn's IVak, Mount Shasta, Pyramid I'cak, Mount Rosi-, and otlirr hi<^h points in tiu; Sierra of California, iikiAvi;i<, I.immon, Miiu ; Cascailc Mountains of Hritish Columbia, I.vai.i,. In tin- Alps and tin: mountains of Nortlu-rn luu'ope ; also in the Caucasus, and in Asia Min' % -•>. c? / / /A Photographic Sciences Corporation A 4 ^ ^ \ A V "% V \ ci^ 23 WEST r..AlN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4S03 H \ O ^ \ «74 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. There is a European var. flexilis, with very narrow, nearly sessile fronds, and the pinnae often deflexed, which has not been observed in America. Undoubtedly the greatest resemblance of this fern is to the lady-fern, Asplenium Filix-foemina ; but that species has a very well-developed indusium, while the minute objects delineated by Mettenius scarcely deserve the name. The stalks are Cicariy ( ontinuous with the root-stock ; and for this reason the plant is plainly not a Polypodium, whatever else it may finally be determined to be. Plate XXIII.. Fig. 2. — Pkcgopteris alpestris : a specimen collected in the California Sierra by Professor Brewer in 1862. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. »75 PijVTE XXIII. — Fig. 2. ASPIDIUM FRAGRANS, Swartz. Fragrant Wood-Fern. AspiDiuM FRAGRANS : — Root-stock short and stout, very chaffy, with ample bright-brown glossy scales, which also abound on the short clustered stalks, and extend, diminishing in size, nearly to the top of the frond ; fronds rigid - membranaceous, glandular, aromatic, four to ten inches long, six to twenty-four lines wide, lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed from the middle to the base, bipinnate ; pinnae numerous, oblong-lanceolate ; pin- nules many, one to two lines long, oblong, obtuse, adnate by a decurrent base, pinnately incised with very minute crenated teeth, or in smaller fronds nearly entire, the back nearly hidden by the large thin imbricating indusia, which are orbicular with a narrow sinus, and more or less toothed and glandular around the margin. Aspidium fragrans, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 51. — Wii.ldenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 253. — Hooker, in "Parry's 2tl Voy., App., p. 410 ; " Fl. Bor. Am., p. 410. — RuPREciiT, Disir. Crypt. Vase. Imp. Ross., p. 35. — MEmENius, Aspicl., p. 56. — Gray. Manual, ed. 2, p. 598. — MiLDE, Fil. Fur. ct Atlant., p. 117. Polypodium fragrans, Linn/EUS, Sp. PI., p. 1550. Polystichum fragrans, Ledebour, " Fl. Ross., iv., p. 514." — Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 339. '.5 - I I'l 176 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Dryoptcris fragrans, Scuorr, Gen. Fil., Obscrv. .sub Polysticho. Nephrodium fragrans, Riciiard.son, " App. to Frankl. Journ., p. 753 " — HooKKR & Grkvii.i.k, Ic. Fil., t. l.\x. — HooKKK, -Sp. Fil., iv., p. 122. — HooKKK & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 275. Dryoptcris riibum ideeum spirans, Ammann, "Ruth., p. 251." Hah. — In crevices of shaded cliffs, ant! on mossy rocks, especially near cascades and rivulei"--, from Northern New Fngland to Wisconsin, and northward to Arctic America. Also in the Caucasus, and in Siberia, Mantchooria, and Kamtschatka. Special American localities are Mount Kineo, Maine, A. H. and C. F. Smith ; at Berlin Falls, the " Alpine Cas- cade," and the "Gulch," all near the White Mountains, H. Wili.ky; Mount Mansfield, Vermont, C. G. Princi.e ; l^ke Avalanche, Adirondack Moun- tains, New York, C. H. Peck ; Falls of St. Croix, Wisconsin, C. C. Parkv, and on the Penokee Iron Range, in the same State, Lapiiam ; Saguenay River, Canada, D. A. Wait. It is apparently more common farther north : Sitka, lliuliuk, Unalaska, Arakamtchetchene, Kotzebue Bay, Igloolik, Riltcn- bcnk in Greenland, and several other places, arc recorded as stations for it. Description. — The root-stock is rather .stout, ascending or erect ; and its apparent thickness is much increased by the per- sistent bases of stalks, which also give it a dense covering of broad bright-brown chaffy scales. The fronds, frequently to the number of si.x or eight, besides old and shrivelled ones, stand in a crown at the upper end of the root-stocks, resting on stalks from one to four inches long, which are usually very chaffy, the chaff continued along the rachis and midribs, though composed of smaller scales than those lower down. The fronds are from three or four to ten inches in length ; and the greatest breadth, just above the middle, is from one-fifth to one-sixth of the length. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 177 The outline is exactly lanceolate, as the apex is acute, and the lower part gradually tapering to a somewhat narrowed base. The fronds are delicately, but densely, bipinnate. In a frond nine inches long there are about thirty primary pinnae on each side, and in one of the middle pinnae about ten oblong-ovate obtuse pinnately-incised pinnules on each side. The pinnules are from a line to two lines long, and are adnate to the secondary rachis by a more or less decurrent base. In large fronds the teeth of the pinnules are again crenately toothed ; but in small specimens the pinnules themselves are entire, or but slightly toothed. Two sterile fronds collected by Professor M. W. Har- rington, in Uiuliuk, Alaska, are broadly ovate-lanceolate in outline, and have acute primary pinnae ; and other specimens, some from Eastern Canada, collected by Mr. Watt, and some from North- ern Wisconsin, collected by Mr. Lapham, are much slenderer and less scaly than usual. This is the var. ^ of Hooker. Usually the fronds are rather rigid, full-green above, a little paler be- neath, and both surfaces, together with the rachis, especially the canal along the upper side of the rachis, are dotted with very minute pellucid pale amber-colored glands. The fronds com- monly fruit very fully, even the lowest pinna bearing sporan- gia. The indusia are very large, thin, orbicr.iar, with a narrow sinus, more or less ragged or toothed and gland-bearing at the margin, and are so dense as to overlap each other, and nearly conceal the back of the pinnules. The spores are ovoid, and have a minutely verrucose or warty surface. The pleasant odor of the plant remains many years in the !' » ■ >! >iia 178 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. herbarium. The early writers compare the fragrance to that of raspberries, and Milde repeats the observation. Hooker and Greville thought it "not unlike that of the common primrose." Maximowicz states that the odor is sometimes lacking. Milde quotes Redovvsky as saying that the Yakoots of Siberia use the plant in place of tea ; and, having tried the experiment myself, I can testify to the not unpleasant and very fragrant astringency of the infusion. The illustration is taken from a plant collected by Mr. D. A. Watt on the Saguenay River, in Canada. I mBB t W i FERNS OK NORl'H AMERICA. 179 PiJVTE XXIV. — Fig. i. TRICHOMANES RADICANS, Swartz. Alabama Bristle-Pern. Trichomanes RADICANS : — Root-stock slender, widely creep- ing; fronds very delicate, pellucid, smooth, borne on short winged stalks, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, lour to eight inches high, six to eighteen lines broad (larger in foreign specimens), bipinnati- fid; rachis winged throughout; pinnns triangular-ovate, obtuse, the upper side of the base closely parallel to the rachis, the lower cuneate ; divisions toothed, or divided into linear lobes ; involu- cres usually terminal on the lowest superior lobe of a division, or on several lobes, tubular funnel-form, margined, truncate at the mouth, and slightly two-lipped ; columella bristle-like, rising from the bottom of the involucre, more or less exserted, the included portion bearing the sporangia. Tricltoinanes mdicans, Swartz, F1. Ind. Occ, p. 1736; Syn. Fil., p. 143. — WiLLDENow, Sp. PI., v., p. 513. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., L, p. 125. — Gray, in Am. Jour. Sc. and Arts, May, 1853, p. 325. — Eaton, in Chapman's Flora, p. 597. — Hooickr & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 81. — F^E, Hist. Foug. et Lycop. d. Antilles, p. 109. — Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 123, t. xlviii. Trichomanes scandcns, Hedwig, Fil. Gen. et Sp. (with a plate), not of Linnaeus. Trichomanes Boschianum, Sturm, in litt. — Van den Bosch, Hymenoph. Syn. Suppl., p. 160. Pi il i i8o FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Hab. — On shaded and overhanging sandstone cliffs, constantly moistened by percolation or by spray. First discovered by Hon. T. M. Pi'TKRs in Winston (formerly Hancock) County, Alabama, in July, 1852, and later in the same year found by Mr. J. F. Beaumont in Franklin County, and by both gentlemen in Lawrence County. Afterwards it was detected in the Cumberland Mountains of Eastern Tennessee by Rev. Dr. Curtis. It was discovered in Carter County, Kentucky, in 1872, by Dr. H. Hill, as stated by Mr. Williamson. In 1873 Professor John Hus- SEY also found it in Carter County, and in Edmonson and Barren Coun- ties. It has since been collected in Laurel and Rockcastle Counties by Mrs. Yandell, Miss Rule, and Dr. Crosier; and will doubtless be found in other places in the States of Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Description. — The Alabama bristle-fern, as it may be called to distinguish it from the forms of Trichomanes radi- cans growing in other countries, is by far the most delicate of the ferns of the United States. The root-stock is blackish and fibrillose, especially the newer portions, with very slender and minute dark blackish -brown chaffy hairs. It is creep- ing, and not unfrequently a foot in length, while the thickness is less than a line. The fronds are scattered along the whole length of the root-stock : they arc from three to seven inches long, and less, sometimes much 1f"ss, than two inches wide. They rest on short stalks, which are winged from the very base, the wing continuing along the rachis to the top of the frond. The fronds are lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate in shape, and are bipinnatifid, or even tripinnatifid. The pinnae are trian- gular-ovate or rhomboidal, the lower ones a little shorter and broader than those in the middle. They are divided into nar- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. i8i row oblong obtuse lobes, or into segments cotr»Dosed of several such lobes. The midvein is pinnatcly branched, and from the veins single vcinlots e.xtcnd through the middle of every lobe. The frond is smooth throughout, and, excepting the veins, Is composed of a single layer of slightly elongated hexagonal cells, the middle of each cell vacant and transparent, the chlorophyl consisting of minute grains lining the ccll-w'll.' The fruit, when it is present, is formed at the ends of ihe lower lobes of the divisions or segments of the pinna,', and consists of little funnel-shaped cups, narrowly wing- 'Uirgined, and having an ^Jl>^.curcly two-lipped orifice. From the botti-ui of this cup there rises -•' slender dark-colored bristle-like receptacle or colu- mella, on the sides of which, inside the cup, ire borne the top-shaped sporangia. These have a nearly horizontal coiuj>lcte elastic ring. The spores are ovoid and obscurely papillose. A careful description of the mode of growth of this most interesting fern was written by Professor John Hussey, and published by Mr. Williamson in his " Ferns of Kentucky." Another account, by the same close observer, was publisheil in "The Independent" of Feb. 25, 1875: — " I discovered it growing in more than a dozen localities under the Green River Country cliffs. It was found in every instance on the under side of an overhanging rock, generally considerably withdrawn from tlie light, never reached by the direct rays of the sun. It does best on a moist ' See the elaborate monograph on the structure of llymcnophyllacccB by Dr. Mcttenius, wherein the various forms of cells and dispositions of chlorophyl arc described and figured. ;fl .1 l82 FKRNS OF NORTH AMF.RICA. m ■ 11 rock, where it is bedewed by spray from falling water, or where the clear water trickling from hidden springs keeps the fronds constantly moist, and where the fine drops hang trombling on tl c pendent fronds before falling. Each frond of this fern has an interesting history. From first to last, they live many years. The whole under surface of the rock is one matted mass of roots and stems, covered with innumerable translucent fronds, in all stages of growth and maturity. The young frond gradually e.xpands, and slowly attains full size. In two or three years, perhaps, the fruit begins to develop on the edges of the fronds, at the tips of the veins. This fruit is clustered in a cup around a fine hair which comes from its centre. The hair, or bristle, continues to grow in length, anil the fruit to develop at it:; base around it. As the bristle grows in length — sometimes it is found an inch long — llie ripe fruit is shed, so tiiat ilicre remains about the same quantity of fruit always at tlie base of the hair. The whole life of the frond may be half a dozen years." Our plant differs from the original plant of Swartz, from the West Indies, only in its somewhat smaller size; and, if not specifically identical with tlie Killarney bristle-fern, then ///Mti A.-:;PID11)M MUh'lTUM , Kauir AnniilriniJ J.- '.\ i.;'j\ bo^ilun 1 1 '!l 1 ' II FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 187 Plate XXV. ASPIDIUM MUNITUM, Kaulfuss. Chamisso's Shield-Pern. AspiDiUM MUNITUM: — Root-stock stout, short, ascending; stalks a few inches to a foot long, usually chaffy like the rachis, with abundant glossy-brown ovate -acuminate scales; fronds standing in a crown, sub-coriaceous, evergreen, one to four or five feet long, lanceolate, slightly narrowed at the base, pinnate; pinnae very many, often chaffy beneath, one to four inches long, linear-acuminate, very sharply and often doubly ser- rate with incurved aculeate teeth, auricled at the upper side of the nearly sessile base, and obliquely truncate at the lower, all or only the upper ones fertile, but not contracted ; veins free, once or twice forked ; sori abundant in a row each side the midrib, also on the auricles, often sub-marginal ; indusium orbicular, peltate, the margin either entire or incised with hair- pointed teeth. Aspidium munilum, Kaulfuss, Enum. Fil, p. 236. — Hooker & Arnott, Bet. Beechey Voy., pp. 162, 405. — Hooker, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 261 ; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 10. t. 219. — Mettenius, Aspidium, p. 41. — Eaton, Ferns of the South-West, ined. Polystichum munitum, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 83. — Ruprecht, Dist. Crypt. Vase. Imp. Ross., p. 39. — Brackenridge, Filices of the U. S. Expl. Exped., p. 203. — Eaton, in Bot. of Max. Boundary, p. 235. i'1 ■if i . i i ■ ' I' 1 88 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Ncphrodium Plumula, I'kicsl, Reli(|. ll.icnk., p. 33. Po/vsiic/iuiH Plumiila, Prksi,, Tent. Ptcriil., p. 83. Aspidium acrosticlwidcs, II(K)kf.r, in IJenthain, Plant. Hartwcg., p. 342, not of Swartz, nor of I looker in Sp. I-il. Polysluhnm Jii/fitulliini, (>• Moork, Ind. I'll,, j). 97. Var. inidaliim ; — I'Vonii smaller, the chaff almost entirely iackinpf; pinn:e few and rather remote, short and broad, oblong -oval, slightly aiiricled, the teeth closely appressed ; sori scanty, confined to the ends of the few highest pinn.e. \'ar. iiuhricaiis : — Frond below medium size, not narroweil at the base ; pinna; crowded, lanceolate-oblong, pale, ascending, and imbricated ; sori sub-marginal ; stalk with lance-acuminate shining brown scales at the base, otherwise almost nakeil, as are the rachis and frond. Var. inciso-scrratiim : — I'Vond ample; iiinnrc lance-acuminate from a conspicuously auricled base, incised with' serrated teeth ; veins branched into live or six veinlets ; sori scattered. Hab. — Described by Kaulfuss in 1824 from specimens collected near San Francisco in 1816 by .^delbert von Ciiamisso. It is said, however, to have been gathered many years before at Nutka Sound by Arciiiuai.d Menzif.s. It is found among rocks and in forests, sometimes very abun- dantly, from (juadalupe Island and San Dit^go, California, northward to British Columbia, but not known east of the Sierra. The finest speci- mens are from forests near the coast, from Mendocino County, California, to Southern Oregon. \'ar. nudalum was collected at the Nevada I'all, Yoscmitc Valley, by Professor Wood. Var. imbricans, in Plumas County, by Mrs. Ausnx, at Retl Mountain, Mendocino County, Dr. Kellogg, and is prol)ably not uncommon. A form connecting these two varieties was found in the Trinity- Kiver mountains by Professor Wood, and at Moore's FERNS OK NORIH AMKRICA. 189 Mat, ^'lll)a River, liy an utiknuwn collector. Var. iiiciso-serratum comes from British L'oliimljia, Dr. I.vai.i. and Professor Macoun. Dhscription. — Chamis OS shield-ferii, as it may appro- priately be called, is, when well I'rown and fully fruited, one of the very finest of the North- A-ierican ferns. The root-stock is short and thick, and covc»-ed with the remains of old stalks, as in most of our .'Ispiiiia. The fronds stand in a crown, or circle, and measure from one to five feet high, according to the strength of the plant, and the nature of the climate and soil where it occurs. I'rom one-sixth to one-fourth of this height is in the stalk, which is strong, rounded at the back, and has, when living, a broad shallow channel in front ; but in the dried specimen the furrow is deep and narrow. A section shows a broad exterior band of firm tissue, and five interior roundish fibm-vascular bundles, arranged in a curve of two-thirds of a circle, the bundles at the ends of the curve much larger than the other three. The stalk and rachis are usually very chaffy ; but the chaff is nearly or quite wanting, except at the base of the stalk, in the first two varieties named above. The chaff consists of bright- brown ovate-lanceolate acuminate scales, nine to twelve lines long, constantly growing smaller upwards, and intermixed with others very much smaller. The large basal scales appear to have Tn entire edge, and are usually of one shade of bright glossy brown ; but sometimes they are heavier, and with a broad dark-brown median band. The smaller scales are more or less laciniately ciliate, and those of the upper part of the rachis are regularly ciliated. ^v'i m "^1 I 190 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. The fronds arc lanceolate in outline, usually a little narrower at the base than in the middle. They arc almost coriaceous, and apparently evergreen, since specimens in pretty y^ood order were collected in January, May, Aujfust, and November. The color is a good bright green, somewhat paler, or in varieties nudatum and imbricans almost glaucous, beneath. In the normal plant the pinnae are very numerous, one of Professor Brewer's Cres- cent-City specimens having over seventy on each side. In these splendid fronds the pinnae are fully four inches long, nearly straight, wide -spreading, and linear-acuminate from a base which has an acute ovate auricle on the upper side, and is cut away obliquely on the lower. The under surface bears a few minute long-pointed ciliate scales, especially along the mid- vein and on the veinlets. The margin is sharply serrated with oblique or incurved aculeate teeth, which very often bear a much smaller tooth on each side of the base. The veins are pinnate from the midvein, there being about forty to forty-five principal veins on each" side. Each vein is forked near its base, the upper fork or veinlet running unbranched to the margin, and the lower fork divided into two veinlets, the upper one of which, and some- times the lower also, is commonly again similarly forked. The uppermost veinlet of each group usually bears a sorus rather nearer the margin than the midvein ; and in heavily-fruited fronds the lowest veinlet of each group is sometimes also fertile, in this case bearing the sorus still nearer the margin than the primary row of sori. The sporangia, as they ripen, develop a longer and longer ■■■ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 191 pedicel, so that, when fully matured, tlic pedicel is several times as long as the sporangium, and the fruit almost entirely covers the back of the pinn.c. The indusium is orbicular and peltate, as in all the Aspidia of the section l\)lysticlium. It is usually somewhat jagged at the edge, the teeth running out into slend(;r jointed hairs ; but on some plants it seems to be entire, and with no marginal hairs. Var. iimlatum is so unlike the type of the species, that, if it had been sent from some other country than California, it would not have been referreil to this species. The pinnae are compara- tively few in number, broadly oval-oblong in shape, the auricle scantily developed, and the chaff almost entirely lacking. The base of the stalk is not preserved in the specimens I have seen ; but it is very probable that it was covered with narrow scales as in the next variety. Var. imbricans, though chaffy enough at the base, has the frond nearly smooth. The pinnae are lanceolate-oblong, crowded, very rigid, and usually directed obliquely upwards, so as to lap over each other. It looks like a plant grown in a hot and dry place, and passes by gradations into the type on one side, and into var. nudatum on the other. Var. inciso-sermtum corresponds to var. inciswn of As- pidium acrostichoides, and is represented by large and broad fronds, with broad pinnae incised one-third or one-fourth of the way down to the midvein. Each group of veinlets consists of from five to seven, three or four of them often soriferous. The North-American ferns most closely related to Aspidium 1 m m m m m 192 IKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ii! t; at' i munitum arc A. Lojichiiis, figured and described in our last part, and A. acrostic /loicfes of the eastern side of the continent. From the former it is distinguished by the usually long and narrow pinnae, and by the usually much taller fronds being scarcely narrowed at the base. From the latter it differs in the frond being heavier and more coriaceous, and especially in the nar- rower pinna:\ which are not contracted when they bear fruit. A much closer resemblance exists between our fern and the A. fakinclluin of Madeira. In that species the scales of the stalk are very dark-brown, the pinn.t with a more evident peti- ole, the auricle obtuse, the serraturcs not aculeate, and the indu- sium with a dark spot in the middle. The pinnae also have a tendency to become auricled on the lowi:r side of the base, as well as the upper. Since our present fern extends to the fiftieth degree of north latitude, and, as Ruprecht thinks, projjably much farther north, it is not improbable that it might do well in open-air cultiva- tion in New England. Plate XX\'. — /bpidimn uniiiiliDii. 'Die Icft-liand figure represents a normal but rather small specimen, from Oregon, collected by Mr. I'". Hail. The middle frond is var. niidalum, from the Vosemite, Professor Wood. The figure to the right is var. inthricans, from Mendocino County, Cali- fornia, Dr. Kellogg. The small portion of a frond at tiie top of the plate is from a magnificent specimen collected in 1855 at Port Orfortl, Oregon, by Lieuijnant (now Colonel and Major-Oeneral by brevet) August V. Kautz. The indusium drawn is from this specimen. n ,>!,i if *.; •ni (Ui ,i;'j:,i .:a 1 1 XXv". ^ ^ / f ,^ MS FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 193 Plate XXVI. — Fig. i. POLYPODIUM SCOULERI, Hooker & Greville. Scouler's Polypody. PoLYPouiuM Scouleri : — Root - stock creeping, scaly ; stalks rather stout, one to seven inches long ; fronds very thick and coriaceous, cartilaginous - margined, smooth, fleshy when recent, two to twelve inches long, broadly ovate, pin- natifid to the midriu , segments linear-oblong, obtuse, obscurely serrulate, the terminal one distinct, and often the longest ; vein- lets anastomosing, and forming a single scries of largo arcoles with a few free external veinlets ; sori very large, borne near the costule, one within each areole, and occurring on the upper segments only, or towards the ends of the other segments also. Polypodium Scouleri ^ Hookkr & Greville, Ic. Fil., t. Ivi. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v., p. 19. — Hooker & Raker, Syn. Fil., p. 342; Eaton, Feins of the Soiith-Wcst, ined. Polypodium carnosum, Kellogg, in Proceed. Cal. Acad., ii., p. 88, fig. 24. Polypodium pachyphyllum, Eaton, in Amer. Jour. Sc. and Arts, July, 1856, p. 138. Hai!. — On trees and stumps, less frequently on the ground; from Guadalupe Island, Dr. Palmer, to the vicinity of Mount Shasta and Crescent City, California, Professor Brewer, and northward to British Columbia. Description. — The root -stock is creeping, and more or Mi I'ltil .1 i\ 'm It M 194 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. less elongated ; rather thicker than a goose-quill ; and, though at first covered with chaffy scales, when old it becomes quite bare, and has then a wrinkled white-pruinose surface. The scales are about four lines long, and taper from a broad base to a very fine point. Their general color is a deep ferruginous brown ; but under a microscope they are seen to be composed of straight oblong cellules of various shades of color, the deep-brown, am- ber-colored, and transparent ones often mixed together like the stones in a piece of mosaic. The edges are very pale, and minutely ciliate-toothed. The stout and rigid stalks are varia- ble in length, being commonly a little shorter than the fronds they support. A section is broadly rounded on the back and sides, and has a deep and wide channel on the face. It con- tains four round fibro-vascular bundles, the two nearer the face much larger than the others. The fronds measure from less than tvv^o to ten or twelve inches in length, and from an inch and a half to over six inches in breadth. Their general outline is ovate. Their substance is very fleshy when they are fresh, but in the dried specimens coriaceous and rigid. The midrib of the frond and the midveins of the segments are heavy and very prominent beneath. The whole frond has a firm thread- like border, which is decurrent at the base, and continuous with the incurved margins of the furrow of the stalk. On the small- est fronds there are only three or five oval or slightly oblong segments ; but in the largest ones there are as many as twelve or thirteen large linear-oblong segments on each side. The seg- ■1^"^ are from eight or ten lines to three and a half inches in FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 195 length, and from six to eight lines in breadth. The upper ones are separated by very narrow cuttings, which extend almost to the midrib, but the lower ones by broader and rounded sinuses, the lower side of the segments being narrowed, and somewhat decurrent on the midrib. The terminal segment is either dis- tinct, or confluent with but one of its neighbors : it is commonly as large as most of the others. All the segments are obscurely toothed, and are obtuse and rounded at the apex. The veins are pinnate from the midvein, and each one is forked near the base : the upper fork is undivided ; but the lower one bears a branch higher up on the lower side, and is again forked into two terminal veinlets. The last veinlet on the upper side of one group commonly unites with the lowest inferior veinlet of the next higher group, forming an arcole, which encloses the lowest superior veinlet of the lower of these two groups. This arrangement of the veinlets is characteristic of the section of the genus to which the name Goiiiophlebium has been given. In some other species of this section several rows of such areoles are regularly formed. The arrangement, however, is not constant ; and a close examination of a frond of the present species (or of many others of the section) will reveal plenty of groups of veinlets which are entirely separate or free, and of course forming no areoles. Hence it is that Goiiiophle- bium, and Phlebodium, Canipyloneuron, Phymatodes, and a host of other proposed genera, founded only on differences in vena- tion, and at first received by many good botanists, were disap- proved of by the maturer judgment of Hooker, and, after a ■I : HI 1,1 jl , J| 'M'.i 196 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. very full and careful examination by Mettenius, were finally rejected by him and by the majority of scientific pteridologists. In the present species the sori are found on the upper seg- ments, or sometimes towards the ends of most of the segments. They are very large, far larger than in any other of our native species, being often a fifth of an inch in diameter. The spo- rangia have very long pedicels. The spores are almost trans- parent, ovoid with one obtuse ridge, — which is marked by a longitudinal band, or vitta, — and have a minutely roughened or verrucose surface. Scouler's polypody has a much heavier and more coriaceous frond than any other polypody of our Pacific States, and need never be confounded with any of them. Dr. Scouler's speci- mens, collected near the Columbia River about forty years ago, are very much smaller than those received from more recent collectors. Plate XXVI., Fig. i. — Polypodium Scouleri. From an Oregon speci- men of medium size. The enlarged fragment shows the peculiar arrange- ment of the velnlets. -i I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 197 '.I •' Plate XXVI. — Fig. 2. POLYPODIUM INCANUM, Swartz. Gray Polypody. PoLYPODiUM INCANUM : — Root-stock Creeping, rather slen- der, scaly ; stalks slender, one to four inches long, scaly ; fronds one to six inches long, six to eighteen lines broad, evergreen, sub-coriaceous, nearly smooth above, beneath thickly dotted with roundish or ovate peltate scales, pinnatifid to the midrib; seg- ments oblong, obtuse, entire, dilated at the base, and separated by rounded sinuses ; veinlcts free, or making occasional areoles ; sori near the margin. Polypodium incanimi, Swartz, F1. Ind. Occ, iii., p. 1645 '< %"• F"' P- 35- — SciiKUHR, Krypt. Gew., p. 188, t. 11 b {P. vclatutn). — Will- DENovv, Sp. PL, v., p. 174. — PuRsii, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 659. — Gray, Manual. — Mettenius, Polypodium, p. 69. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 208. — Eaton', in Chapman's Flora, p. 588. — Grise- BACii, Fl; Brit. W. I., p. 699. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 346. — FouRNiER, Mex. PI., Crypt., p. 83. — Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 2,7 < t. v. — Meehan, Native Flowers and Ferns of the U. S., p. 13, t. 4. Marginaria hicana, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 188. Goniophlebium incamim, J. Smith, " in Hooker's Jour. Bot., iv., p. 56." — Brackenridge, Filices of U. S. Expl. Exped., p. 32. Lepicystis incana, J. Smith, "in Lond. Jour. Bot., i., p. 195 ;" Ferns, Brit, and Foreign, p. 80. 1 '» ! !i h\ 'h t'l I h \ "It '. ill t itl' ' % 1^! £iii mii 198 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Polypodium ceferaccinum, Miciiaux, FI. Bor. Am., ii., p. 271. Polypodium Eckloni, Kunze, in Linnrea, x., p. 498. — Mkttknius, Polypo- dium, p. 68. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 209. Polypodium incanoides, Fee, 8™ Mem., p. 88; Foug. Mex., p. 20, n. 12. Acrostichum polypodioidcs, LiNN.icus, Sp. PI., p. 1525. Acrostichum fronde pinnata : foliolis lincaribtts alkrnis scssilibus, termi- nalrice plcrumque trifida, Gronovils, F1. Virg., p. 198. Hab. — On trunks of trees and on old roofs, more rarely on rocks, from Florida to Texas, and extending northwards to the Natural Hridge, Virginia, Meeiian, Wirt County, West Virginia, H. N. Mertz, and to a few places in the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Com- mon in the West Indies, and from Mexico to Brazil and Chili. Also in Soudi Africa and in Tropical East Africa. Description. — The gray polypody, hoary polypody, or scaly polypody, as it has been variously called, though properly a tropi- cal fern, yet occurs so far north, that it must occasionally have to withstand a severe frost. It commonly grows in large mats, the creeping root-stocks very much entangled. These root-stocks are about a line and a half in thickness, and are at first cov- ered with ovate-acuminate scales, which are pcltately attached near the base, and have a dark-brown rigid median band sur- rounded by a hyaline laciniately ciliate border. Afterwards the border wears away, then the long point of the scale breaks off, and at last the root-stock is left nearly bare. The stalks are slender, and arc at first covered with scales like those of the root-stock ; but these fall off, and there remain ovate and rounded scales intermixed, all with a dark centre and a nearly transparent FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 199 border. The fronds have a leathery texture, are dark-green in color, nearly or quite smooth above, and beneath copiously sprinkled with scales like those of the stalk, the rounded ones predominating. In many tropical American plants, however, the fronds bear an abundance of long-pointed scales. The fronds are capable of withstanding drought, and are often found curled up, and apparently dead ; but when they arc moistened they uncoil themselves, and are as fresh and green as ever. They are com- monly in the United States about three inches long, and nearly half as wide ; but fronds both much smaller and considerably larger are often seen, especially in foreign specimens. The seg- ments are from four to twenty on each side, oblong-linear or sometimes a little obovate in shape, entire, and obtuse, the low- est ones rarely a little shorter than the middle ones. They are separated by rounded bays which reach quite to the midrib. The venation varies in different plants, and is difficult to be seen, as the fronds are very opaque : it is, however, generally free, each vein forked near the base, the upper veinlet simple, and the lower one again forked ; but occasionally, especially in tropical plants, the veinlcts arc united near the margin, forming areoles. The fruit-dots are rather small, round and naked, and placed at the end of the upper forks of the veins ; and, as the segments of the fronds arc often made concave by drought, the fruit-dots appear to be marginal. The spores arc light-colored, ovoid-bcan- shaped, indistinctly vittatc along one side, the surface sprinkled with minute pale-yellowish granules. This little fern is by no means particular in its choice of a illC I '12 IK §'\\ 200 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. home. Though perhaps oftcncst seen on trees, it is recorded as growing also on rocks, old walls, and even on roofs, as at St. Augustine, Florida, where a roof was heavily thatched with it. In Kentucky it grows, as Mr. Williamson tells us, on trees and on rocks. The West-Virginia station is a very recent discovery, and is perhaps the most northern of all, being in north latitude 39°. Mr. Mcrtz writes : " It is on a high, dry cliff : the fern grows on the edge of the rock, and down the face for a little distance, fully exposed to the sun's rays." The scaly Polypodia, with veinlcts more or less anasto- mosed and forming simple areoles, have been put into a genus by themselves by Mr. John Smith, and named Lcpicystis. There are some half-dozen of them, mostly occurring in the warmer countries of America; but in respect to neither venation nor the scales can they be separated from the other unquestioned Polypodia. Plate XXVI., Fig. 2. — Polypodium incanum. From a Florida speci- men. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 901 Plate XXVI. — Fir,. 3. POLYPODIUM FALCATUM, Khllogg. Kellogg's Polypody. PoLYPOUiuM FALCATUM : — Stalks slender, stramineous when dried ; fronds broadly lanceolate, nine to fifteen inches long, four to six broad, thin-menibranaccous, smooth, pinnatifid to the midrib ; segments numerous, tapering from a dilated base to a very long and attenuated point, often falcate, sharply serrate, the lower ones slightly reduced and separated by very broad sinuses, the upper ones by acute incisions, the terminal one acuminate ; veins with about four free veinlets ; sori me- dium-sized, nearer the midvein than the margin. Polypodium fa/caliim, Kellogg, in Proc. Cal. Acad., i., p. 20 (Dec. 1854). Polypodium Glycyrrhiza, Eaton, in Am. Jour. .Sci. pnd Arts, July, 1856, p. 138. Hah. — On trees, sometimes seen in clefts of rocks, Shoalwater Bay, Washington Territory, Mr. J. G. Swan ; near Port Orford, Oregon, General Kautz. Description. — The root-stock I have not seen. Dr. Kel- logg described it as "compressed tubercidate, one-fourth to one- eighth inch broad, greenish russct-color, branching laterally, often covered with scales." General (then Lieutenant) Kautz noted that "the root is used as an emollient and expectorant; the m 1, J \: . 1 it 403 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. taste resembles liquorice : " and Dr. Kellogg has a very similar remark. The stalk is probably several inches long : it is rather slender, smooth, and, when dried, is straw-colored. The fronds are ample, generally over a foot long, and are broader in the middle than at the base. They are much thinner in texture than those of P. vulgare, to which Mr. Baker has referred the plant. In a large frond there are about twenty-two segments on each side, mostly alternate, the lower ones distant, and much dilated on each side of the base : the upper ones are placed closer together, and are less dilated. The middle segments are over three inches long; and all of them, the terminal one included, are sharply serrate, and narrowed very gradually to an attenu- ated point. The veins fork near the midvein, having the upper fork simple, and the lower divided into three veinlets, which are always free. The fruit-dots are numerous on the upper half of the frond, but do not extend to the narrow tips of the seg- ments. The spores are reniform-ovoid, and minutely verrucose on the surface. I have seen but very few fronds of th'j fern, and it does not seem to have been gathered by recent collectors ; but I am still disposed to consider it a distinct species. The frond drawn is a small one collected by General Kautz. u IV ', 'I'l' !'li Klite XXVn : i '• H.Lineit:!! Ji- . FI-LL£A AHDRGMKDyErOLLA Fee Arn.L'iiv'o S '■. :.:tl. !•. ;ihn PKLLvtlA KLL;XUOr.'A,LiuK in I*' mF f ^i': FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 203 Plate XXVII. — Fig. i. PELLyEA ANDROMED^FOLIA, FifE. Andromeda Cliff- Brake. Pell^a andromed^-folia: — Root -stock slender, creep- ing, covered with narrow ferruginous scales ; stalks scattered, erect, wiry, smooth, pale-brown, chaffy only at the base, two to twelve inches long ; fronds about equalling the stalks, somewhat rigid, ovate, twice to four times pinnate ; primary pinnae rather distant, spreading, ovate-lanceolate ; ultimate pinnules sub-coria- ceous, smooth, slightly glaucous, petiolulate or sessile, two to five lines long, broadly oval, slightly cordate and emarginate, fertile ones often with the edges revolute to the midvein ; veins six to eight pairs, commonly twice forked, the veinlets nearly at right angles to the midvein, and sometimes producing narrow ridges on the upper surface ; sori at the ends of the veinlets, involucre formed of the margin of the frond, herbaceous with a narrow whitish edge. Pellaa andromedcc folia, FicE, Gen. PH., p. 129. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 149. — Eaton, in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 233. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 150- Pteris aiidromedccfolia, Kaulfuss, Enum. Fil., p. 1 88. — Hooker & Ar- NOTT, Bot. Beechey's Voy., p. 406. Allosorus andromcdafolius, Kaulfuss, " Herb. & Catal. ; " Kunze, in Lin- nica, ix., p. 56, x., p. 503 ; Analecta Pteridogr., p. 18, t. xi. ; Torrey, Pacif. R. Rep., iv., p. 159- !!' I h \\-n It 204 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Platyloma andromedcc folium, J. Smith in Hooker's Lend. Jour. Dot., iv., p. i6o. — Brackenridge, Filices of U. S. Expl. Exp., p. 94. Crypteris divaricata and C. puhesccns, Nuitall, in Herb. Hook. Peltaa myrlilH/olia, MtriTENius ; Kuhn, in Linnsea, xxvi., p. 85 (the Chilian plant). Hab. — Exposed rocks in ravines and canons, sometimes growing on hillsides ; California, mostly in the Coast Ratiires, possibly extending to Arizona and North-\v^" '. ^n Mexico. I know of no specimens col- lected north of Calii '".kx *'' i^u 'A ' m m 206 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. The specific name, andromedafolia, undoubtedly has refer- ence to the revolute pinnules, often somewhat glaucous beneath. In this respect they resemble the foliage of Andyomeda polifolia, though not in shape, as the leaves of the Andromeda are usually linear-lanceolate. Linnaeus chose the name Andromeda for the pretty ericaceous shrub of the North because it was so beauti- ful of face (corolla), was fastened to a rock, environed by water where he first found it in Lapland, surrounded by dragons (rep- tiles), and held up its most innocent arms (branches) piteously to heaven, and so remained until most welcome Perseus (the summer sunshine), by drying up the floods of spring, should release the fair prisoner.* The Andromeda fern, too, is com- monly chained to a rock ; but in no other respect can we trace an analogy to the daughter of Cass ^ ope. In cultivation at the East, Pellcea andromedcBfolia becomes larger, more compound, and has longer-stalked pinnae and pin- nules, than in its native home. Plate XXVII., Fig. i. — Pellcea andromedcefolia. From a specimen collected near Santa Barbara by Mrs. Cooper. The fragment in fruit is from a specimen from Monte Diablo. ' The curious reader is referred to Flora Lapponica, ed. ii., p. 133, and to Lachcsis Lapponica, vol. i., pp. 188, 189, for other details of this fanciful com- parison. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 907 Plate XXVII. — Fig. 2. PELL^A FLEXUOSA, Link. Zigzag CliiT- Brake. Pell/EA FLEXUOSA : — Root-stock creeping, rather slender, the scales narrow, rigid, brown, with a darker midrib ; stalk red- dish-stramineous, several inches long, rigid, more or less fur- rowed along the front, passing into a more or less flexuose or zigzag rachis ; fronds from six inches to over two feet long, ovate -oblong in outline, twice, or the larger ones thrice, pin- nate ; secondary and tertiary rachises usually deflected and zigzag, rusty -puberulent, or nearly smooth; pinnae commonly alternate ; ultimate pinnules five to ten lines long, roundish- ovate or sub- cordate, very obtuse, distinctly petiolulate, sub- coriaceous, smooth, slightly glaucous beneath ; margin of the fertile pinnules at first recurved and partly covering the spo- rangia, at length flattened out. PellcBa flexuosa, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 60. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 149. — Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 129. — Fournier, PI. Mex., Crypt., p. 118. Pteris flexuosa, Kaulfuss, "MS.," and in Linn^ea, v., p. 614 (excluding synonymy). — Hooker, Ic. PL, t. 119. Allosorus flexuoms, ICaulfuss, "MS." — Kunze, in Linnaea, xiii., p. 136. — Die Farrnk, i., p. 46, t. 23. '^1-; ll : if 'i w':\ ill' 308 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. I III w Platyloma flexuosum, J. Smith. Pellaa cordata, ^Jlexuosa, Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 153. Pellaa intermedia, Mettenius. — Kuhn, in Linnaea, xxxvi., p. 84. Hab. — From Austin, Texas, to San Diego County, California, proba- bly in exposed rocky places. Mexico to Peru. Description. — This is commonly a larger and more rigid fern than the last, having also a pale reddish-brown stalk, and ovate or cordate-ovate obtuse but decidedly larger pinnules. The rachis and all its parts are normally very flexuose, or bent from side to side in a zigzag manner. The stalk is much like that of P. andromeda/oHa, but is more decidedly flattened on one side; and the fibro - vascular bundle is the shape of the expanded wings of a butterfly, having two large spots on the front edge of the fore-wings, and the body represented by a V-shaped projection from the upper side. The band of sporangia is very broad, and the recurved margin of the fruiting pinnules very narrow. The spores are globose and minutely warty, or almost muricated. Mr. Baker considers this plant a variety of P. cordata, which has a straight rachis and plainly cordate or even sagit- tate pinnules. The latter species is found from Mexico to Ecuador. Mr. Emerton's characteristic drawing is taken from a specimen col- lected by the botanists of the Mexican Boundary Survey. fill m i sit i II;; -^^ li^i ■ :■:''-■ - ' ■' ■ , • ^,' \ la J— 1 ■ 'J ) ■ ■ FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. :09 t Pi. mi: XXVI II. OSMUNDA RHCxALlS. Linn.kus. Royal Fern. OsMUNDA KF.GALis : — Root-stock creeping, massive with imbricated stalk-bases; stalks erect, several inches to two feet high, roumled on the back, slightly flattened in front, never chaffy; fronds a few inches to several feet long, ovate-oblong in outline, bi-pinnate ; pinn.x mostly opposite, the lower ones distant ; pinnules sub-coriaceous, commonly smooth, distinct, short-pctioled or sub-sessile, oval, oblong or oblong-lanceolate ; the base rounded, or oblitjucly truncate, or sub-cordate, (iften somewhat auricled, especiallv on the lower side, the edges com- monly crenulate-serrulate, the apex obtuse or sub-acute ; fertile fronds with several of the uppermost pinna; contracted and bi-pinnate, the slender divisions destitute of green leaf-tissue, anil co\'ered with bright-brown bi-valvular sporangia having a reticulated surface. ().i»i/i)/. ;oS. — Mnoui:, Xat. I'r. l?rit. I'crns, t. 50. — C"iKA\, Manual, cil. ii.. iii., iv., p. 600; cd. v., p. 670. — ICaihn, in Chapman's l'"l., p. 5(;S. — llcioKia;, l>rit. l'"crns, t. 45. — Mii.Di;, in Nov. Act. .Acad. Nat. Cur., xxvi., ii.. i mi 1 !IO FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. p. 647; Fil. Eiir. et Atl, p. 175; Monogr. Gen. Osmiincl-e, p. 58, t. i., ii., iii., f. r-64. — MiQUEL, Prolus. Fl. Japon., in Ann. Mus. Bot. Liigd.-Batav., iii., p. 181.' — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 427. — FouRNiER, PI. Mex., Crypt., p. 140.— William- son, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 133, t. Iii, Osmunda Japoiiica, Tiiunderg, FI. Jap., p. 330. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. "161. — WiLLDENOW, Sp. PI., v., 99. — Eaton, in Perry's Exp., ii., p. 330. (Eastern Asia ; the fertile fronds with no sterile pinna:.) Osmunda spcctabilis, Willdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 98. — PuRsn, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 658. — Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 19. — Hooker. Fl. Bor.-Am., ii., p. 265. — Torrey, Fl. New York, ii., p. 504. — Presl, SuppL, p. 63. — Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 634. (East- ern North America.) Osmunda paliistris, Schr.\der, " in Getting, gelehrt. Anz. (1824), p. 866." — Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 20. — Sturm, Fl. Bras., Fasc. xxiii., p. 165. (Brazil.) Osmunda obtusifolia, Willdenow, " Herb." — K.\ulfuss, Enum. Fil., p. 43. — Presl, Suppl, p. 65. (Mauritius.) Osmicnda glaucescens, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 20. — Presl, Suppl., p. 65. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 116. (North Amer- ica ; the stalk glaucous near the basc^ Osmunda gracilis, Link, "Hort. Berol., 2, p. 145;" Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 20. — KuNZE, Die Farrnkraiitcr, i., p. 81, t. xxxi.x. — Presl, Suppl., p. 64. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 116. (Brazil.) Osmunda Hiigcliana, Presl, Supi^l., p. 64. (India.) ' The forns of this Prcliisio li.ive been referred to once or twice in the pres- ent work (as on pp. 136 anil 147) as having been prepared by Mettenius. The author was the late Dr. V. A. W. Miqiicl, Professor of Botany at Utrecht. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 311 :, I . f.1 Osmimdci capCHsis, Prksi,, Siippl., p. 63. (South Africa.) Osmiinda spcciosa. " Wallich, Catal., n. 50." — Pki:si., Suppl., p. 64. Filix fiorida, sen Osmtmda rcgalis foliis allcrnis, surculis sc7niuifcris, Gronovius, F1. Virg., p. 123. Had. — In marshes and wet woods, and by die margins of ponds and streams ; very common from Newfoundland and New Brunswick, through Canada westward to the Saskatchewan, and in tlie United States from Maine to Florida, extending to Lake Superior and Louisi- ana. Mexico and Cuba to Brazil. Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Mau- ritius. Apparently absent from the western side of both the American continents, unless possibly it is in the Sierra Madre of North-western Mexico. Description. — The root-stock creeps just beneath the sur- face of the ground, or even at the surface, achancing an inch or so every year, and slowly decaying at the older extremity. The existence of a plant probably continues many years, as the old and decayed remains of the root-stock may sometimes be traced for two or three feet. The root-stock itself is slender, scarcely more than two lines in thickness ; but it is so covered with imbricating stalk-bases and by interlacing roots, that the whole is massive, and often has a diameter of two or three inches. The stalks arc continuous with the root-stock, and indeed inseparably united with it : the part above ground is roundish, but flattened on the upper or anterior side, and smooth, except for a little pale-brown deciduous cobwebby wool. The single fibro-vascular bundle is in section horseshoe-shaped, with in- > \ '■\% 1. n I' I'- n W 'i r'' M .1 ■ m H'lt I'*! h i; 212 FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. curved edges. The plant is devoid of chaff; but the base of the stalks is dilated on both sides, so as to form a pair of broad stipular wings. These wings are peculiar to the Osiiiun- dacece among ferns, and are curiously analogous to the stipules of some Phasnogamous plants. In the terminal bud of the root-stock they arc found of all degrees of development, each one invvrapping those less developed than itself, like the scales of an onion. The central part is thickest, and made stiff by dark hard tissue ; but the sides grow thinner, and at the edges are a most delicate membrane. All but the fibro-vascular mid- rib, and a few veins which diverge from it obliquely, are white, fleshy, and gorged with starch-grains oval or roundish in shape, and of very different sizes, the exceedingly minute and the larger ones commingled. Between the stipular bud -coatings are layers of fine wool, densely packed away, and apparently mixed with starchy tissue ; but of this I am not quite sure. The apex of the scale bears a rudimentary frond, coiled up circinatcly, as in most ferns. When the frond is full-grown, the edges of the wings become scarious, and the oblique stria- tions of firm tissue more evident. After a while the edges of the wings become ragged, and arc torn away ; but the middle part continues white and fleshy for a long time. The root-stock sends out strong blackish rootlets, some of which creep upward between the scales, and others pierce directly through them, thus binding the whole together, giving it great strength and solidity, and taking so firm a hold upon the soil, that a strong man finds it no easy task to tear the plant from the ground. The wings FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 213 are, of course, decidedly concave ; but their general shape is that of a barbed arrow-head. They are from two to two and a half inches long, and three-fourths of an inch broad at the widest part. The fronds of the royal fern are said to attain the height of ten or eleven feet in the British Islands; but the highest that I have ever seen were from the valley of the Connecticut River, and measured six feet from the ground. Fronds four or five feet high are not at all rare ; but more commonly the fronds, including the stalk, which is nearly as long as the frond itself, stand from two to four feet high. In dryish marshes they are often not more than a foot or fifteen inches high, and stand perfectly erect ; but in plants of full size the fronds curve outward in all directions, and form an object of such stately beauty, that the plant well deserves its name of royal fern. The color of this fern is usually a full herbaceous green, but it is often somewhat glaucous, especially on the stalk and rachis ; and, when grown in sunny marshes, the young fronds are often tinged with various shades of reddish -orange and brownish-red. The sterile fronds are broadly ovatc-oblong in outline, and exactly bi- pinnate. The primary pinnaj usually number from seven to nine pairs, of which two or three of the uppermost are reduced to simple leaflets ; and the rest bear from six to twelve pinnules on each side, beside the terminal ones. The lower pinnre of a large frond arc often a foot long, and the lowest pair separated from the next by an interval of four or five inches. The second pair of pinn.ne are nearly or ' m V 'if ■4 ^v^ i 'KW !I4 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. quite as large as the lowest pair, and the size scarcely dimin- ishes till the fourth or fifth pair is reached. The pinnaj have evident stalks, commonly two to four lines long : they are usu- ally exactly opposite, but may sometimes be found separated as much as half an inch. The secondary pinnae, pinnules, or leaflets, are perfectly smooth, and of a rather firm chartaceous texture : they vary a good deal in shape and in size, and many ' supposed species have been founded principally upon differences of this kind ; but, to any person who will devote a day to gath- ering fronds of this fern in the marshes and along the waters of almost any township in New England, it will appear a use- less and superfluous task to try to distinguish even any well- marked varieties. The pinnules vary in length from three-quar- ters of an inch to two inches and a quarter (in plants of the United States), and in breadth from three lines to eight, the shorter ones being not always the narrowest. The commonest shape is oval-oblong, rounded at the apex, and the base unequal, being obliquely truncate or broadly rounded on the upper side, and more or less cordate on the lower. Other fronds, especially those from Florida and the Carolinas, will have oblong-lanceo- late pinnules, with the apex sub-acute, and the base very un- equal. Sometimes both sides of the base are cordate, and specimens with a distinct rounded auricle on the lower side of the base are by no means lacking. The absence of this auricle was formerly relied on to distinguish the American O. spec- tabilis from the European O. regalis ; but, while the auricle is certainly less common here than in Europe, it may readily be FfCRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 215 found in almost any district, and it is certainly impossible by its aid to separate the plants of the two continents. The edges of the pinnules are commonly finely crenulate - serrulate ; but sometimes the serrulations are scarcely perceptible. Be- sides the auricle just referred to, the margin of the pinnules occasionally bears two or three short rounded lobes in its lower half, just as is often the case in European specimens. The veins are free, and usually fork once close to the mid- vein, and the upper veinlet again before reaching the margin ; but in broader pinnules the lower veinlet is also forked ; and, if the pinnule be auricled or lobed, the forking will be repeated a third and even a fourth time. The apices of the veins end most frequently in the sinuses between the teeth, but some- times in the points of the teeth, as in Milde's European var. acuminata. The fertile fronds are of the same height as the others, and usually have the three or four lower pairs of pinuc'e ex- actly like those of the sterile fronds ; but the upper part is transformed into a bipinnate or tripinnatc panicled mass of fructification. In the normal fructiferous panicle the green- leaf tissue is entirely wanting, the ultimate divisions being all thread-like, containing no chlorophyll, and entirely covered with sporangia. But it frequently happens that some of the pinnae are but partly contracted, and produce abundant sporan- gia along their margins, while yet preserving a truly foliaceous character. This may happen either at the base of the panicle, or in its upper portion : when the latter is the case the upper- . Fi III m^i '!|l :i :; |5 I'l |i 2l6 FERNS OF NORTH ANfF.RICA. most pinnre are usually entirely foliaceous and sterile, and the frond is an example of the var. intcrrupta of Milde. But in Japan and India a plant is found, the O. Japonica of Thun- berg, and O. speciosa of Wallich, in which the fertile frond is fertile throughout its whole length. But this complete separa- tion of sterile and fertile fronds does not seem to be abso- lutely constant ; and while the plant may properly be called var. yaponica, as by Milde, or var. biforiiiis, as by Bentham (in the Flora of Hongkong), the distinction is not now consid- ered to be of specific importance. The same form occurs also in China and in Natal. The sporangia, as of all the Osiintn- dacecc, are much larger than in polypodiaceous ferns, and the ring is reduced to a mere patch of cellules slightly different from the rest of the cellules of which the sporangium is com- posed. The sporangia are short-pedicelled, and obovate-spheri- cal in shape. They open by a longitudinal cleft along the front, the opening extending over the top to the vestige of the ring, thus dividing into two equal hemispherical valves. The spores are tetrahedric - spherical, with three vitta? which meet at the angular side of the spore. The surface is granulosc, and the color a very pale green. Milde describes no less than fourteen varieties of the royal fern, giving to North America his var. spedabUis, which he makes identical with O. g/auccsccns, and crediting us also with an occasional plant of var. palustris, and even of the common- est European form, which he calls " Forma obinsiitscuia." But it seems more reasonable to recognize only the species O. re- gafis, and possibly the diplotaxic var. yaponica. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 217 The genus Osmmida comprises six or seven species : one of them is found in Europe, the same one in Africa, three in America, and all in Asia. Two other .trcnera are associated in the same sub-order: viz., Todca, represented by a single spe- cies which occurs in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand ; and Leptoptcris, which has two species in New Zealand, and one in Australia, New Caledonia, the Feejee Islands, etc. In Osviunda the sporangia are borne normally on contracted branch- lets destitute of green leaf-tissue. Toiim has the sporangia on the back of the green sub -coriaceous frond; and Leptoptcris has the sporangia similarly placed on the back of the frond, but the frond is delicately pellucid like the Hyi/iciiophyllacecc. All the genera have the stalk winged at the base, much as in O. regalis. The name Osmmida is of uncertain origin. Dr. Gray says that Osmunder was a Saxon name of the divinity Tlior. Sir W. J. Hooker {British Ferns, at t. 45) refers to Sir James Ed- ward Smith's conjecture that the word comes from the Saxon Osmund, meaning "domestic peace." He also quotes from Gerarde that " in olden time it was called Osmund the IFatcr- man, and the whitish portion of the root-stock (which, boiled, or else stamped, and taken with some kind of liquor, is thought to be good for those that are wounded, dry-beaten, and bruised, or that have fallen from some high place) is called the heart of Osmund the IVaterman." Another old name was St. Chris- topher's Herb. Hooker says further: "Now, as wc know St. Christopher was the patron saint of watermen, and probably k '■ 1 * i V 1 1 I J iJ' *ri .! I ;( ill!.: 1: ■1'' " i.. M 2l8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. of water-plants, so St. Osmund might be equally venerated under like circumstances, could we know more of his history than is handed down to us. And a saint of that name did come over from Normandy in 1066 with William the Con- queror, and one of some celebrity too ; for he was made Chancellor of the kingdom, and Bishop of Salisbury, where he 'reformed the liturgy for the diocese, which afterwards became general throughout the kingdom, under the name of the Salis- bury Liturgy.' Such a saint deserves to have his- name handed down to posterity in so truly noble a British fern." Still another Osmund, and a saintly man too, appears to have been a water- man, and a dweller at Loch Tync. A story of his adventures is related in Williamson's " Ferns of Kentucky." A little more about the name is given by Milde (Alonogr. Gen. Osmunda, P- 55)- Plate XXVIII. — Osmunda rcgalis, from a fine plant in the grounds of John Robinson, Esq., at Salem, Massachusetts. The plant is drawn about one-eighth the natural size. Fig. 2 shows the base of a mature stalk with the stipular dilation, though the wing is not so wide as when the frond is first developed. Fig. 3. — A pinnule of the form common- est in the northern United States. Fig. 4. — An elongated pinnule, somewhat auricled on the lower side of the base, from a plant found at Beverly, Massachusetts. Fig. 5. — A portion of a pinnule enlarged, showing the common type of the venation. Fig. 6. — A cluster of spo- rangia, magnified, l-'ig. 7. — A spore. il^ ^(1 '. '1* ll'l J r ; fS '.. ' 'ililf' I "M ,i*. > t f , !: 1 ;nt! Ill K' ' ^i FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 319 Pi^TE XXIX. — Figs, i, 2. OSMUNDA CLAYTON I AN A, Linn.4ius. Clayton's Fiowering-Fern. OsMUNDA Claytoniana : — Root -stock creeping, massive with imbricated stalk-bases ; stalks erect, several inches to two feet high, rounded on the back, less convex in front, clothed with loose brownish wool when young, never chaffy ; fronds two to three feet long, standing in a crown, oblong - lanceolate in outline, somewhat nan owed towards the base, and rounded or short -pointed at the apex, the sterile ones curving grace- fully outwards, pinnate with numerous oblong-lanceolate rather obtuse deeply pinnatifid pinn.x ; segments ovate-oblong, oblique, entire or obscurely crenulate towards the rounded apex ; veins free, usually once forked near the midvein ; fertile fronds taller than the sterile, and more erect; the pinn.'c mostly similar, but a few (two to four) pairs of those near the middle of tiie frond contracted, bipinnate, the slender divisions destitute of green tissue, and covered with dark -greenish bivalvular sporangia having a reticulated surface. OsmuHcia Claytoniana, Linn.kus, Sp. I'l., p. 1321. — Swvivi/:, Syn. Fil., p. 160. — Wii.i,i)i:.N()\v, Sp. PI., v., p. 96. — PiKsii, l'"l. Am. .Sept., ii., p. 657. — ToKRKV, Fl. N. Y., ii., p. 503. — Pkksl, .Siippl., p. 6S. — ("iRAV. Manual, 0(1. i., p. 6;,4. otc. — F.viox, in Chapman's Fl., ?! . . Ii ■ f 1 1: 1 "l if Li 220 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. p. 598. — HooKKU & Baki'.r, Syn. Fil., p. 426. — Milde, Monogr. Gen. Osinundae, p. 101, t. iii., f. 77-85, t. iv. — Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 135, t. liii. Osmunda inlcrrupla, 1 Iiciiaux, Fl. Ror. Am., ii., p. 273. — Swaktz, Syn. Fil., p. 160. — SciiKunR, Krypt. Gew., p. 146, t. 144. — Wii.l- DENOW, Sp. I'l., v., p. 96. — PuRsii, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 657. — HooKEK, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265. — Link, Fil. Hort. I3erol., p. 21.' — Prksl, Suppl., p. 67. Osmunda linsilaris, Sprengel, Anleit., p. 160 ; Engl, version, p. 175. Osmimda inonticola & O. pilosa, Wallich, " Catal., No. 52." — I'resl, Suppl., pp. 68, 69. Strutluoptcris Claytoniatia, Berniiardi, " in Schraders Jour. f. d. Bot. (1800), ii., p. 126." Plcnasiiim Claytoiiianum, P. inlcrrupinm & P. pilosuvt, Presl, " in Abhdl. BiJhm. Ges. Wiss., v. (1848), pp. 325, 326." Hab. — Low grounds and wet thickets, especially in alluvial soil; common from Newfoundland to Lake Superior, and extending south- ward to the mount linous regions of Arkansas, Kentucky, ami North Carolina, and probably .somewhat farther. Bourgeau collected it near Sturgeon Lake, some hundred miles north-west of Lake Superior ; and Milde gives Lake Winnipeg as a station for it. It is found also in the Himalayan provinces of India ; and has been attributed to Brazil, near Rio Janeiro, though probably by an error of Wallich's. Description. — • Clayton's Osmunda has a massive root- stock very similar to that of the royal fern, and densely covered ' O. glaiiccsccns of Link is referred to O. Claytoniana by Hooker & Baker; but the character given it by Link points plainly to a common American form of O. iTffalis. Rut the confusion of synonymy originateii w.'tli Link himself. FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 221 with similar imbricated winged stalk-bases. In cutting across a heavy rhizome of the plant now under consideration, the section being made nearly three inches back of the growing end, the true rhizome was found very nauch below the centre of the whole mass, so that it was comparatively close to the exterior on the lower side. The rhizome itself is about three lines in diameter, and roundish, but with a fluted exterior. The outer layer is a very dense stratum of hard black sclerenchyma, through which the whitish fibro-vascular systems of stalk-bases pass in a direction but slightly oblique to the central axis of the rhizome. Some of these systems may be seen scarcely separated from the roundish central mass of ducts and cellular tissue of the rhizome ; others embedded in its sclerenchyma ; and others again just separated from the sclerenchyma of the rhizome, and coated with their own similar hard tissue. These stalk -bases also show the beginning of the whitish stipular wings. Outside of these may be seen older and older stalk- bases, some of them cut where the wings are well developed, but many of the outer layers of them going to decay, and their wings completely gone, or reduced to a few disintegrated fibres. The plant, when it grows in a favorable situation, forms a crown of fronds several feet in diameter. The outer fronds, which are generally sterile, rise nearly erect on their stalks, but gradually bend away from the common centre, and curve outwards in all directions. The fertile fronds arc usually the tallest, and stand close together, nearly erect, in the centre of ^ pit 'ill , m 3ip! ,; 1^ ' i 333 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. the crown. The fertile pinnae are somewhere near the middle of the fronds, most frequently rather above the middle. Above these fertile pinnae the sterile pinnx' again appear ; and this upper part of the fertile frond is more or less curved outward, like the sterile fronds. But this distinction in the bearing of the sterile and the fertile fronds is not always so evident, especially in plants of moderate growth. When the fronds first rise from the ground, they are covered with a light-brown coating of entangled webby fibres. These are shed during the early summer, and the fronds with their stalks become nearly smooth, a little of the wool clinging in the axils of the pinnae and along the midribs or the veins. The stalks are greenish in color, and have the back rounded, and the front slightly convex near the base, but con- siderably furrowed in its upper portion. The transverse sec- tion shows a single horscshoc-shaped fibro-vascular bundle, its edges considerably rolled inward. The length of the stalks is from a few inches to nearly or cjuitc two feet. The sterile frond in large plants is fully three feet long, perhaps some- times longer. A frond three feet long is a foot wide in the middle, and decreases moderately from near the middle to the base ; so that the lowest pinnae are scarcely half as long as the middle ones. Six or eight inches from the end the frond begins to narrow, and narrows so rapidly that the apex is barely acute, and very often somewhat rounded. In the frond here described the lowest pinnas are nearly opposite, but the successive ones more and more decidedly alternate. The pin- }}'< i:ir FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 223 nae number twenty-three on each side ; the lower ones sepa- rated by intervals of two and a half inches, and the rest gradually more approximated. The pinnas are short - stalked, and in shape are lanceolate from a broad base ; the largest ones measured being seven inches long, and one and a quarter inches wide at the base. They are pinnatifid about four-fifths of the depth to the mid- rib, the segments being eighteen or twenty on each side, close- placed, oblique, oblong - ovate, and rounded at the ends; the apex of the pinna being barely acute, but never acuminate. In each segment there are about eleven to thirteen veins on each side, the lowest one being on the inferior side of the midvein, and not unfrequently leaving the midrib of the pinna at a point just below the separation of the midvein from the mid- rib. These veins are almost always forked but once, the fork- ing very near the midvein, and the two veinlets running nearly straight in an oblique direction to the margin of the segment, which is commonly entire, or at most obscurely crenulate towards the apex. In fronds of less ample dimensions the pinnas are of course fewer and smaller, and the segments also smaller in due proportion. The lower and the upper pinnae of the fertile fronds are pre- cisely like those of the sterile fronds. The fertile pinna: vary in number from one to four pairs, and in position from near the bottom to near the top of the frond. In one frond, of twenty -six pinnae on each side, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth on each side are fertile, leaving twenty sterile pinnae !/«' ^« h.n !«! I)! '■ M m ! ' i: \ 224 FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. above them on each side. In another example tliere are five sterile pinnre on each side below the fertile ones, and twelve above them. In one frond the third pinna on one side is sterile ; while its mate is sterile at the base, but fertile in the upper part. Another frond has one and a half pairs of pinnae fertile ; and still another, four and a half pairs fertile. The fertile pinn.e are as large as the sterile ones in a half-grown frond, and, like them, rise obliquely from the rachis ; but in a matured frond they are but one-third to one-fourth as long as the sterile ones, and, when fully ripe, are deflexed. They are closely bipinnatc, somewhat woolly with brownish contorted hairs, and densely covered with bivalvular reticulated sporan- gia, much like those of O. rcgalis, but of a different and very characteristic color, being blackish -green, and at length dark brown.' The spores are trihedric-spheroid, with three radiating vittce and a granulose surface. ' " Wo notice at once in the sporangia the dark, almost black color, which is in the highest tlegrec characteristic of this species. The ring is 3-4 cells high, and lo-i I cells broad. From the top ol the sporangium there e.\tend to the line of fissure si.v small rows of cells, suddenly contracting into from two to four, which form the borders of the fissure. These bordering cells are always bright- colored, not longer tlian the adjoining cells, hut full three times as slender. To the riglit and left of the ring, and particularly from the upper portion of it, there extend around to the front of the sporangium the blackish-brown cells from which it derives its dark appearance; whilst the cells lying directly beneath the ring, and extending to the pedicel, arc bright-brown or yellowish-brown. The whole cell is pervaded by this dark color, and not merely the cell walls, which arc not specially thicker than in the other species of Osmunda." — Milde: Mouogr. Osm., p. 107. tu FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 225 This fern was originally described by Linnaeus in these words : " Osiminda frondibus pinnatis : pinnis piniiatifidis apice coarctato-fnicticantibiisy Swartz uses nearly the same character, merely adding after "pinnatis" the words "feyntgi- neo-tomentosis^ and putting a comma before "apice." Will- denow varies the expression a little, but admits that he had seen only imperfect specimens ; meanwhile describing the same species well enough under a new name {O. inlcrrupta), which was adopted by nearly all American botanists, until Dr. Gray, examining Clayton's specimens in 1839, ascertained that the O. Claytoniana of Linnaeus and the O. intcyrupta of Willde- now were one and the same species, but that Clayton's speci- mens were immature, and might readily be supposed to have terminal fructification. This observation I have since been able to repeat, and am perfectly satisfied of its correctness. Rut Wallich has named a plant from Kumat)n Osninnda vcstita, which Milde says is a form of the present species with truly terminal fructification. The only Himalayan specimens of O. Claytoniana which I have seen have, however, the sub- medial fructification of the ordinary form. Concerning the southern limits of this fern in our coun- try there is still some doubt. Mr. Curtiss sent it from Vir- ginia; Mr. Williamson, in his "Ferns of Kentucky," says it " is found in all our damp, rich woods, but is not so common about Louisville as the O. regalis ;" Milde refers to speci- mens collected by Rugcl near Asheville, North Carolina; and from North-western Arkansas Professor F. L. Harvey sends ' 'I t'' ii"]f ■ii , 1; ■Hi. iilillL' ■; >r\ 226 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 'ilf in !1 -■- il^i ■-. : a sterile frond, probably of this species, but with the pinnae almost acute enough for the next. I have no note of its occurrence in Tennessee or any of the Gulf States. Plate XXIX., Figs, i, 2. — An entire plant, from Mr. Robinson's garden, in Salem, Massacliusetts, reduced to about one-eighth of the natural size, showing the massive root-stock, and the fertile fronds rising nearly erect above the recurving sterile ones. Fig. 2 represents a sterile and a fertile pinna of the natural size. U^ ! If FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 227 Plate XXIX. — Figs. 3-5. OSMUNDA CINNAMOMEA, Linn^us. Cinnamon- Fern. Osmunda CINNAMOMEA : — Root-stoclc Creeping, massive with imbricated stalk-bases ; stalks a few inches to two feet high, rounded at the back, nearly flat in front, clothed at first with abundant light-brown wool, never chaffy; fronds from a foot to three or four feet long, standing in a crown ; the sterile ones oblong-lanceolate in outline, slightly narrowed towards the base, pointed at the apex or even acuminate, pinnate with nu- merous oblong -lanceolate acute deeply pinnatifid pinnae; seg- ments ovate - oblong, oblique, usually entire, rounded at the apex, or moderately acute ; veins free, usually once forked near the midvein ; fertile fronds often as tall as the sterile, pro- duced before them, but withering much sooner ; all the pinn^ contracted, bipinnate, destitute of green tissue ; the slender divisions covered with cinnamon -brown bivalvular reticulated sporangia. Osmunda cinnamomca, Linn/Eus, Sp. PI., p. 1522. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 160. — ScHKUHR, Krypt. Gew., p. 148, t. 146. — Willde- Now, Sp. PI., v., p. 98. — MiCHAUx, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 273.— PuRSH, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 657. — Hooker, Fl. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265. — ToRREv, Fl. N. Y., ii., p. 503. — Link, Fil. Hort. In J m i-'j i iil i^i n\ 338 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Berol., p. 21. — PuESL, Suppl., p. 6S. — Gray, Manual, cd. i., p. 635, etc. — Mkitenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. ii6; "Prod. Fl. Nov.-Gran., p. 79." — Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 336. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 426. — Miquei., Prolus. Fl. Japon. in Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Batav., iii., p. 182. — Mii.de, Monogr. Gen. Osmunda;, p. 93, t. v. — Fournieu, PI. Mex. Crypt, p. 140. Siruthioptcris cinnamomca, Bernhardi, " in Schraders Jour. f. d. Bot. (1800), ii., p. 126." Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, Presl, " in Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss,, v. (1848), p. 326." Osmiinda alata. Hooker, "in Edinb. Phil. Jour. (1822), vi., p. 333." Osmunda Claytoniana, Conrad, "in Jour. Ac. Sc. Philad. (1S29), vi., part i., p. 29, t. ii. ; " not of Linnaus. Osmunda imlricata, Kunze, Die Farrnkraiiter, ii., p. 29, t. cxii. Had. — Low grounds and moist copses ; very abundant from New- foundland to Wisconsin, and southward to Florida and Louisiana. It occurs also in Bermuda, Cuba, and San Domingo, from Mexico to New Grenada, Venezuela, and Brazil, and has been collected in Mantchooria and Japan. Description. — The cinnamon-fern is in many respects so like the two species of Osmunda already described, that a full description of its root-stock, and the stalk -bases with their wings, is unnecessary. Indeed, the whole plant is so very simi- lar to Clayton's flowering-fern, that in the absence of fructifica- tion it is not always easy to distinguish one from the other. When well grown the crown of fronds fully rivals that of the other species, and the sterile fronds have almost exactly the ki. 'litfiHrt^il'ii'iti FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 329 same shape and dimensions ; the most evident difference being, that in O. cinnamomea the apex of the frond is decidedly acute, or even acuminate, and so also is each particular pinna. A frond from the swamps of Hudson County, New Jersey, has a stalk twenty inches long, a few shreds of loose wool still adhering to it. The frond itself is thirty-seven inches long, and has thirty pinnae on each side, besides a few small lobes which form the apex. The lowest pinnas are three inches long, and five-eighths of an inch wide at the base. The long- est pinnae, which are rather above the middle of the frond, are seven and a half inches long, and an inch and a quarter wide at the base. The number of segments in these longest pinnae is about twenty-four on each side. In these very large fronds the stipular wings are more elongated than in smaller plants : I find one frond with the wings three and a half inches long, and, the specimen being dried, beautifully marked with oblique slightly curved lines of blackish sclercnchyma. The margin of the segments is usually entire, or obscurely crcnulate ; but in plants of large size the lower segments of the pinnae are not unfrequently much elongated, and again pinnatifid. Sometimes it is only the inferior basal segment which is thus enlarged ; sometimes several of the segments will exhibit this character. Fronds exhibiting this character have been gathered in North- ern New York by Mrs. Barnes, in Connecticut, and in New Jersey, A plant producing them is cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Cambridge, Massachusetts ; and this form is doubt- less very common throughout the United States. ',«£ % « ! m 23° FERNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. I'l iii The fertile fronds rise from the root-stock in early spring, at first densely woolly with light-brown tomcntum, and show- ing a pretty group of little croziers for each plant ; but, when the frond is fairly uncoiled, the abundant sporangia give it the characteristic cinnamon-brown coloring. The sterile fronds soon follow the fertile ones, and, when regularly disposed, form a magnificent green vase, within which stand erect the rich plumes of fructification. Normally the fronds are either wholly sterile, green, and firmly chartaceous, or wholly fertile, soft, and devoid of green tissue ; but fronds are not rare in which some of the lower pinna-' are foliaceous, while the greater part of them arc fully fertile. Other fronds are mainly sterile, but with the apex wholly or partly transformed into fructification. Such fronds, which are plainly mere accidents, constitute the van frondosa of Gray's Manual and of Milde's Monograph. This condition, rather than variation, occurs also in specimens from Chiapas, Mexico, collected by Dr. Ghiesbreght. Mr. W. H. Leggett found still another anomaly in Peekskill, New York, in which the lower part of the frond is fertile, while the apex is sterile, and the middle part shows a gradual transition from one condition to the other. The fertile fronds are usu- ally as tall as the sterile, though sometimes only half their height, and rarely overtopping them. The pinnae are about two inches long, and, until they wither, stand nearly erect. They are densely bipinnate, and heavily covered with sporan- gia, which are thus described by Dr. Milde: "The cinnamon- brown color pervades the whole sporangium : this coloring "'i J FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 231 comes not only from the partition-walls, but from the entire cell-wall ; and only the ring, as in all the Osmundas, is colored yellow in the strata of its cell -walls. The ring is four cells high, and ten to twelve cells broad. The line of fissure is bordered on each side by two or three slender rows of cells, which are not unfrcquently much longer than the neigh- boring large cells, though always three times as narrow." The spores are yellowish -green, globular, and minutely verrucose- punctate. If the three vittae which belong to the genus arc present, I have failed to discover them. Besides the imperfectly fruited fertile fronds, of which the vdir./rondosa has been constituted, there are mentioned by fern- writers two other varieties. Var. alafn (Hooker, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 265 ; Milde, Monogr., p. 94) has the rachis slightly wing - margined, — a not uncommon character of large fronds. Var. imbricata (Mii-de), which is Kunze's Osntunda im- bricata, is said to have the fronds rigid and coriaceous, the pinnae sub-erect, and the segments imbricated. It is a Brazil- ian form, of which I have seen no specimens ; but Milde thinks it passes gradually into the usual form ; and fronds with the segments more or less imbricated are not rare in the United States. All our native species of Osmunda may be easily culti- vated in common garden-soil, and, in fact, are very frequently seen in the gardens and door-yards of our New-England towns. But if one will take the pains to prepare for these ah ' I .if; m 232 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. magnificent ferns a mixture of swamp-muck and river-alluvion, or fine loam, and will keep them supijlied wit.i abundant moisture, he will be rewarded by much finer plants than he would otherwise have. Such a bit of artificial bog will do nicely for the species of fFoodwarcfia also, and on the sunny edges of it pitcher-plants and sundews .md other interesting bog-plants will be almost sure to thrive. Plate XXIX., Figs. 3-5. — Osnmnda cinnantomca. Fig. 3 is an entire plant from the country near Salem, Massachusetts, reduced to almost one-eighth of the natural size. Fig. 4 is a sterile pinna, and Fig. 5 a fertile pinna, both of the natural size. R : ;^ 'fte if til jll Ii' ., if Hti Hi ft Wb\ ; -i;^ HI 'i -f,: Hi 11 I, I: ) ,1; \n u I 'I 1 21 Ill ■I', FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA, 233 Plate XXX. ASPIDIUM THELVPTERIS, Swartz. Marsh Shield-Fern. AsPiDiUM Thulypteris : — Root- Stock slender, elongated, creeping, blackish, and nearly naked ; stalks scattered, fully as long as the fronds or longer, blackish at the base, at first sparingly chaffy, soon smooth ; fronds one to three feet long, membranaceous, oblong-lanceolate, scarcely narrowed at tpc base, short-pointed, pinnate ; pinnae numerous, short-stalked, spread- ing or slightly decurved, tapering from a broad base to a rather acute or sometimes acuminate apex, slightly pubescent on the midribs and veins, deeply pinnatifid ; segments oblong- ovate, usually entire, obtuse ; veins free, :he lower ones or all of them forked near the midvein ; fertile fronds on loncrer stalks, and with narrower segments than the sterile ones ; sori as near or nearer the midvein than the margin, which is often revolutc ; indusia minute, reniform, often minutely glandular at the edge. Aspidinm T/u/ypkris, Swartz, ■' in Schradcrs Jour. (1800), ii., p. 40:" Syn. Fil., p. 50. — S( hki i(u, Krypt. ("rcw., j). 51, t. 52. — Wux- DENow, S[). ri., v., p. 249. — Puusii, M. Am. Sept., ii,, p. 661. — ToKRKV, V\. X.\",. ii., p, 4q6, — CiRAV, Manual, ed. ii., p. 597, etc. — MEniCNiu.s, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 92; As|ii(lium, p. 112. — MiLUE, Fil. F,ur. & At!., p. ii*. i 234 FERNS Ol-" NORTH AMERICA. P I Acrostic/mm Thclyptcris, LinN/Eus, Sp. P!., p. 1528. Polypodium Thclyptcris, LinN/Eus, " Mantissa, p. 505." Polysticlmm Tliclypkris, Rum, " Fl. Germ., iii., p. 77." — Kocii, Syn. Fl. Germ., cd. iii., p. 733. Ncplirodiimi T/ic/yptcris, Desv.aux, "in Mem. Soc. Linn., vi., p. 257." — Hooker, Brit. Ferns, t. 13; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 88. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 271. Lastrea Tliclypkris, Presi,, Tent. Pteritl., p. 76. — Moore, Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. xxi.x. Dryopteris Tliclypteris, Gr.w, Manual, ed. i., p. 630. Tlulyptcris paliislris, SciioiT, Gen. I'il. (with a plate). Var. SQU.vMiGERUM. — Midribs bearing a few ovate scales beneath; indusium beset with stalked glands and slender hairs ; otherwise as in the ty]3e. Aspidium Thclyplcris, ^i squaniigcrum, SciiLECirrEXDAi,, Adumbr. PI., p. 23, t. xi. — KuNZE, PI. Acotyl. Afr. Aust. Recens. Nov., p. 67. Aspidium Sijuamigcnim, Fee, S""" Mem., p. 104. Ncphrodiiiin Tliclypteris, ^-',. squamulosiim, J. D. Hooker, Handb. of N. Z. Flora, p. 777. Lustrca Fairbankii, Beddome (!), "Fil. Brit. Ind., t. 254." I Iai!. — Very common in marshes and wet places, but sometimes in dry grnuiid, iVom Lake Winnipeg, British .America, and New Brunswick, to Louisiana and llorida. Europe, .Siberia, Mantchooria, and Himalayan India. 1 he variety occurs in .South Africa, New Zealand, and Southern India. Descrh'Tion. — Tlu' rodt-stock is very slender, nearly black, almost devoid of tharf, and creeps for many inches just beneath the surface of the ground. Tlie stalks are scattered along the "!>» FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 235 root -Stock, the newest portion of which bears a few short stems an inch long or less, which would naturally be de- veloped into fronds the coming year. The stalks are commonly a little longer than the frond, slender, and naked, except for a few scales which soon dis- appear. The stalk is roundish on the back, furrowed in front, and contains near the base two oval , fibro-vascular bundles, as Milde has observed; but higher up the two are united into one, which is concave anteriorly, and contains three internal vascular projections from the concave side, two of them di- rected obliquely towards the edges of the bundle, and one pointed towards the middle of the opposite curvature. The frond sometimes varies in length from a very few inches to nearly three feet; but commonly it is about a foot long, and four or five inches wide. Such a frond has about twenty to thirty pinuc-e on each side, sometimes regularly ar- ranged in pairs to the very apex, but more frequently more or less alternate. The lower two or three pairs are usually but little shorter than those above them ; but fronds are occa- sionally found in which they are conspicuously reduced. One such is figured by Moore, at Plate XXIX. of the Nature-printed British Ferns ;^ and I have similar fronds from various places in America. The texture of the fronds is slightly heavier than in the New York shield -fern, but still membranaceous. The fronds wither at the first frost, and decay during the winter ' The left-hand figure. The folio edition is always referred to in the pres- ent work. hMl 236 FKRNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 1 f u months. The pinnae are lanceolate, and usually broadest at the base, where they join the rachis by a very short but evi- dent petiole. They taper gradually to the apex, which is acute or even acuminate in most specimens, but is now and then " rather obtuse," as Hooker remarks in his work on the Brit- ish Ferns. The surface appears smooth ; but careful examina- tion reveals a slight pubescence along the midribs and veins, especially on the under surface. The segments are ovate- oblong, with mostly entire edges, and a rounded or at most scarcely acute apex ; though the apex often seems acute in the fertile fronds, on account of the frequently revolute margins of the segments. The lower segments are rarely enlarged and pinnately toothed, or lobed. The veins are free. Commonly the veins fork near the midvein into two divergent veinlcts ; but very often only the lower veins are thus forked, and the upper ones are simple, as in A. Noveboracense. The fruit-dots are of small size, and are placed on the back of the veins, just above the place of forking ; or, if the veins are simple, nearer the midvein than the margin. The indusium is minute, reniform, and somewhat glandular on the margin. The spores are oval, and densely muricated. Plate XXX. — Aspidium Thelypteris. Fig. i is a plant from Salem, Massachusetts, with two fronds, one of them fertile. The long creeping root-stock, with several rudimentary fronds rising from it at intervals, is well represented. Figs. 2 and 3, a sterile and a fertile pinna. Fig. 4, an indusium. Fig. 5, a spore. The last two figures only are magnified. ^iiu Hi! 5*' ''"ife;-' if i. i ^ ? 1 ' 1 ii I," 1 ^ f ll' ,11 ' hi I'T I' iA IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I If m iiM 1^ 2.0 1.8 1.25 lu |l.6 ^ 6" — ► V] <^ /J ^;. c^. .->^ > ^%.^3 >. /A 'W^^ 0 7 Photographir Sciences Corporation ^ V «. « «>. 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (7)6) 873-4503 lV >' C^ ^ » z Ip '^ II FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 837 Plate XXXI. — Figs. 1-3. POLYPODIUM VULGARE, Linn/Eus. Common Polypody. PoLYPODiUM VULGARE: — Root-stocks chaffy, extensively creeping and entangled ; stalks scattered, green and herba- ceous, rather slender, naked, two to eight inches long ; fronds evergreen, sub-coriaceous, smooth, two to ten inches long, ovate- oblong to oblong-linear, acuminate, pinnatifid almost to the mid- rib; segments numerous, spreading, linear -oblong, acute or obtuse, the lower ones separated by rounded sinuses, the upper sinuses acute; margins obscurely crenulate- serrate, less com- monly serrate, or even incised ; veins all free, usually with three or four veinlets, the lowest anterior veinlets bearing at their thickened ends the sub-globose sori midway between the mid- rib and the margin of the segments. Polypodium viilgare, Linn^us, Sp. Pi., p. 1544. — Michaux, F1. Bor. Am., ii., p. 271. — SwARTZ, Syn. Fil., p. 34. — Schkuhr, Krj'pt. Gcw., p. 12, t. II. — WiLLDENow, Sp. PI., v., p. 172. — PuRsir, FI. Am. Sept., ii., p. 658. — BiGELow, Fl. Bost., ed. iii., p. 417. — Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 622; ed. il., p. 590, t. ix. — Moore, Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns, t. i., ii., iii. (excluding a portion of the synouymy). — Koch, Syn. FI. Germ., ed. iii., p. 730. — Mette- Nius, Polypodium, p. 61. — Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 337. — Hooker, Brit. Ferns, t. 2; Sp. Fil., iv.. p. 305. — Hooker I iii ! a^B FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. !j I I & Haker, Syn. Fil., p. 334. — McKen, Ferns of Natal, p. 19. — Mii.nE, Fil. Eur. ct Atl., p. 18. — Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 35, t. iv. Polypodium vuigare, var. Amcricanittn, Hooker, FI. Bor. Am., ii., p. 258. — ToRREY, Fl. N. Y., ii., p. 484. Ctenopteris vulgaris, Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, p. 42. Polypodium Virs^iniantim, Linn.eus, Sp. PI., p. 1545. — Swari7, Syn. Fil., p. 34. VVlLLDENOW, Sp. PI., v., p. 174. — PURSH, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 658. Polypodium Cambricum, Linn.eus, Sp. PI., p. 1546 (a form with pin- natifid segments). Polypodium auslra/e, Fee, Gon. Fil., p. 236 (the same as P. Cambricum, but coming from Sardinia, Teiuriffc, etc.). Had. — On rocks both shadeil and sunny, and on banks, less fre- quently on trunks of trees ; a very common and abundant species. Tlie North - American range extends from the Atlintic to the Pacific, and from the Slave River and Winnipeg \'alley to the mountains of Colo- rado, Arkansas, and North Carolina, and probably to those of Alabama also. A form with acute segments (var. occidentale of Hooker) occurs in California, Oregon, and British ColumlHa; but specimens of tin; ordi nary type have been sent from Ur.alaska and Vancouver's Island, as well as from the boundary -line of British Columbia and Wasliingtoii Territory. Throughout Europe and Northern Asia to Kamtschatka and Japan ; Azores, Madeira, Barbary .States, and Cajie Colony. Me.xico and the Hawaiian Islands are also mentioned by some authors ; but the evidence is not satisfactory. Description. — The root -.stocks arc elongated and creep- ing, attaining a length of several inches, and a diameter of FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 239 two or two and a half lines. They arc usually branched and more or less entangled, and comnionly grow with the upper surface exjjosed to the air. They are of a firm fleshy consist- ency when fresh, hut Iw-'conie hard and somewhat shrivelled when dry. The color is greenish throughout their substance ; but in dried specimens the surface is often white pruinose. Scattered along the root-stock are slightly raised roundish protul)crances, with the top slightly concave. These are the scars which mark the position of former fronds, and, as re- marked on p. 116, form one of the characteristics of true Polypodia. The whole root-stock is covered with ovate-acumi- nate brownish chaffy scales, pcltately attaclunl ne.ir the base. The middle p)rtion of the scales, and the slender acumina- tion, are often darker in color than the border, which is irregularly erose-ciliate or denticulated. The stalks arc smooth and slender, and u.sually a little shorter than the fronds ihey support. They arc brownish at the base, Ijccoming green higher up, and, while tough in tex- ture, are very flexible. At the base they are nearly terete, but have along each side a slightly prominent line, which, as it approaches the frond, becomes more and more evident, and so is gradually developed into a very narrow wing desceiiding from the segments of the frond. The fibro-vascular bundle is soli- tary in the specimens I have examined ; but, in large fronds, Dr. Milde has found two or three. The frond is evergreen, sul>coriaceous, smooth : in outii it varies from ovate to oblong-linear, and in length from half u i 340 IKRNS OF NORIII AMKRIC.V an inch (Colorado plants) to nino inches (Ncuf York), or even fourteen inches (Madeira). Similarly its width varies from four lines to nearly six inches. But the usual size of fronds in the Northern States is from six to eij^lit inches lonj^, and two or two and a half wide. The fronds are so deeply pin- natifid that the incisions extend almost to the rachis, and con- tij^uous segments are connected hy only the narrowest winj;. The scjfments are usually oblon^'-linear from a more or less ililatetl base ; the lower ones hut little if any shorter than the middle ones, and the upjxr ones decreasing gradually, and so passing into the incised or serrate and commonly acuminate ajK'X. The lower sinuses are broad and rounded, and the upper ones narrower and more acute. The number of segments in an ordinary fronil is from fourteen to eighteen on each side. Some very much dwarfeil plants collected by Professor John Wolf at an altitude of eleven thousand feet, n*'ar the Twin Lakes of Colorado, have only four or five little roundish-oblong lolxrs on each side ; and, to go to the other extreme, some fine British fronds have as many as twenty-three lobes on each side. The lobes are either obtuse or acute at the apex; and, though the obtuse form is commoner here than in liurope, neither condition is confined to either siile of the ocean. The margin of the segments is also variable, being commonly ob- scurely serrulate, often undulate, coarsely serrate (in specimens from the south of LLuropc especially), or even again pinnatifid ; in which condition it has lx;en found in several countries of Iiuro|K", and at least twite in the United States. Fronds I! ) 31 fi:rns of norjh amkru a. 24 1 with forked or variously ^ istortcd sijrimnls arc by no means uncommon. Dr. Mildc indicates ten varieties, — coniiiiiiiie, attcuuatum, rotiindatiuii, aiifj^iistinii, brevi/tcs, aiirituiii, scrrafiiiii, occidetitale, Tcucriffu\ and Cambnciiin. The tirst 'iw^i differ merely l)y lonj.jer or shorter obtuse or acute fronds and seifments ; the si.xth is an occasional monstrosity ; the seventh {svrratiini of Willdenow) includes the lar}.(e forms of Southern Hurope, etc., havinj; serrati-d segments ; the eighth {occiih'iitalc of Hooker) is the plant of the Pacific coast, h.iving acuminate segments ; the ninth is a sub -glaucous form from Teneriffe and the Azores; and the last (Caiiibrictiiii ) is an old Linn.ean spe- cific name for a form, first found in Wales, in which the i)ri- mary segments are much widened, and pinn.itifid into numerous ery narrow serrulate lobes. This variety is made to include Mocre's var. seiiii/accniiii, which differs principally in being bipinnatifid only in the lower half, and often fertile; while the original Cambriciiiii is bipinnatifid tiiroughout, and almost always sterile. Var. Ctiinbriciiiii has been found near Stoning- ton, Connecticut, by Miss Kate Stanton of that \ illage, and at Cold Spring. New York, by Miss Sarah P. Monks, at the time a student in Vassar College. Professor Robinson finds in Essex County, Massachusetts, various forms referrible to var. auri/iim. The veins are all free, and the veinlets have thickened apices. In the smaller fronds the veins are forked into two nearly etpial veinlets, of which the upper one may bear a sorus 1'^ ^^ll * ]' & 242 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. at its extremity. In somewhat larger plants the lower veinlet of each pair is again forked ; and this is, perhaps, the com- monest arrangement. In var. occidentale the middle one of the three veinlets is once more forked, as it is also in large fronds from Europe. Var. serratum has as many as five vein- lets in each group; and in var. Cambricum the primary veins are elongated, and bear numerous simple or forked secondary veinlets. The rounded sori are about one line in diameter, and are borne about midway between the midrib and the margins of the segments. The sporangia have the proper vertical incom- plete ring of the sub-order. The number of joints in the ring of Polypodiacece is variable ; the extremes, according to Fee, being ten and thirty -two. In the present species I have observed thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen. The spores arc rather large, yellowish, and oblong-reniform : they have a single vitta or band along the concave side, and the surface is minutely areolatcd or reticulated. The young fronds appear in the spring, and by August or SeptemlxT are in full fruit. They remain green through the winter, the emptied sporangia still clinging to them till after the new fronds are dc\'eloped in the succeeding season. Plate XXXI., Figs. 1-3. — Polypodium vutgare. Fig. i is a plant from Hcvc;rly. Massachusetts, of the common form in New Fngland ; Fig. 2, a sporangium; Fig. 3, a spore. The last two are more or less magnified. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 243 P1.ATE XXXI. — Figs. 4. 5. POLYPODIUM CALIFORNICUM, Kaulfuss. California^. Polypody. PoLYPODiUM Califgrnicum : — Root-Stock creeping, chaffy with light-brown scales ; stalks greenish, straw-colored when dry, smooth ; fronds from a few inches to a foot long, ovate or ovate- oblong, papery- herbaceous, or, if grown near the sea. of firmer texture, pinnatifid almost to the midrib ; segments numerous, oblong -linear, obtuse or acute, the lower ones mostly opposite, narrowed at the lower side of the base, and separated by rounded sinuses, the upper ones opposite or al- ternate, dilated at the base, especially on the upper side, and with narrower sinuses ; margins obscurely or plainly serrate ; veins producing four to six veinlets, and often forming oblique areolations ; sori slightly elliptical, rather remote from the margin. Polypodium Californicum, Kaulfuss, Eniim. Fil., p. 102. — Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Bcechey's Voy., pp. 161, 405. — Torrf.v, Pacif. R. Rep., iv., p. 159. — HIatox, in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 235. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v., p. 18.— Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil. P- 34I' — [Not P- Californicum of MtrrENius, Pol., p. 71.] Polypodium intermedium, Hooker & Arnoi r, Bot. Bcechey's Voy., p. 405. — Hooker, F1. Bor.-Am., ii., p. 258.— Tokrkv, Pacif. R. Rep., iv., p. 159. — BRACKENRinr.E. Fil. of U.S. Expl. Fxped.. p. 9. \\ s 244 FF.RN3 0|- NOR III AMKRICA. ■k w 3i,i! Afargimiria Califoniica, Pui;si., Tfiit. I'tcritl., p. i}?8. Two principal forms occur : — \'ar. KauljHssii. — IVond tirm-cliarlaccous ; segments narrowly ob- long-linear; veinlcts regularly forming a single series of narrow obliciue areolcs. Var. intcrmcJium. — I'Voml lierhaceoiis or memhranaceous ; s\\, .Sp. I'l., v., p. 408. — HooKKK, llrit. I'crns, t. 40. StC};iiHia borciilis. K. IJrow.n, I'nulr. I'l. Nov.-Holl., p. 152. Spicanta borcalii, I'ki.si., ICpiin. Hot., p. 1 14. (For otlu;r synonymy, scu W'iildciK.iV and Mooro in tlu; works ahovc referred to.) 1 Iau — ( )n the ^rouiul in dense forests, and sometimes in open places, from .Mendocino County, California, to Orejrron, Tntish Colum- bia, and Sitka ; l^uroi)e, from the extreme North to the ..slands of the Mediterranean and Madeira ; also in the Caucasus, Kamtschalka, and Japan. DicscKii'TioN. — The root-stock is short and thick, erect or inclined, covered with imbricating stalk -bases, and very chaffy. The stalks arc numerous, and clustered at the end of the root-stock. They are chaffy at the base, with very rigid, nearly entire, lanceolate -acuminate dark -brown scales, often provideil with a still darker and ilenser midrib. The fronds are dimorphous, the fertile ones being very unlike the sterile. The sterile fronds have a stalk from one to eight inches long; and the fronds themselves are from six to thirty inches hing, narrowly lanceolate in outline, and taper both ways from just above the middle, the lower segments being gradually shorter and shorter to the base, where they appear like little disconnected wings along the sides of the FKRNS OF NORTH AMKRICA. 25« niiilril). The middle segments, or pimi.x' (for they arc fairly distinct from each other), are closely plact-d, six to eighteen lines long, oblong or oblong-linear from a slightly dilated base, and usually curved upwards. Their margin is either entire, or obscurely crenulate towards the apex, which is oftenest obtuse. In a small frond there are from twenty-fmaria Spicant. Fig. 3 is a plant from Crescent City, California, reduced to one -half the natural size; Fig. 4, a sterile segment, slightly enlarged; I'ig. 5, a part of a fertile segment, also enlarged, showing the arcoles and the receptacle, the latter not exactly coincitlent with the outer veinlet of the areoles. 1« IM 'i I' : m FERNS OK NOklll AMERICA, »5S PiATi: XXXIII. BOTRYCIIIUM VIRGINIANUM, Swartz. Virginian Grape- Fern. noTRYcmuM Vik{;inianum: — Plant sparsely hairy, usually from eight inches to two feet hijjh ; sterile segment membra- naceous, sessile near the micldlc of the plant, broadly deltoid, ternate ; the primary tlivisions stalked, once to three times pinnatifid ; secondary divisions ovate-lanceolate, ultimate divis- ions toothed at the ends ; fertile segment long - stalked, twice to four times pinnate ; base of stalk opening by a longitudinal chink, and disclosing the pilose bud. Botrychitim I'irginianum. .Swartz, in .Scliraders Journal, ii. (i^ 254 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 'J' fl m sin Botrychium anthemoidcsy Presl, " in Abh. Bohm. Gesellsch. Wissensch., V. (1848). p. 323-" Ostmmda Virginiana, LinNvEUS, Sp. PI., p. 15 19. Osintinda frottdc pinnatifida caiilina, fnictificationibus spicatis, Grono- vius, Fl. Virg., p. 196. The following k-aricties are described in Milde's " Botrychiorum Monographia : " — Var. gracilc. — "Smaller and more delicate; ultimate divisions nar- row, sub-lineal, sharply toothed; panicle with few capsules." — Botrychium gracilc, PuKsii, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 656. Var. Mcxicanum, Hookrr, " Bot. Misc., iii., p. 223." — "Delicate, primary segments more acuminate ; secondary ones pinnately parted, oblong, acute, ultimate divisions deeply inciscd-toothed ; the teeth sel- dom more than six, acute ; panicle usually much shorter than the sterile segment." — Botrychium brachystachys, Kunze, in Linnaea, xviii.. p. 305, Var. cicutarium. — Tall, sterile segment, three or four times pin- nately parted ; fruiting-stalk rising far below the base of the sterile seg- ment, and the latter, therefore, long-stalked ; panicle mostly shorter than the sterile segment. — Botrychium cicutarium, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 172. — WiLLDENow, Sp. PI., v., p. 65. — Osmunda cicutaria, Lamarck, " Enc. Bot., iv., p. 650." — Osmunda aspliodcli radice, 1'i.umier, Fil. Am , p. 136, t. 159. Har. — in rich woods ; from New Brunswick and Canada to Washington Territory and Oregon, and southward to Colorado, Texas, Alabama, and Florida ; also in Mexico, Hayti, New Granada, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil, Northern Europe, Siberia, and japan. Description. — The Virginian grapc-fcrn, or rattlesnake- fern as it is as commonly called, is usually our largest species ;^«ii li I Ul FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 255 of this interesting but troublesome genus. It differs from all the other species in several more or less important characters ; so that Dr. Milde, in his last classification of the genus, placed it in a separate sub-genus, to which he gave the name of Os- mundopteyis} The root -stock is very short, but the roots long and fleshy. The base of the stalk is slightly swollen, and is provided with a longitudinal fissure, within which the bud may be easily seen. The bud itself is decidedly hairy, and, as Mr. Davenport has shown, has the "fertile frond re- curved its whole length, with the longer sterile frond reclined upon it." It will be remembered that in the other Botrychin the stalk-base completely encloses the bud. The common stalk in a large plant is often twelve or fourteen inches long, and the stalk of the panicle as much more; so that the sterile segment, or lamina as Dr. iVIilde calls it, is placed very near the middle of the whole. The sterile lamina is broadly triangular; so broad, that the width is usually greater than the length. One fine specimen from New Bruns- wick has the sterile part a foot broad, and eight inches long; and equally large plants arc by no means rare. In North America the sterile part is closely sessile ; but in the West- Indian form, as represented in Pliinier's figure, it has a peti- ole over two inches long. The lower primary divisions are ' "§ II. OsMu.NDOi'TKKis. — Basis iiitiina |)otioli jjcniniani iiicliulciis rinia loii^a verticali aporta ; soginciUi infinii primarii so;4monta scciiularia aiiailronia in supcriorc laminae parte autcm ct lertiaria omnia catadmnia. Gemma pilosa. Col- luIiE t'piilormiilis fle.xuosos ; stom:...; in paf;ina laniinaj stciilis suporioio nulla." — Boti: MoiiOi^r., p. ()6. •j tJ.W| '1 ?'■* 2S6 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 4 . ovate in shape, and, in large fronds, pinnate with bipinnatifid lanceolate acute pinnae. The middle primary division is broadly triangular, and has its lower pinnae ample and bipinnatifid, and the successive ones gradually smaller and less compound. The ultimate divisions are oblong or oblong - ovate, and commonly inciscd-toothed along the sides and at the ends. Milde notices that the basal pinn.Tc of the lowest primary segments are on the upper side of the secondary rachis (anadromous), but that towards the apex of the frond the lowest pinna? are on the lower side (catadromotis), and that this arrangement prevails also in the divisions of the secondary segments. Var. gracile is nothing but a small form of the usual type. Var. cicutarium I have not seen: Milde gives Hayti and New Granada as the regions where it occurs. Var. Mexicanum has often a long stalk to the panicle, and the other differences are not any too constant. The sterile segment is much thinner than in B. ternatum, and the epidermis is composed of cellules with sinuous mar- gins. The fronds wither at the first frost. Plate XXXIII. Botrychiiim Virginiantim. — Fig. i is a plant of medium size, from Lynn, Massachusetts. The cleft at the l)ottoni of the sialic, with its thin and semi-transparent edges, is well represented, and permits the enclosed bud to be distinctly seen. Fig. 2 is a ckister of sporangia, magnified. Fig. 3 is a spore, iiigiily magnified. "3 \ ."If •r la (- '.' ■Ai m. \ ill n Ml 1 s FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 257 Plate XXXIV. ASPIDIUM ACROSTICHOIDES, Svvartz. Christmas-Fern. AspiDiuM ACROSTICHOIDES: — Root-stock creeping, covered with adherent stalk-bases ; stalks tufted, several inches long, very chaffy; fronds one to two feet long, evergreen, sub-coriaceous, lan- ceolate from a scarcely narrowed base, pinnate; pinnae numerous, oblong-lanceolate, short-stalked, more or less upwardly falcate or the lowest ones slightly deflexed, pointed, abruptly narrowed at the lower side of the base, auricled on the upper side ; margin ser- rulate with incurved bristle-pointed teeth, less commonly toothed or incised; veins free, branching; upper pinnae of the fertile fronds contracted ; sori terminal on the lower veinlets, often crowded and confluent when ripe ; indusium orbicular. Aspidium acrostichoidcs, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 44. — Sciikuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 193. WiLLDF.NOW, Sp. PI., v., p. 225. PURSH, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 661. — ToKREV, FI. New York, 11., p. 497. — Gray, Manual, ed. 11., p. 599. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 88; Aspldliim, p. 42. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., Iv., p. 9. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 250. — Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p.99, t. xxxvl. Nephrodium acrostichoidcs, Miciiau.x, Fl. Bor.-Am., 11., p. 267. Polystichum acrostichoidcs, Sciiott, Gen. FlI. — Pkesl, Tent. Pterid., p. 83. — GitAY, Manual, ed. 1., p. 632. Aspidium auriculatum, Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., t. 30. iii.;i| h ' H It 258 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. The following form deserves mention, but is scarcely sufficiently distinct to be regarded as a permanent variety: — Var. incisum: — Pinnic incisely toothed or even pinnatifid, those of the fertile fronds bearing sori at the tips clear to the base of the frond. — Gkavi 1. c. — Aspidium Schwcinitzii, Beck, Botany of the United States North of Virginia, ed. i., p. 448. Had. — Shady hillsides, oftenest in rocky places; from New Brunswick and Canada westward to Wisconsin, and southward to Arkansas and Cen- tral Alabama. In Dr. Chapman's Flora Florida and Mississippi are also given, but I do not now find any specimens from those .States. The species has not been found anywhere outside of North America. DnscRiFTioN. — This is one of the most abundant ferns of Eastern North America, and, having evergreen fronds, with a fine polish on the upper surface, it is well suited to the purpose of dec- orating our homes and churches at Christmas-time, whence the common name. The root-stoclcs creep just beneath the soil for a distance of several inches, and are thickly covered by the still at- tached bases of old stalks, from among which copious branching fibrous roots are emitted, and fasten the plant to the ground. The fronds rise in a graceful crown from the end of the root-stock, most of them appearing in early Spring, and remaining fresh and green until the new growth appears the next year. The stalks are from three or four to eight or ten inches long, and in the living plant are nearly terete, being slightly flattened on the anterior or upper side. They are full-green in color, becoming brownish at the very base. Usually they are chaffy, with large and small light-brown scales and chaffy hairs intermixed. This chaffiness FERNS or NORTH AMERICA. 359 often follows the rachis nearly to the apex of the frond, but at oth- er times it falls away long before the fronds begin to wither, leav- ing them almost perfectly smooth. A section of the stalk shows four or five roundish fibro-vascular bundles arranged in a semicir- cle, the two anterior bundles much larger than the others. The dried stalk is often deeply furrowed, owing to the contraction of the tissues between the two larger bundles. The fronds in mature plants are from one to two feet long, and rarely as much as five inches broad. The pinnnc of such fronds number from twenty-four to thirty on each side, the uppermost ones becoming smaller and smaller, and the frond ending in a short incised or serrated point. The texture of the pinn.x is sub-coriaceous ; the upper surface deep-green, smooth and shining in the living plant, but duller in dried specimens. The under surface is somewhat paler and scantily scurfy-puberulent or minutely chaffy. The largest pinUc-E are from two to nearly three inches long, and about half an inch wide in the middle. In shape they are oblong or lanceolate- oblong from a very unequal base, being suddenly narrowed to the short stalk on the lower side of the base, but on the up- per side furnished with a well-developed triangular-ovate bristle- tipped auricle. The" margin is normally finely serrulate with bristlc-tippcd incurved teeth; but very frequently the teeth arc larger, so that the pinnne arc serrate or inciscd-serrate. This form, with incised-serratc pinna?, is occasionally found in all parts of the country, and is indeed, as Prof. F. L. Harvey informs us, the common form in Arkansas. A sterile frond, with the pinnae i 26o FF.RNS or NOUTII A>!F.RICA. much more deeply incised than any other which I have seen, was collected by Mr. P. Bourquin, near Pemberton in New Jer- sey, in 1867. In this frond the incisions are so deep as to render the pinna? fairly pinnatifid. The two lowest pinn.c of the frond are very often exactly opposite, and considerably deflexed : in the living plant they have the upper surface nearly horizontal, and are directed for- ward, side by side, nearly at a right angle to the rachis. The next two or three pairs are less exactly opposite, and less plain- ly deflexed. The remaining pinnae are regularly alternate, and commonly show a slight upward curvature, rendering them some- what scythe-shaped. The lower pinna? are but very little shorter than those in the middle of the frond. The veins of the sterile frond are free, as they are generally in the true Polystklioid Aspidia. Each vein is pinnatcly, rather than dichotomously, divided into about four veinlets, of which the lowest one is on the upper side of the vein. The midvein of the pinna, and the principal vein of the auricle are marked by a slight channel on the upper surface of the frond, but the veinlets are not conspicuous until the frond is dried, and are then most easily seen by holding up the specimen against the light. In the fertile fronds, which are often rather taller, or at least more erect, than the sterile, the upper third part of the frond is suddenly contracted, so that the lowest fertile pinna is not more than two-thirds as long or wide as the sterile pinna next below it. The sori are borne near the midvein, either on FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 36r the lowest vcinlet of each pf roup, or on the two or three lower veinlets. A somewhat unusual thing in Aspidiiiin occurs in the present species; the sori being mostly borne at the ends of the veins, which are enlarged into oval receptacles, much as in Polypodium. This peculiarity was observed by Dr. Mettenius, who says simply " soro tcrminalU' In A. mtmitttm many of the sori are also terminal on the veins, but in A. Loitc/iitis they seem to be uniformly dorsal. It is also note- worthy that the veinlets of a fruiting pinna are not uniformly free, but tend to form irregular scattered arcoles. In var. incistim there is no sudden transition from ample sterile pinnoe to contracted fertile ones, but nearly or quite all the pinnae of the fertile frond are soriferous, the sori pretty much covering the upper pinn.-c, but confined to the tips of the lower ones. The indusium is orbicular and peltately attached at the centre : its margin is obscurely crenulate, but devoid of glands. The cellules of which it is composed have sinuous margins, and are arranged in lines which radiate from the centre. The pedicels which support the sporangia lengthen as the fruit ripens, so that at last the sporangia form one confluent mass on the back of the fertile pinnae, looking not unlike the massed fructifica- tion of an Acrosticlmm, a resemblance which suggested to Michaux the specific name of the fern. I find fourteen or fifteen joints in the ring of the sporangia. The spores are ovoid or bean-shaped, and have a conspicuous irregular wing- like border. ■'3 m "M <'.?-;.: ^ lii w mm m \m rj' Mi FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 263 Plate XXXV, PTERIS AQUILINA, Linn^us. Bracken or Eagle-Fern. Pteris AQUILINA : — Root-stock cord- like, blackish, creep- ing widely underground; stalks solitary, erect, rigid, naked, swollen and discolored near the base, often more than a foot high; fronds sometimes three feet long and nearly as broad, triangular -ovate in outline, rigidly sub -coriaceous, smooth or pubescent, below twice or thrice pinnate; principal primary pinnae stalked, the lowest ones very large, the middle and up- per ones rapidly becoming smaller and simpler; pinnules ob- long-lanceolate or linear, entire, hastate or pinnately parted; segments oblong or linear, obtuse, the terminal ones often elongated; veins close- placed, several times forked, free; invo- lucre continuous round the edge of the pinnules, very often double. Pteris aquilina, LiN.v.^ius. Sp. PL, p.1533.— Michaux, F1. Bor.-Am., ii., p. 262. — SwARTZ, Syn. Fil., p. 100. — Sciikuhu, Kr>-pt. Gevv., p. 87, t. 95— Willdi:no\v. Sp. PI., v., p. 402.-J. G. Agardu, Rcccns. Pteridis, p. 49.— ToRREv, Fl. New YorK, ii., p. 448. — Grav, Manual, ed. i., p. 624, etc. — Moork, Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. xliv. — Hooker, Sp. Fil„ ii., p.196, & iii., t. cxli, A, B. — Met- TE.ML's, Pteris, t. xvi.. fig. -li-iS- — MA.XIMOWICZ, Prim. Fl. Am- m \ 264 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. , urensis, p. 341. — Hooker, Brit. Ferns, t. 38. — Bentham, F1. Hongkong, p. 449. — Lawsox, in Canad. Naturalist, i., p. 270. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 162. — Miquel, Prolusio Fl. Jap., p. 172. — MiLDE, Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 45. — William- son, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 43, t. vii, viii. Allosorus aquilinus, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 153. Eupteris aquilina, Newm^vn, History of British Ferns, ed., iii., p. 23. For much other synonymy see Moore's work quoted above and Hooker's Species Filicum. The following varieties are found in the United States, and have been considered distinct species, but both of them pass into the type by insensible gradations. Var. lattHginosa, Bongard. — Fronds decidedly pubescent or silky- tomentose beneath ; pinnules rarely caudate ; segments ample. — Hook- er, Fl. Am.-Bor., ii., p. 263; Sp. Fil., 1. c. — Pleris lanuginosa, Bory, in WiLLDENOw, Sp. PI., v., p. 403. — Kaulfuss, Enum. Fil., p. 189. — Agardh, Recens. Pterid., p. 51. Var. caudata. Hooker. — Fronds glabrous on both sides, or even somewhat glaucescent ; pinnules and segments very narrow, the terminal ones much elongated. — Sp. Fil., ii., p. 196. — Eatox, in Chapman's Flo- ra, p. 589. — Ptcris caudata, Lixx.eus, Sp. PI., p. 1533. — Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. loi. — VVilldexow, Sp. PI., v., p. 401. — Agardh, Recens. Gen. Pterid., p. 48. — Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. I. p. 670. — Fee., iime Mem, P- 23. Hab. — Very common on sunny hillsides, and in thickets, but found also in prairies and even in wet woods, the North American range being from Newfoundland through British America to Sitka, and southward to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the most widely distributed of ferns, and occurs, in one form or another, in all continents, and in most regions FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 265 of the world. Var. lanuginosa is common in tiie region west of the Rocky Mountains, being especially luxuriant in Oregon and Washington Territory. It has not been found in the Atlantic States, but is known in Europe, Southern Asia, Africa, etc., etc. Var. caudata, a West Indian form, is not rare in Florida, and has been collected in Southern Alabama, and perhaps in others of the Gulf States. The Australian Var. csculcnta, which occurs abundantly in South America, has not been found within our limits. Description. — The bracken has a subterranean creeping root-stock, often much elongated, from the sides of wliich the stalks grow alternately, scattered along at variable distances, though only one frond is produced each year. The root-stock is about three or four lines thick (Moore says as thick as one's little finger), the outside very black and somewhat veh'cty. The upper and under sides are rounded, but there is a slightly prominent rather sharp ridge, running along each side. The transverse section is very interesting, and may be seen figured, though on too small a scale, at page 354 of the English edi- tion of Sach's Text-Book of Botany. Within the dark exterior sheath of sclcrenchyma may be seen the soft whitish paren- chymatous mass, containing two somewhat flattish bands of very firm sclcrenchyma. Between these are two flattish-oval fibro-vascular bundles, one above the other, while around the sclerenchyma-bands arc about a dozen smaller rounded or o\al fibro-vascular threads arranged in a rude circle. The stalks very often rise from short lateral branches of the root-stock, rather than from the root-stock itself. These branches continue I -* li 266 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 1! (. growing year after year, and so a single plant may in time become a whole colony. CIosl to the growing end of the root- stock is a very short bud, which would develop into a stalk and frond in two years' time: a short distance back of this is a bud an inch or two long, at the top of which may be plainly seen the infolded rudimentary frond for the next year; and bark of this is the si Ik for the frond of the present year. ^ ■•■. ler back still are the decaying remains of the stalks which nan.: i.apported fronds in previous seasons. The stalks have the portion beneath the surface of the gr(u :d CiiiJerably swollen, and blackened like the root-stock. They are erect, and sometimes attain to the height of several feet above the surface. Their color is commonly a dull reddish -brown, sometimes a pale straw-color. The surface is devoid of chaff, and the anterior side is moderately furrowed. A cross - section shows a central mass of sclerenchyma, in which there are about three narrow ridges projecting anteriorly and two posteriorly from a transverse band; between these ridges are oval or flattened isolated bands of fibro- vascular tissue, and numerous smaller threads of the same tissue sur- round the whole central mass. This is the structure of a very young stalk, and may perhaps vary a little as the stalks be- come mature. The whole appearance of the section has been likened to the heraldic "displayed eagle;" and one of the common names as well as the specific name, has reference to this resemblance. But it is also said that King Charles in the Oak may be seen in the stem of the bracken. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 267 1 IB The frond is broadly ovate-triangular in outline, the breadth being nearly or quite equal to the length. The size varies much according to soil, climate, etc. ; so that while plants may be mature, and yet have fronds less than a foot high, they fre- quently arc found from three to five feet high. These dimen- sions are exceeded in Oregon, where the bracken forms thickets six or seven feet high. Hooker and Baker report that Dr. Spruce has seen it fourteen feet high in the Andes. The rachis of the frond bends away abruptly from the top of the stalk, and the short petioles of the two lowest primary pinncX bend similarly, but in other directions. The effect is to make the frond spread obliquely in three different directions, a peculiarity which is lost when specimens arc pressed for the herbarium. Very large fronds are fairly tripinnate at the base ; smaller ones only bipinnate. Above the base of the frond the primary pin- nae rapidly become smaller, so that the pinnse of the fifth pair are about the same size and degree of composition as the lowest secondary pinnae of the lowest primary pinnre. The sec- ondary pinn 1 Wi if .1 ^4> r^;^-^- \'i-^;^!.. \ ■r^ II ^-^^^.H H-W' ■^^fW n n'. ■i : Wv' :ii f1 fjPffir h FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 381 Plate XXXVII. ADIANTUM CAt'ILLUS-VENERIS, Linn^us. Venus-Hair. Maiden-Hair. Adiamtum Capillus- Veneris :— Root-stock creeping, scaly ; stalks crowded, a few inches to a foot long, very slender, black and shining, as are the rachis and ail its divisions; fronds a span to a foot and a half long, often pendent, ovate or ovate- lanceolate in outline, delicately membranaceous, smooth, si«iply pinnate towards the apex, below twice or even thrice pinnate; pinnules and upper pinna? six to twelve lines long, wedge- obovate or somewhat rhomboid, rather long-stalked, the sides straight or slightly concave, the upper margin often deeply and irregularly incised; the ends of the lobes crenate or acutely denticulate, except where the margin is recurved to form the lunulate or transversely oblong separated involucres. Adiantum Capillus- Veneris, Linn^us, Sp. PI., p. 1558. — Swartz, Syn, HI., p. 124. — WlU.DENOW, Sj). PI., v., p. 449.— MOOKKR, Sp. I'll., ii., p. 36, t. Ix.xiv, B; Hriiish Perns, t. 41. — Mookk, Nat. Pr. Frit. Ferns, t. .\lv; Index I'll., p. 20. — Kocii, .Syn. FI. Germ, et Ilelv., ed. iii., p. 738.-— P:aton, in Hot. .Mex. Bound. Survey, p. 233; Chapman's Horn, p. 591. — Gkisi-hacii, F1. 15rit. W. Indies, p. 666. — Hooker iS: 15aki:k, Syn. Fii., p. I23.~.Mii.i)e, Fil. Eu. et Atiant., p. 30. — McKen, Ferns of Naial, p. 5.— Beddome, Ferns of Southern India, p. 2, t. iv.— Kkyseri.inc, Us \AA 382 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. tt\ if ; H ^ jj ^^1 1£ 11 '* ^^H " A I ■1 ! M- — Benthan, Fl. Austral., vii., p. 723. Adiantum Capil/iis, .Swartz, "in Schraders Journal, ii. (1800), p. 83." — Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 70. — Kunze, in Linnrea, x., p. 500; x.xiii., p. 2i5;xxiv.; p. 273; Silliman's Journal, July, 1848, p. 87. Adiantum cmarginatmn, Horv, in Willdenow, Sp. PL, v. p. 449 (not of Hooker, Sp. MI., ii., t. Ixxv, A). Adiatttum Moritzianum, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 71. Adiantum dependens. Chapman, MS. Had. — In moist rocky places, especially about springs and along water -courses ; from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Florida, Alabama. Te.xas*, Arkansas, Utah, Arizona and the .southern part of California. Mex- ico to Venezuela, West Indies, Azores, Madeira, Europe, Asia, Africa, Aus- tralia and Polynesia. Near Wilmington, where it was collected by Mr. W. M. Cani!Y on the banks of the Cape Fear River, and aljout Santa Barbara, where it seems to be abundant in the canons of the Coast Range, it passes a little to the north of the thirty-fourth degree of North Latitude, but in North Western Arkansas, where Prof. F. L. Hauvev found it growing luxuriantly in the crevices of sandstone rocks which border tht; White River, it passes fairly above the thirty-sixth degree. Description. —Root-stock creeping, rather short, not thicker than a crow-quill, scaly. The scales, which are found also on the very lowest part of the stalk are small, narrowly lanceolate, slender-pointed and entire. They are dull-brown in color, and are composed of irregularly elongated cells. The stalks are from a few inches to a foot high, very slender, nearly black on the back, dark vinous-red on the front, and \ery highly pol- ished. Under a strong lens they are seen to be finely striated FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 283 longitudinally. The .section shows within an exterior of thick- walled cells a pale parenchyma containing- two slender fibro- vascular bundles, which are considerably separated at the base, but gradually approach each other higher up, and unite near the top of the stalk. The rachises and the stalks of the pin- nules are almost as slender as hairs, and have the same dark color and brilliant lustre as the stalk. This fern, whenever it grows luxuriantly, is more or less pendent in habit, but plants of moderate size commonly have the fronds erect or but slightly recurved. One of Professor Harvey's fine specimens has a frond seventeen inches long, but usuJly the fronds are scarcely half as long as this. They vary in shape from triangular-ovate to ovate-lanceolate, and in composition from simply pinnate with a scantily bipinnate base, to fully tripinnate, for the lower half of the frond at least. The pinna; and pinnules are alternate, and the lower ones rather distant, the upper more crowded. The pinnules are from four lines to an inch long, and are in general fan- shaped, sometimes with a very acute base, sometimes with a truncate base. They are now narrowly obovate-wedge-shaped, and now decidedly rhomboid, and again almost round, but al- ways distinct from each other, and supported on capillary foot- stalks from one to four lines long. The lower sides of the pinnules arc entire, and usually slightly concave; the upper or outer margin is more or less incised or lobed, and the lobes, in American plants, usually denticulate, sometimes very sharply so. European and East American specimens have »l . W.I 284 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. these teeth not very well developed; but the plant of Utah and California has very sharp teeth, the veinlcts running to the points of the teeth. The degree of incision varies very much, and a plant incised but little more than that which is shown in the middle of our plate was figured in Species Fili- cum as "van ,* pinnis profunde incisis." In fertile fronds the teeth cither disappear, or are seen only on the upper part of the sides of the lobes, and the ends of the lobes are occupied by the lunate or transversely oblong involucres. The spores are smooth, globose-tetrahedral, and faint- ly marked with three radiating vittae. The veins are free, and flabellately forked from the base of the pinnules. The group of Adianttim, to which this species belongs, is characterized by having ovate-pyramidal fronds (at least bipin- nate) fan-shaped pinnules, and forking veinlets with no midvein. It includes over a dozen species, which are not always easy to be distinguished from each other. Plate XXXVII. — Aciianlum Capillus-Vaieris. The colored plant in the middle of the plate was collected by Mrs. Stanley Bagg near Santa Barbara, California, and represents a form with few very large and deep- ly incised pinnules. The frond drawn in outline is from the White River, Arkansas, and was collected specially for this plate l)y Professor F. L. Harvey. The details are a fruiting pinna, slightly enlarged, the end of one lol^e magnified, and a spore highly magnified. ,*, .Since these p;i}j;es were stereotyped I li.nve learned that this species and Asple- nium parvtiluni have heen tbund in Greene County, Missomi, hy Mr. K. M. Siiepakd. m^m !• ,1 h T^ ''■UAvVr' ysj( yiiyiTiijiiwifftipiiUiii «■■* I if■wlWiiibi^l^ltj::Ll^^ij^^^lB^^^^^J^pg^g^|^^^^ggy „^i-j.^l..._l-w-l!^m^^m^immmimmmiim V M ! 4.; I' ! p ■ Krustumm- 1, ,.f,, w jimmji^m- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 28s Plate XXXVIII. — Fig. 1-3. ADIANTUM EMARGINATUM, Hooker. Californian Maiden-Hair. Adiantum EMARGINATUM : — Root-stock Creeping, scaly ; stalks clustered, a few inches to a foot long, wiry, dark and shining, like the rachis and branchlets; fronds six to twelve inches long, mostly erect, broadly ovate or deltoid-pyramidal, twice or thrice pinnate at the base, simpler upwards; pinna^ obliquely spreading,, lower ones half as long as the frond; pin- nules long-stalked, four to fifteen lines broad, roundish or semi- circular, or even somewhat reniform. lower sides entire; outer edge rounded, slightly two to five-lobed, finely and sharply toothed in the sterile fronds, but in the fertile recurved to form pale transversely elongated involucres; veins flabellately forking, the veinlets extending to the ends of the teeth. Adiantum cmarghiatuvi. Hooker. Sp. Fil., ii., t. Ixxv., A, not of Bory and Wiildenow. — Keyserling, Gen. Adiantum, in Mem. Acad. Petrop., sen vii., xxii., No. 2, p. 15, 37. — Eaton, Ferns of the South-West, ined. Adiantum Chilcnsc, Tourey, in Pacif. R. R. Survey, iv., p. 160, vii., p. 21. — Brackenkidge, Ferns of U. S. Ex. Expcd., p. 97.— E.woN, in Botany of the Mexican Boundary, p. 233, and in Robinson's Catalogue, not of Kaulfuss. t ' liif I 'I ^m 286 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Adiantum teneyum, Tokkev, in Emory's Notes of a Military Rccon- noissance from Fort Lcavcnwortli to San Diego, p. 155. — Ni;w- BERRY, in Pacif. R. R. Survey, vi., p. 93, not of Swartz and VVilldcnow. .Uiianlum ^Ethiopium, Rakick, Syn. Fil., p. 123, as to the Californian plant only. Hab. — Among rocks, and in cafions, both moist and dry; from San Diego, California, to Oregon, not rare in the Coast Ranges, but apparently unknown east of them. Description. — This species belongs to the same group as the Venus-Hair, but is easily distinguished from it by the much broader and less deeply lobed pinnules and by the trans- versely elongated involucres. The root-stock is rather slender, creeping, and chaffy with amber-brown entire lanceolate-acuminate scales. The stalks are several from one root-stock. They are a little stouter than in the Venus-Hair, but have the same brilliant lustre. They are nearly black on the back, and a dark mahogany red in front. The vascular bundle is single to the very base in the specimen examined, and is somewhat V-shaped. The stalks arc from six inches to a foot long, and support a frond of about the same length. The fronds are nearly or quite half as wide at the base as they are long, and are oftenest exactly ovate-triangular in outline. The largest fronds are tripinnate in the lower part, bipinnate in the middle, and simply pinnate towards the apex, where also the pinn:e often overlap each other a little. The pin- !■;.'! FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 287 nules are papcry-membranaccous in texture, clear-green above, slightly paler beneath, bearing a few scattered hairs along the veins when young, but soon ([uite smooth. The pin- nules are sometimes roundish, but more frequently broader than long, so as to be semicircular or even slightly rcniform. They are commonly cither truncate at the base, or broadly wedge-shaped, and have slender footstalks from two to five lines long. In sterile fronds the outer margin is finely and sharply toothed, the vcinlets running out into the points of the teeth, and even a little beyond the points, so as to make them slightly aculeate. The margin is also slightly notched in from one to four or even more places. In fertile fronds the teeth are formed only at the extreme sides of the pinnules, and the margin of the lobes is recurved, forming palish elongated involucres, which are perfectly smooth.^ The veins are flabel- lately forked from the end of the footstalk, and are slightly prominent on both surfaces. The sporangia have a ring of seventeen or eighteen articulations. The spores are tetrahe- dral with rounded angles and slightly concave sides. They have a minutely roughened surface, and have the three vitta^ of the genus. This species was formerly confused with Adiaiititm Chi- Icnsc, which it considerably resembles, but that species has .iSiii ^i'^l m f' '■; I Kcysciling says tlicii; arc t\vi> iiivoliicit'S dm llie upper piumilcs, and lour on tliu lower ones ; but the upper pinnules often have four, and the lower ones rarely as many as eight. Usually the middle notch is deepest, so that although the name emar^liiatum was not originally intended for this fern.it is not so unsuitable that we must reject it. ii?i 388 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. rounded-reniform involucres, and the veinlcts run to the notches between the teeth, not to the teeth themselves. The A. cmarginatum of Bory, from Mauritius, is now ascertained to be a form of A. Capillns-Vcncris. Hooker's figure in Species Filicum, though taken from a specimen in his her- barium, marked " Malacca, Griffith," resembles no known Ad- ionium of either Malacca or Mauritius. It is on the same sheet with one much more like A. Capilhis-Vcneyis, which is marked as coming from Delessert's herbarium, anfl as col- lected in the Mauritius. It is possible that the labels have been interchanged, an accident which happens sometimes in every herbarium. Knyserling conjectures that the specimen figured came from California, by way of Delessert's collection ; and as it is exactly our plant, the conjecture is probably correct. It is interesting to note that in Hooker's herbarium is a specimen from California, collected by Dr. Hillebrand, marked by Sir \V. J. Hooker's own hand; — "^rt'. Cap.-Ven. — same form as Ad. cmarginatum, Bory in Hk. Sp. Fil. t. 75." Plate XXXVIII. — Fig. 1-3. Adiantum c marginatum. Fig. i is a frond with unusually large pinnules, collected near Ukiah, California, by Dr. Kellogg. Fig. 2 represents two sterile pinnules of a smaller specimen. Fig. 3 is a spore, highly magnified. I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. •89 Platr XXXVIII.— Fig. 4-8. VITTARIA LI NEAT A, Swartz. Ribbon-Fern. Fillet-Fern. ViTTARiA lineata: — Root-stock short, creeping, densely covered with lanceolate-acuminate fuscous-brown scales; fronds clustered, almost .sessile, pendent, very narrowly linear, not two lines wide, but from one to three feet long, tapering to both base and apex, smooth and rather fleshy in the living plant, subcoriaceous and longitudinally furrowed when tiry; veins consisting of a midvein hidden in the frond, and two parallel intramarginal fertile veins, connected with the midvein by very short oblique distant veinlets; sori nearly as long as the frond, sunken into deep intramarginal furrows; sporangia mixed with abundant contorted ribbon-like filaments; spores smooth, ovoid- reniform. Vittaria lineata, Swartz, in Schraders Journal (1800) ii., p. 72; Syn. Fil., p. 109. — Sciikuhr, Krypt. Gcw., p. 93, t. loi, b. — — WiLLDiAow, Sp. Pi., v., p. 404. — PuKsii, Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 669. — Fee, 3me Mem., p. 17. — Eaton, in Chapman's Flora, p. 589. — HooKEK, Sp. Fil., v., p. 180.— Grisebacii, F1. Brit. W. I. Islands, p. 671. — FouKNiER, PI. INIex., Crypt., p. 114. — Garbek, in Rotan. Gazette, iii., 10, p. 83. Vittaria august if mns, Michaux, Fi. Bor.-.^m., ii., p. 261. Vittaria Schkuhrii, Raddi, Fil. Brasil., p. 51. '■! i i 1, jgo FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 1 Ta'ttiopsis lincata, J. Smitli, " in Hooker's Journ. Bot., iv., p. 67." Ptcris lincata, Linn.eus, Sp. PI., p. 1530. Lingua Co-viua longissimis & angustiisimis foliis, Pi.umiek, Fil. Am., p. 123, t. 143. Pkyllitis lincata, graminis folio longisiimo, Petiver, "Fil., p. 126, t. 14, f- 3." Har. — In large tufts on the trunks of the Cabbage Palmetto, ap- parently not uncommon in the ^.outl.crn part of Florida. It was first observed in Florida by MiciiAUX, who found it on the banks of a little stream called ^lisa-hatcha. It has since been gathered by many collect- ors, among them LeConte, Hucklev, Dr. Pai.mer, Austin, J. Donnell Smith 1, Dr. Garber, and Miss E. S. Boyd, from all of whom I have specimens. It is found also in Mexico, in the West Indies and in sev- eral countries of South America; and, if all the plants referred to this species by Mr. Baker are really the same thing, the range includes also Japan, India and a good part of Africa. Description. — The entanglal and creeping root-stocks form masses of considerable size, often covered with mosses, as Plumier noticed nearly two centuries ago. The scales which ar'j very abundant on the root-stocks, are narrowly lan- ceolate, and drawn out into a long slender acumination, far finer than hair. They are devoid of midnerve, and are made up of dark amber-brown somewhat cancellated cells; the marginal cells having short slightly curved teeth on thjir outer side. These teeth are found also on the slender acumination. The whole scale is about two lines long, and only the third part t Mcsi^rs. Sinitli ;mil Austin liuiiul llie piot!ialliiic {growth of this fern very abun- dant on Palini'ttos alontr the Caluusa-hatchie river. 'Ill; FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 291 of a line wide at the widest place. The rootlets are covered with a yellowish-brown tomentum. The fronds are densely clustered, pendent in habit, thickish and almost fleshy in texture in the living plant, but more coriaceous when dried. They arc sessile, or at most provided with a blcickish stalk only a few lines long. They are about a line and a quarter or perhaps a line and a half wide, and of any length, from an inch in young plants up to three feet in mature ones, as observed by Dr. Garber, or a metre, as recorded by Fee. They may therefore be over three hundred times as long as they are wide, a proportion to be found, probably, in no other fern. The principal veins are three, and can be seen best by splitting a frond with a very thin and sharp knife. The mid- vein is completely buried in the parenchyma of the frond. The fertile veins are parallel with it, one on each side, very near the margin, each one nearly reached by a furrow on the under side of the frond. At distant intervals there is a very short oblique veinlet rising from the midvein and connecting it with one or the other of the fertile veins. In very young plants the fronds are thinner and sterile, and the veins can be very easily seen. The edges of the furrows are very thin, and at first meet each other, but are afterwards somewhat separated. At the bottom of each furrow is a continuous line-like sorus, made up of a few sporangia and many curved or contorted sometimes branching filaments, the sporangias- 2g2 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ters of Fee, which arc probably abortive sporangia. In some other species of Vittaria these end in a bell or cup. 'nit. in this species they are simply a little enlarged at the end. Fee calls them ribbon-like. To me they seem canaliculate along the outside of the longitudinal curve. The sporangia are roundish, and have a ring of about fourteen or sixteen joints. The spores are smooth and ovoid-reniform, as the) .ue in all but two species of the genus. Fee remarks, — '' V. Hiicata is the species longest known, and the one about which there is most vagueness and uncer- tainty in the descriptions. We believe it to be exclusively American \Vc -"gard as being V. lincata, every kind which grows in a cluster from a root-stock little disposed to advance, having fronds rolled in along their edges in drying, and having then a channelled appearance ; with marginal spo- rothccia inside a fold {replies en dedans), and with ribbon-like sporangiastcrs." In our plant the sporothccia or sporangia are intramargiual rather than marginal, but as Fee says the Florida plant is the true l^. lineaia, it is perhaps fair to sup- pose that his word "marginal" is not to be understood too literally. Fet gives twenty-five Vittarias, but the authors of the Synopsis Filicum only thirteen. The plate is drawn from a |)lant collected by Dr. Edward Palmer near the Indian River. The details show a part of a frond enlarged, and a section of the same ; also a spore and a contorted sporangiaster. if hi 9 * U;:l M N*' 4ki» n4-» T,-,^ K I? V \ J ^.„ ■^. :--^: *,*m '^}i. >.^l■.^^^'\|v^ '"■'■" \fj^ Jii-' • ' ■..'f, ^:::'v >t^ •J. r;;:^ "tM'i V'» •»•.>' •^w.' -:»i^ ,-e? Lv* •y..J' •^v; ,.V '% Ji/'V ill Mi r- I FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 293 Plate XXXIX. — Fig. i-6. NOTHOL^NA SINUATA, Kaulfuss. Wavy-leaved Notholsena. N0TH0L.ENA .SINUATA: — Root-stock short and thick, veiy chaffy with narrow ferruginous scales; stalks short, covered, when young at least, with ciliated scales; frontls six inches to two feet high, rigid, narrowly oblong-linear, simply pinnate; pinn.ne numerous, short-stalked, coriaceous, roundish or ovate,' often somewhat cordate, obtuse, nearly entire or sinuatcd or sinuately lobed; upper surface more or less sprinkled with stel- late or pinnately divided white scales; lower surface and rachis densely covered with ferruginous ovate or ovate-lanceolate cili- ated scales which conceal the sub-marginal sporangia. JVo(Ao/.,uu sinmfa, Ivvulfuss, Enum. Fil., p. i35._K,.^..„,, ,•„ Linnrea. xiii., p. 135; Die Farrnkraiitcr, p. 95, t. 45 — Link. Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 145. — MARTiixs & CIvLEonr. Syn. Fil. Mex., p. 46. -LiicDMANN, Mex. Bregn., p. 6.._Fi.:i:, Smo Mem., p. 1,7; gmeMem., p. 12. — MnTKxus Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 45._Eatox,' in Bot. Mex. Boundary, p. 234. — Hooker, .Sj,. Fil., v., p. 107 (cxcluclincv var. bipinnata)- "Hot. Mag., r. 4699."- Hooker & Baker, .Syn. Fil., p. 370. — Four.mer, PI. Mc.x., Crypt., p. 120. Acrostichuvi sinvaium, SwAiny, .Syn. Fil.. p. .4.-\Villdenow, Sp. PI., v., p. 120. Gymnogravtmc shtuafa, Presl, Tent. Pterid.. p. 2r9._M,.nTENius. Cheil- 1 '.« 1' 294 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. .■I anthcs, p. 6. — KiuiN, Beitr. z. Mcx. Farnfiora, p. 2. Nothol^ia lewis, Martens & Galeotti, Syn. Fil. Mcx., p. 46. — Kunze, in Linnc-ea, xviii., p. 323; xx., p. 417. — Fee, 11. cc. Notholctfia pruinosa, Fi'e, 8me Mem., p. 78; gme Mem. p. 12; lome Mem., p. 20, t. 34, f. 2. Had. — On rocks, often much exposed to the sun; from Texas to New Mexico and Arizona, and southward to Peru and possibly Chili. Mr. Wright collected it on the rocky bluffs of Rio Frio, in Texas. Dr. Seguin found it in Garita Canon, San Andreas Mountains, New Mexico. Dr. Rotiirock found it growing on limestone near Camp Bowie in Eastern Arizona, and at Cottonwood in the same Tcrritorj', at an ele- vation of 4,500 feet. The Botanists of the Mexican Boundary Survey collected it at several places in Texas and New Mexico, and Mrs. E. P. Thompson has sent it also, though whether from Arizona or Southern Utah is at present doubtful. The writers on Mexican Ferns name many stations for it, on limestone, trachyte, conglomerate, in crevices of lava, and on walls, assigning to it a vertical range from 2,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea. Description: — The root-stock is rather short, creeping, and swollen in places into " bulbiform knobs as large as hazel- nuts." It is very densely clothed with narrow acuminate rather rigid but slightly sinuous ferruginous scales. The stalks are a few inches long, bright reddish-brown, round and wiry, and clothed at the very base with chaff like that of the root-stock. The rest of the stalk and the rachis have a somewhat decid- uous covering of very delicate lanceolate scales of two kinds intermixed; larger ones which arc but slightly ciliated, and smaller ones very deeply and elegantly ciliated. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 295 The fronds, exclusive of stalk, are from six inches to nearly two feet high, erect and rigid, coriaceous in texture, narrowly oblong-linear in outline, and simply pinnate. The pinnas vary in length from two or three lines to three-fourths of an inch, or possibly more, and in width from two to six lines. There are from twenty to thirty or more each side of the rachis, all alike except the uppermost, which are smaller, and pass gradually into the short pinnatiiid apex of the frond. In small fronds the pinnae are roundish and slighily crenated: in larger fronds they are more ovate, and have sinuated mar- gms; and in the largest they are cordate-ovate, and sinuately lobed half-way to the midvein. The under surface is thickly covered with appressed and inbricatcd, ovate or lanceolate, pectinately ciliated or radiately multifid scales; the upper sur- face bears scattered pectinate or stellate scales, which appear to be sometimes lacking, and the plant is then var. intcgya of Licbmann, the A^. Icavis of Martens & Galeotti. The scales of the upper surface are white; those of the under surface are commonly cinnamon-brown in the middle, and white around the edges. Occasionally, and probably through either immaturity or over-maturity, the under scales arc nearly white throughout, and it is on plants in this condition that Fee founded his N.pniimsa, made a variety by Fournier. Rarely the under scales are ciliated only at the base, and only den- ticulate along the sides. The veins are very obscure, being not only hidden under the scales, but buried in the coriaceous pinnae. They seem \^\. 296 FEKNS OF NORTH AMERICA. to be crowded, and nearly straight, the upper part thickened a little and fertile, making the sori somewhat elongated on the upper part of the veins. The spores are irregularly sphcroid-tetrahedral, the surface very rough, and of a dingy ycUovvish-bnnvn. Mettenius and Kuhn, following the example of Presl, referretl this species to Gyinnognviniic rather than Nothokcua, since the sori follow the veins almost too far down their tips to accord well with the latter genus; but its nearest relatives seem to be in Notliolccmi rather than in Gymnognmmie. I'latc XXXIX., Fig. 1-6. — Notholccna sinuata. Fig. i is a plant of medium size, having ovate and sinuuted pinn;c. Fig. 2 represents three pinna; of the largest form. F'ig. 3 is a frond of the smallest form. Fig. 4 is a pinna from Fig. i, enlarged and showing the chaffy lower surface. Fig. 5 is a scale from 4, magnified. Fig. 6 a spore higiiiy magnified. iii FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. ag? Pi-AiT. XXXIX. — Fig. 7-10. NOTIIOL/ENA FIZRRUGINEA, Desvaux. Rusty Notholaena. NoTHOL/ENA FERRUGiNEA : — Root-stoclc Creeping, knottccl with bud-like frontl-bearinj>- branchlets, and densely covered with narrow blackish rigid scales; stalks a few inches high, tufted, wiry, dark-brown, woolly, like the rachis, with some- times deciduous rusty fibres; fronds linear-lanceolate, live to twelve inches long, usually less than one inch wide, erect, sub-coriaceous, pinnate; pinnae numerous, oblong-ovate, almost se. sile, pinnatifid into six or eight close-set little oblong lobes on each side, grayish-villous above, heavily tomentosc beneath with entangled whitish or ferruginous woolly hairs; sporangia at the ends of the veins, at length showing through the to- mentum, often very dark brown or even black. Notholana fcrruginca, Ddsvaux, "Joiirn. Bot. Appl., i., p. 92."— Hooker, Second Century of Ferns, t. lii; Sp. Fil., v., p. 108.— MooiciiK & Baki:k, Syn. l-il., \>. 3 70. — Fouknidr, PI. Mex., Crypt,, p. 120. — Eaton-, Ferns of the Southwest, p. 306. Ckcilantltcs fcrniginccj, Wii.i.ui-Now, " Herb."— Kaui.I'Us.s, Enum. Fil.. p. 209. — Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 65. — MErrENiu.s, CheiJan- thes, p. 23. Pdlaa fcrruginca, Nees, in Linnaca, xlx., p. 684. Cincinalis fcrniginca, Desvaux, in Mag. d. Gesellsch. Nat. Frcund. z. Berlin, v. (181 1), p. 311 {The original tiame). ;f'l i ' *> <* IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) /- f/> 1.0 I.I ■ JO *•■* ? "- IIIIIM 1.8 L25 |l.4 1 '-^ ^ 6" — ► /] V^^' .^ .* ■*' 7 ■'> ■> '/ /A Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WeST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) S73-4503 o^ 398 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Notholana ru/a, Presl, Rcliq. Flaenk, i., p. 19. — Kunze, in Linnxa, ix., p. 55; xiii., p. 135; xviii., p. 324. — Martens & GAi.noTTi, Syn. Fil. Mex., p. 45. — Liebmann, Mex. Brcgn., p. 62. — Eaton, in Bot. Mex. noundary, p. 234. Haii. — Collected in the Survey of the Mexican Boundary in rocky places along the Rio San Pedro and Rio Grande, in Texas, and in the Organ Mountains of New Mexico. .Sanoita Valley, Arizona, Professor RoTHROCK. Not rare in Mexico, found ^-rowing on calcareous and • va- rious kinds of ignoous Ov'ks, and on the ground. Also seen in Jamaica, and in Guatemala, Vo'iezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru. Description- -The root-stock is a few inches long, and perhaps a little thicker than a crow-quill. Along the lower side it has long fibrous roots, and on the upper it is said by Hooker to produce "bulbiform scaly buds which arc fron- diferous." My specimens, unfortunately, have too scanty a root-stock to show this very clearly. The scales are very abundant, but only about a line long: they are lanceolate- subulate, very rigid, and consist of a strong nearly black midncrve, bordered along its lower half by a narrow trans- parent cellular membrane, slightly denticulate along the edges. The stalks are erect, two to six inches long, terete, wiry, and very dark brown in color. Like the rachis, they are at first covered with fine pale-brown or rusty woolly fibres; but this covering is apt to be worn off in mature specimens. The section of the stalk shows a very thick and dark external sheath, and in the middle a butterfly-shaped fibro-vascular bundle. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 299 The fronds in Professor Rothrock's Arizona specimens are from five to ten inches long, and six to nine lines wide. A very fine frond, collected in Chiapas by Dr. Ghiesbreght, is over a foot long, and a little more than an inch wide. The fronds arc linear-lanceolate in shape, moderately acute at the apex, and taper slightly from near the middle to the base. The pinnae are from twenty-five to forty on each side, in general oblong-ovate, broadest at the very short-stalked base, the lower ones often half an inch apart, but the upper ones crowded, and sometimes even overlapping. They are lobed about half-way to the midvein into from six to nine or ten little oblong, somewhat rounded, lobes on each side. The upper surface of the pinnae is greenish-gray, from a fine villous pubescence: the lower surface has a dense covering of very fine entangled woolly hairs, which are sometimes nearly white, at other times light ferruginous-brown, and, again, of a deep-brown color. Kunze (in Linna^a, xviii., p. 324) seems to be of the opinion that the color of the to- mentum is paler in young fronds than in mature ones, and analogous differences in the color of the scales or of the tomentum in some other ferns would strengthen this view, but the matter is not yet fully proved. The sporangia are borne just at the ends of the veins, and the margin of the lobes is slightly recurved, as if mak- ing a feeble attempt to form an involucre. The plant was first described as a Cincinalis, then as Nothohcna and then as C/ieilant/ies, and is now again usually considered a Noffi- '■'' 300 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. oleena, but, as Sir W. J. Hooker remarks, "it has nearly as good a claim to rank with the one genus as with the other. The sporangia have been described as quite black, but they are often not much deeper in color than the tomentum in which they are embedded. The spores are globular, dark resinous-brown, and very large. There is no other feni in the United States, with which this need be confused. From A'^ sinuaia, apart from the difference in the shape of the pinnx, it is abundantly distin- guished by the nature of the covering of the pinnae, scaly in that species, and finely tomentose in this. The other woolly or tomentose Notholienas found within our limits have thrice or four times pinnate fronds, very unlike those of A'^ fcrruginca. The Chilian N. hypoleuca comes much nearer to it, but has a blacker stalk, a shorter frond, and more deeply pinnatifid pinn.Te, nearly smooth above, and mat- ted with pure-white or pale-ferruginous very fine tomentum beneath. Plate XXXIX., Fig. 7-to. — Notkolana ferruginea. — Fig. 7 is a plant with two fronds; Fig. 8, a pinna enlarged and showing the spo- rangia; Fig. 9, a little of the tomentum or wool, highly magnified; Fig. 10, a spore. FEKNS OP NORTH AMERICA. 301 Pij\TE XXXIX.— Fig. 11-14. NOTHOL/CNA NEWBERRYI, D. C. Eaton. Newberry's Notholsena. Nothouena Newberryi: — Root-stock creeping, covered wtth very narrow dark-brown subulate scales; stalks clus- tered, three to six inches long, slender, blackish-brown, at first woolly with a pale-ferruginous tomentum; fronds as long as the stalks, lanceolate-oblong, covered, most densely beneath, with a web of very fine entangled whitish hairs, tri-quadri- pinnate; pinnx triangular-ovate, the lowest ones rather dis- tant, but not reduced in size; ultimate segments crowded, roundish-obovate, one-third to one-half a line wide, entire or slightly crenatc; sporangia rather large, blackish, at length emergent from the tomentum. NothoUnia Newberryi, Eaton, in Bulletin of Torrey Botan. Club, iv., p. 12; Ferns of the Southwest, p. 307. — BhKER, Syn. Fil., cd. ii.. p. 515- Hah. — Southern Counties of California, often among dry and ex- posed rocks. Discovered near San Diego by Vrofcssor J. S. Newberry, November 9, 1857, and since gathered near tl-.at city by Professor Woon, Mr. CLEViiLAND and others. Abundant in the Temescal Range, Pro- fessor Brewer. Near San Bernardino, Dr. Palmer. The fmest speci- mens I have seen were collected near Poway, about seventeen miles northward of San Diego, by Mr. VViluam Stout. y 3oa FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Description: — Root-stocks creeping, more or less branched, matted together and covered with minute blackish-brown sub- ulate rather rigid scales. The stalks are mostly about four inches long, erect, slender, wiry, /ery dark-brown and at length smooth and polished, though at first covered with a rusty- whitish wool. The section is round, and shows a single roundish fibro-vascular bundle in the middle. The fronds are about as long as the stalks, and an inch to nearly two inches wide, lanceolate-oblong in shape, and whitened on both surfaces with a web of very fine entangled hairs. This covering is very heavy on the under surface, but so thin on the upper that the green color of the frond may be seen through it. In young fronds it is creamy-white, but as the fronds mature it gradually deepens into a pale rusty brown. The fronds are fairly tripinnate, and a few oi the pinnules nearest the midrib are often again divided, so as to render the frond sulMjuadripinnatc. The primary pinnae are from half an inch to an inch long, and are triangular-ovate in shape, the lower ones being broader and more remote than the rest. The ultimate segments are very minute, roundish- obovate, and much crowded, just as in the species of C/tcilan- thes of the section Myriopteris. In fertile fronds the sporangia form a blackish line around the edge of the segments, which are perfectly flat, and have not even the suggestion of an involucre. The sporangia are so few as to form but a single marginal row, and are, when FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 303 fully ripe, blacker than in any other North American fern. They are twice the size of the sporangia of Polypodium vul- garc, globular, and almost sessile. The ring has about four- teen or sixteen articulations, and the cells of the sfonia, or place where the sporangiuni opens, are very long and narrow. The spores are also very large, and very dark-colored: they are globular, slightly roughened, and marked with three faint radiating vittae. This fern has very much the appearance of Chcilanthcs totnentosa, but is whiter, more webby than woolly, and differs generically in the absence of an involucre. Notliolccmi Paryyi, to be figured in a later number of this work, is a much smaller plant, and has a much coarser pubescence. A^. mollis, from Chili, has also some resemblance to it, but in that plant the ultimate pinnules are less crowded, and the heavier, and deep-colored tomentum is stellated in its structure. The genus NothoUcna contains in all about three dozen species, the greater part South American, but two arc South European, and a few African, Indian or Australasian. Within our limits are nine or perhaps ten species, of which four have the fronds coated beneath with yellow or white ceraceous powder, and belong to the section Cincinalis. The rest are either scaly or woolly beneath, except A^. tcucra. of Gillies, which has a smooth frond. Notholcena Asclicuhoruiana, of Klotzsch, is attributed to "Texas and Mexico" in Synopsis Filicum. I have never seen any specimens of this species, and hope that some of IJIfWf ^ ™^!li^-Tl^^"T»!"Tr'TT 304 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. our Botanists in Texas or New Mexico may be so fortunate as to find it. It is described as having a tripjnnatifid frond eight to twelve inches long, linear-oblong crenate or pinnatifid segments, and has the lower surface matted with ciliated fer- niginous scales, beneath which are "minute reddish apparently resinous dots." Plate XXXIX, Fig. 11-14. — Notholana Ncwberryi. Fig. 11 is a plant with two fronds. Fig. 12 shows a few of the woolly hairs, magnified. Fig. 13 is a pinnule, stripped of the wool, and showing the sporangia, also magnified. Fig. 14, a spore. WJ!JI^CA wm In •! 'i FERNS OP NORTH AMERICA. 305 Plate XL. ASPIDIUM GOLDIANUM. Hooker. QoldJe's Wood-Fcm. AspiDiUM Goldianum: -Moot-stock stout, ascending, chaffy; stalks about a foot long, chaffy at the base with large ovate -acuminate f 1 uginous or iieep- lustrous -brown scales; fronds standing in a er wn, one to two and a half feet long, bioadly ovate, or the fertile ones oblong-ovate, chartaceo-membranaceous, nearly smooth, bright-green aljove, a little paler beneath, pinnate; pinnae broiHIy lanceolate, five to eight inches long, one to two and a half broad, usually, especially the lowest ones, narrower at the base than in the middle, pinnatifid almost to the midrib; segments numerous, oblong-linear, often slightly falcate, crenate, or serrate with sharp incurved teeth; veins free, mostly with three vcinlets, the lowest superior veinlets bearing near their base the large sori very near the midvein; indusium large, flat, smooth, or- bicular with a narrow sinus. Aspidium (ioldianutn, Hooker, in Goldie's Ace. of rare Canad. PI. in Edinb. Phil. Journ., vi., p. 333; Fl. Am.-Hor., ii., p. 260. — ToRREY, Fl. New York, ii., p. 495. — Gray, Maniial, cd. ii., p. 598, ed. v., p. 666. — Mettknius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 92; Aspid., p. 56. — WiLUAMSON, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 95, t. xx.xiv. '1; « a '1 '.,;: 3o6 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Nephrodium Goldianum, Hooker & Greville, Ic. Fil. t. cii. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 12 1. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 272. Lastrea Goldiana, Presl, Teni. Pterid., p. 76. — Lwvson, in Canad. Nat. i., p. 282. Dryopteris Goldiana, Gr.\y, Manual, ed. i., p. 631. Aspidium Filix-maSy 1'lrsh, F1. Am. Sept., ii., p. 662. Hab. — Deep, rocky woods, from Canada and Maine to Indiana, Virginia and Kentucky. It is also named in local catalogues of the flora of Wisconsin and Kansas. Not known in the Old World. Description: — The root-stock is creeping or ascending, several inches long, and nearly an inch thick. This thickness is made up, in considerable part, by the adherent bases of old stalks; the stalks being perfectly continuous with the root- stock, and so much crowded as to overlap each other. When fresh the root-stock is fleshy, and a longitudinal section of it shows that its substance passes so gradually into that of the stalk-bases, that no point of separation or distinction between the two can be selected. This kind of root-stor.k is found also in Aspidium spinulosum. and its allies, in A. Filix-mas, A. cristatiim, A. marginale, A. Nexuidense, A. fragrans, and A. rtgidimt, and in very many exotic species, and it is very unlike the root-stocks of A. Thelyptcris, A. Novcboracense, and A. ttnitiim, species which have been already described and figured in the present work. The parenchymatous por- tion of the root-stock is loaded with starch in very minute grains, as may be easily proved by adding a drop of alcoholic solution of iodine to a thin slice of the root-stock placed FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 307 under a microscope, when the grains will be presently seen to turn blue, the recognized sign of starch. This abundance of nutritive material in the root-stock enables it to send up a fine circle of large fronds in the proper season of the year. The stalks are from nine to fifteen inches long, rather stout, green when living, but straw-color when dried for the herbarium, in which condition they are furrowed in front and along the two sides. At the base they are covered with large ovate-acuminate brown or sometimes dark and shining scales. Mixed in with these are smaller and narrower chaffy scales, which also are found along the whole length of the stalk and the rachis. The cross-section of the stalk shows two rather large roundish fibro-vascular bundles on the anterior side, and three, the middle one largest, at the back. Several fronds are usually seen growing from a root- stock, those produced early in the season commonly sterile, and shorter than the others. The full-grown and fertile fronds are often two feet or two and a half feet long, and about one foot broad. The general outline is oblong-ovate, the low- est pinnae being scarcely, if at all, shorter than those in the middle of the frond. There are usually about eight or ten full-sized pinnae each side of the rachis, besides the gradually diminishing pinnne near the acute pinnatifid apex. The larger pinnx are from five to eight inches long, the middle ones an inch or an inch and a half wide, but the lowest ones two inches and a half broad. The greatest breadth of the pinnae is usually near the middle or even a little above the middle, i I 8 »" 1: 3o8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. SO that they are slightly narrowed towards the base ; and in this character lies one of the readiest distinctions between this fern and those large forms of A. cristatum, which have occasionally been mistaken for A. Goldiamim; for in that other species the greatest breadth of the pinnae is uniformly at the base. The segments of the pinnae are from fifteen to twenty each side the midrib: the incisions do not extend quite to the midrib, so that the latter is narrowly winged, and the pinnae are pinnatifid rather than pinnate. The segments are from nine to eighteen lines long, and about three lines wide: they are set rather obliquely on the midrib, and are often slightly curved upwards, or falcate. They are obtuse or somewhat acute, and have the edges crenate, or more or less distinctly serrate with sharp incurved teeth. The veins are free, and are pinnately forked into from three to five slender oblique veinlets, of which the lowest one on the upper side is the longest, and bears a fruit-dot near its base. The fruit-dots are seldom or never found on the two or three lowest pinnae, but on the rest they are ar- ranged in a row each side the midveins of the segments, and much nearer the midveins than the margins. There are in all from ten to twenty to a segment. The indusia are larger than in most of the related spe- cies, flat, perfectly smooth, orbicular with a very narrow sinus, and slightly erose-crenulate on the margin. In the second edition of Gray's Manual it is said that the indusium is "often FERNS OP NORTH AMERICA. 309 orbicular without a distinct sinus, as in Polystichum ;" and it is sometimes difficult to see the sinus, but I think it is rather because the sides of it overlap than because there is none. The sporangia have a ring of from fifteen to twenty articu- lations. The spores are ovoid, and somewhat roughened on the surface. This fern is one of the very finest and largest of the species of the Eastern States, being surpassed in these re- spects only by the osmundas and the ostrich-fern. The fronds are smooth, deep-green in color, slightly paler beneath, and of a rather firm papery texture. Unlike A. Filixmas and A. cristatnm the fronds wither in the fall of the year, and are not " half-evergreen." It was collected by Pursh on his visit to America in the early part of this century, the precise locality not known, — in the Flora he says "New Jersey to Virginia," — and was by him referred to A. Filix-mas. His specimens, preserved i.. the herbarium at Kew, are partly A. Goldiamim and partly A. cristatnm. Mr. John Goldie's discovery was made near Montreal, about the year 1818, and the excellent figure in Hooker & Grcville's Icones Filicum was probably taken from one of his specimens, or perhaps from live plants originally brought by him to the Botanic Garden at Glasgow. Though not one of our commonest Ferns, this is very abundant in certain localities: — Mrs. Roy sends it from Owen Sound, Canada; Dr. Bumstead got it in Smuggler's Notch, Mt. Mansfield, Vermont; Mr. Frost has a fine station on Mt. :1 i '111 ■if I ^-*i \i\ UM 3IO FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Wantastiquet, New Hampshire; I find it plentiful and fine in the deep ravine called Roaring Brook, in Cheshire, Connecticut ; Professor Porter has it from Burgoon's Gap, in the Alleghany Mountains of Pennsylvania; Mrs. McCall, near Madison, Ohio; Mr. Williamson "found it in great abundance near the Little Rockcastle River, in Laurel County," Kentucky, and Mr. Cur- tis has twice sent me fine specimens, with very dark scales at the base of the stalks, from the Peaks of Otter, Virginia. The name is sometimes written Goldieanum; I give the name as it occurs in Goldie's original paper in the Edin- burgh Philosophical Journal. The specimen drawn by Mr. Faxon is from Vermont, and is rep- resented about two-thirds of the natural size. The details show tlie nature of the venation, an indusium, etc. if^. C E Faxoii , .if Alt' .'t'nr;* iV !,iUi Bts^cTi IH If ^ % 1 tl m PERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 3" PUITE XLI. ASPIDIUM FILIX-MAS, Svvartz. Male Pern. AspiDiUM FiLix-MAs: — Root-Stock short, stout, ascending or erect; stalks rarely over a foot long, very chaffy with large lanceolate-acuminate scales and smaller ones intermixed; fronds standing in a crown, one to three feet long, half-ever- green, firm-membranaceous, broadly oblong-lanceolate, slightly narrowed toward the base, pinnate or sul>bipinnate; pinnae lanceolate-acuminate from a broad base, pinnatifid almost or rarely quite to the midrib; segments smooth and full-green above, slightly paler and bearing a few little chaffy scales beneath, normally oblong, obtuse or even truncate, slightly toothed, in another form ovate-lanceolate, acutish and pin- nately incised; veins free, forked or pinnatcly branched into from two to five veinlets; sori rather large, nearer the midvein than the margin, commonly occurring only on the lower half or two-thirds of each segment ; indusia convex when young, rather firm, smooth or minutely glandular, orbicular-reniform. Aspidium Filix-mas, Swartz, in Schraders Journal, ii., (1800) p. 38; Syn. Fil., p. 55. — Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 45, t. 44. — WiLLDENOw, Sp. PI., v., p. 259. — Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., i\ m •1 VM 312 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. p. 105. — RuPRECHT, Distr. Krypt. Vase, in Imp. Ross., p. 35. — KuNZE, in Sill. Journ., July, 184S, p. 83. — METrKNius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 92; Aspidium, p. 55. — Eaton, in Gray's Man- ual, cd. v., p. 666. — MiLUE, in Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur., x.\vi., ii., p. 507; Fil. Eur. ct Atl., p. 118. — Miquel, Prolusio Fl. Jap., p. 117. Polypodium Filix-mas, Linn^us, Sp. PI. p. 155 1. Polyslichum Filix-mas, Roth, "Fl. Germ., iii., p. 82." — Keen, Syn. Fl. Germ, ct Helv., ed. iii., p. 733. Nephrodhim Filix-mas, Ricuarh, "in Dcsvau.\, Mdm. Soc. Linn., vi., p. 60." — Hot)KER, Brit. Ferns, t. 15; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 117. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 272 (oxcl. vars. ,- and ,»). Dryopteris Filix-mas, Schott, Gen. Fil. — Newman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii., p. 184. Lastrca Filix-mas, Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 76. — Moore, Brit. Ferns, Nat. Pr., t. xiv, xv, xvi, xvii. Var. incisiim, Mettenius: — Frond ample, two to three feet long, scantily chaffy on the rachis; segments rather distant, lanceolate, taper- ing to a sub-acute point, incised on the margins with serrated lobules; indusium rather delicate, in age shrivelling or falling off. — Aspidium, p. 55; MiLDE, Fil. Eur. ct Atl., p. 120. — Lastrca Filix-mas, var. incisa, Mooke, I.e. — Ncphrodium Filix-mas, var. affinc, Hooker & Baker. I.e. Var. palcaceum, MErrtMUs: — Frond ample, two to three feet long, stalk and rachis very chaffy with ferruginous or blackish scales; seg- ments oblong, truncate, nearly entire on the margins; indusium coria- ceous, the edges much incurved, sometimes splitting in two. — Aspidium, p. 55; MiLDE, Fil. Eur. Atl., p. 121. — Lastrca Filix-mas, vdx. palcacca, MooRE, I.e. — Aspidium palcaceum, Don, " Prodr. Fl. Nepal., p. 4;" FouRNiER, PI. Mex., Crypt., p. 92. Aspidium parallclogrammum, Kunze, FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 313 in Linnxa, xiii., p. 146, etc. — Nephrodium I'ilix-mas, var. parallelogram- mum, HooKEK, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 116. — Dichasium parallclogrammum and D. patcntissimum. Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 302, t. x.\iii, B. — Lastrea Iruncala, Bkackenriix^e, F"il. of U. S. Expl. Expcd., p. 195, t. 27 (admirable).' Hah. — In ^n•: form or another, this species '-"ccurs in America from Greenland to Peru, throughout Europe and Asia, in parts of Africa, and in many islands of the ocean. The ordinary European form correspond- ing to Moore's plate XIV has been collected in British Columbia by Dr. LvAi.L, in Keweenaw Peninsula of Northern Michigan by Dr. Roii- BiNs, and in the mountains of Colorado by Messrs. Hai.i. & Harhour and Mr. Brandegee. Var. ituisum was found at the base of calcareous rocks at Royston Park, Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, by Mrs. Roy, and in the mountains of Colorado by Dr. Scovili., for one of whose specimens 1 am indebted to D. A. WArr, Esq., of Montreal. Fragments of ap- parently the same form have been received from Dakota. The Califor- nian plant mentioned in Plantse Hartwegiana;, p. 342, is better regarded as a form of Aspidium rigidum. Var. paleaceum has not been found in either Canada or the United States, but is well known in Mexico, in Europe, in Southern Asia, in the Hawaiian Islands, etc. Description: — This fern has a stout, usually ascending, but sometimes erect, very chaffy root-stock, very much like \\\ ',1 i > Millie indicates severul other unimportant variations ; and Hooker & Baker have as varieties of this species the East Indian Aspidium cochlealum, and Aspidium clonga- tum, from Madeira and the Canary Islands. Tlic latter they give as occurring also in the southern United States, evidently supposing it to be the long-lost A. Ludovicianum ot Kunze. For abundant synonymy of Aspidium Filix-mas the student is referred espe- cially to the works of Hooker, Milde, Mettenius ond Moore, as quoted above. tH FEKNS OF NOKTH AMERICA. that of the species last described. It sometimes rises a little above the surface of the ground, forming a short trunk. The stalks seem to vary a good deal in length, being sometimes only two or three inches long, and at other times over a foot. They are clustered at the growing end of the root-stock, and their bases, which remain long after the rest has pcrishcil, are consolidated with the root-stock. The stalks are always more or less chaffy, the chaff mainly confined to the lowest portion in some plants, and in others following the stalk and the rachis to the apex of the frond. The largest scales are sometimes fully an inch long. They are narrowly lanceolate-acuminate, distantly ciliate-dcnticulate on the margin, and composed of narrow but somewhat sinuous cells. Mixed in with them are smaller scales, from two to four lines long, and more distinctly ciliate-toothcd. The color of the scales is different in different specimens, varying from bright golden- brown to ferruginous-brown with a darker spot at the base, and from this to nearly black, especially in the sub-tropical and tropical forms of var. palcacewu. Such specimens are sometimes fairly shaggy with the abundance of scales, which are also found, decreasing in number and in size, on the midribs of the pinnae, and even on the lower surface of the segments. The usual number of fibro-vascular bundles is seven. The fronds are broadly lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate in outline, usually narrowed a little, or even conspicuously nar- rowed, at the base, and acute or acuminate at the apex. They FF.RNS OP NORTH AMERICA. 3'5 are of a full herbaceous j^rccn above, a little paler beneath, and of a rather firmly membranaceous, or, in tropical forms, of a sul>coriaceous texture. Their average length is from one to two feet, but fronds three feet long are occasionally set-Mi ; and one very fine example of var. paieaccum, collected in Chiapas, Mexico, by Dr. Ghiesbreght, is three feet and a half long, exclusive of the stalk. The pinnae are sometimes very numerous; as many as forty on each side have been counted on very large fronds, but the number is more commonly less than twenty. They are lanceolate-acuminate in shape, tapering from a broad base to a slender point; in the common form their average breadth at the base is half to three-fourths of an inch, but in var. incision they are often fully two inches broad at the base. Their length is from three or four inches in the common form to six or seven inches in the largest specimens I have seen. The midrib of the pinUcX is always more or less winged, so that the pinnae may be said to be pinnatifid, and the seg- ments to be connected by a narrow wing. The shape of the segments differs in the several varieties ; in the type they are very close together, oblong, with a rounded apex, and not very deeply toothed: in var. paieaccum they are also closely-placed, and oblong, but mostly truncate at the apex; and in var. incisum they are much larger and less closely-placed, ovate-lanceolate in shape, and incised with toothed lobes along the sides. The veins are free, and are forked or alternately divided • ■nl % i I: m ' ^■^f'i 316 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. into from two to five veinlets. The sori are rather large, placed nearer the midvein than the margin, and ire rarely produced towards the apex of the segments. The indusium is orbicular-reniform, and almost always smooth. Its edges are turned downward, enclosing the spor- angia, when they are young, and sometimes this convexity is permanent. Rarely the sinus is so deep that the indusium at last becomes divided. The spores are ovoid, and have a muricately roughened surface. The rhizomes have been used for ages as an anthel- mintic, but probably have no greater virtue in this direction than those of many ether common species. Plate XLI. — Aspidium Filix-mas, var. incisum. The figure is re- duced one-third, atu'. is taken from one of Mrs. Roy's fine Canadian specimens. Other fronds from the same locality show the incising of the segments in a much greater degree. At the top of the plate are two segments enlarged, one from the base and the other from the middle of the same pinna. The indusium is also represented. ^^f •* I ' E !ux.!i. I- Anr.Hl!w;A.Cy U\h Po^t P!; 1 h f l.ifh f-'ost .n FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 317 j Plate XLII. — Fig. 1-3. POLYPODIUM PECTINATUM, Linn^us. Comb-leaved Polypody. PoLYi-ODiUM PECTINATUM: — Root-Stock stout, elongated, moderately chaffy and often ferruginous-tomentose; stalks a few inches to nearly a foot long, rigid, blackened and puber- ulent; frc' ' one to three feet long, two to five inches wide, linear-lanceolate, somewhat curved and elastic when dry, pin- natifid almost to the midrib; segments very numerous, spread- ing, one to three inches long, two to four lines wide, gradually tapering from a dilated base to a narrow but obtuse apex, usually entire; midvein ctrong, blackish; veins dark at the base; veinlets three or four in each group, pellucid and nearly invisible, normally free; sori often slightly oval, placed in a single row each side the midvein about half way between it and the margin; spores ovoid-reniform, yellowish, the surface finely pustulated. Polypodiuvt pectinatuvt, Linn^us, Sp. PI., p. 1545. — Svvartz, Syn. Fil., p. 34.— WiLLDENOw, Sp. PI., V, p. 180. — Eatox, Fil. Wright, ct Fendl., p. 198. — Hooker, Garden Ferns, t. 10; Sp. Fil., iv, p. 203.— Grisebach, F1. Brit. W. I. Islands, p. 699.— Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 333. *** The following names are referred to this species by Hooker, and I do not see how they can be separated from it; but it should be 3'8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. remarked that Meitenius and Fournier keep them distinct, and that the latter author is of the opinion that our Tern is not the plant LinN/EUS had in view. Poiypodiiim Otitcs, Linx.eus. Sp. PI., p. 1545. — Swaktz, Syn. Fil., p. 34. — WiLLDEXow, Sp. PI., p. 177. Polypodium Panidisccc, Langsdouff & Fishcher, Ic. Fil., p. 11, t. 11. — Wu-LDENow, Sp. PI., V, p. 179. — Metienius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 31; Polypodium, p. 60. — Eaton, Fil. Wright, et Fendl., p. 198. Polypodium consimilc, Mettenius, in Eaton, Fil. Wright, et Fendl., p. 19S; "Prod. I'l. Nov.-Gran., p. 61." — Fournier, PI. Max., Crypt., p. 76. Goniophlcbium pcctinatum, J. Smith, Bot. Voy. Herald, p. 230 (a form with the veinlets anastomosing in paracostal areoles). Polypodium nigrum, tcnuius scclum, Plu.mier, Fil. Am., p. 64, t. 83. Had. — vSouthern Ilorida; near Enterprise, Mr. C. E. Faxon, at Manatee, Dr. A. P. Gaubkk.' Very common in West Indies, Mexico, and South America as far as Brazil and Paraguay. Description: — The root-stock is creeping, fleshy in the living plant, covered near the growing end with very narrow slender-pointed scales, which are often in turn concealed by an abundant growth of entangled cinnamon-colored flattened I " In tliis locality it is restricted to a small area of high banks of a stream in a hummock draininj^ a series of ponds. The soil is mostly clay intermixed with a small per cent, of sand and vegetable matter. On the sides of tlic hi^h banks and ncitr the water's edge, apparently in pure clay and rocks, tiic fronds arc narrower, more rigiil and erect, while upon the banks and a little distance from the water they arc wider, flaccid, and gen- erally reclining. All the fronds appeared fertile, and measured 2 to 4 inches in width, and 1-2 to 3 feet in length." — Dr. Garber, in Botanical Gazette, Oct., 1S7S, p. 82. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 319 hairs. The stalks arc borne on the upper side alternately in a double row, and leave, after they have fallen off, very dis- tinct cup-like scars. The stalks are from one to two lines thick, and from two inches to nearly a foot long, rigid, terete, and nearly black in color, but lustreless. They are pubcrulent with slender whitish or rusty hairs, and are bordered by a very narrow herbaceous wing on each side for a considerable distance below the proper beginning of the frond. The ex- terior sheath of the sclerenchyma is very hard and thick, and the contents much shrivelled in dried stems, but by taking a very young frond a satisfactory section of the stalk can be made, and then about five isolated slender fibro-vascular bun- dles may be seen. The fronds are usually much elongated, and are narrowly linear-lanceolate in outline. Usually the lower pinn.-e or seg- ments are gradually reduced in length until the lowest of them are merely slight dilations of the narrow wing of the stalk. The middle segments are much dilated at the base, and usually more so on the upper side than on the lower. In one of Dr. Garber's largest specimens there are seventy- five segments on each side, the largest of them three inches long, and having a breadth at the base of half an inch, which is immediately contracted to a quarter of an inch, and '.hen gradually narrows to the end. The segments arc usually enllic, but are pinnately lobed in some Cuban fronds, and in one from Miss Reynolds. The color of the segments in the living plant and in well-preserved specimens is a good herbaceous green; I1 320 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. but most herbarium specimens, having been less carefully dried, turn to a dull olive-green, or even almost black. The rigid midrib, the niidvcins and the bases of the veins are purplish-black, but the veinlcts are of the same color as the parenchyma, and are therefore extremely difficult to see. The veins have, as in most Polypodia, a branch on the upper side, starting close to the midrib, and this veinlet is soriferous. The lower branch is again forked, or sometimes divided into three veinlets, which run nearly to the edge of the segment. In the form which Mr. John Smith referred to Goniophlebium these upper veinlets unite at their tips, and form a series of areoles enclosing the sori. This form I have from Panama; and, according to Fournier, something like this was the plant figured by Plumier, on which the Linna^an P. pectinatum was originally founded. But Plu- mier neither figures the veins, nor says anything about them, and his whole figure and description so well accord with our plant that it seems best to follow the opinion of Swartz, Willdenow and Hooker, who all considered his plant to be the same as the P. pectinatum of their own writings. Polypodium Plumula, a smaller plant than the present, long known as existing in Florida, will be figured in a later Part of this work, and the distinctions between that species and this one will then be pointed out. Plate XLIL — Fi?. i, ida. F ig. 2 IS an en largcd Polypodiuvt pectinatum, portion of a pinna. V from Manatee, Flor- 'g- 3. a s pore, highly magni fied. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 321 Plate XLII. — Fig. 4-7. POLYPODIUM PHYLLITIDIS, Lixn.eus. Hart's-tongue Polypody. PoLYPODiUM PHYLLITIDIS :— Root-Stock stout, fleshy, creep- ing, sparingly chaffy with deciduous rounded or cordate scales ; fronds almost sessile, one to three feet high, linear-lanceolate, acute at the apex, very gradually narrowed at the base, en- tire or slightly sinuate, firmly chartaceous or sul>coriaceous, yellowish-green, smooth and shining; veins diverging from the midrib at an angle of about sixty degrees, running nearly straight to the margin, mostly about two lines apart, more distant below, connected by from six to twelve series of an- gularly arched transverse veinlets, from the outer angles of which proceed usually two short simple or sometimes forked free soriferous veinlets, and often between them an additional veinlet connecting successive arcs; sori in a double row be- tween the primary veins, commonly placed below the apex of the fruiting veinlet. rolypodium Phyllitidis, Linn^us, Sp. PI., p. 1543. — Swartz, Syn. Fil, p. 28. — WiLLDi-xow, Sp. PL, V, p. 157. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 34; Polypodium, p. 83.— Eatox, in Chapman's Flora, p. 588. — Hooker, Sp. Fil., v, p. 38. — Hooker & Rakek, Syn. Fil., p. 34S. — Garber, in Dot. Gazette, iii. p. 83. 322 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Polypodium rcpcns, Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 34, t. xxiv, f. 1,2. — Kaion, Fil. Wright, ct Fcndl., p. 199. Campyloncuron P/iyllttidis, Presi., Tent. Pt«-itl., p. 190. — Link, Fil. Hort. Bcrol., p. 124. — F^e, nine Mem., p. 69. — Fournier, PI. Mc.x., Crypt., p. 85. Campyloncuron Aloritzianum, F"f:E, Gen. Fil., p. 25S. Campyloncuron latum, Mooke, Index I'il., p. 225. Cyrtoplilcbium Phyllitiilis, J. Smith, "in Jour. Bot., iv, p. 58 Cyrtophlebium nitidum, Brackenriixie, Fil. of U. S. Expl. Expod., p. 39. Lingua Ccrvina longis angustis ct undnlatis foliis major, Pi.umiicr, Fil. Amor., p. 114, t. 130. Lingua Ccrvina multijido cacuminc laciniata, Plumier, 1. c, p. 115, t. 131.' Hah. — South Florida, many collectors; noticed near Indian River and at Biscayne Bay by Dr. Palmer, on stumps, etc., in cypress swamps on the Caloosa-hatchic, by Messrs. J. Donnei.l Smith and C. V. Austin, and in several places in Dade and Manatee Counties, by Dr. Gariier, who says the root-stocks are commonly lodged in the decaying trunks of prostrate trees, or in old stumps near the ground, and sometimes on the ground where the soil consists chiefly of decomposing vege- table matter. The fern is found abundantly in the West Indies, in Mexico, Central America and in South America as far as Brazil. Description: — The root-stock of this fern is, when fresh, • Phimicr's plate 134 represents a closcly-.nllicd plant with a long and comparatively slender rliizonia. On this was founded P. repcns o{ Swartz, which llookor and Raker have regarded as a distinct species, but which Fournier considers a variety of /'. I'/iyl/iti- dis. If Fendler's Venezuelan 229 and 230 are the true P. rcpcns there can be no doubt i.hat it is a good species. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 323 nearly as thick as one's finger, several inches Jong, fleshy, covered with cinnamon-brown tomentosc rootlets, and marked on the upper surface with a double row of crowded cup-like scars. The fronds to the number of six to twelve, according to Dr. Garber, but " often twenty or more," as observed by Messrs. Smith and Austin, stand very close together on the newer part of the root-stock. The stalk is very short, being never more than two or three inches long, and often much less. It is rather stout, and green in the living plant. At the very base, and ou the root-stock, are a few fuscous scales, usually rounded and cordate, but sometimes pointed. These soon fall away, leaving the root-stock bare, until it is covered by the interlacing roots. The transverse section is rounded at the back and discloses three furrows on the front, the mid- dle furrow broader than the others. The ridges which are outside of the lateral furrows become more and more promi- nent higher up the stalk, and so pass very gradually into the long decurrent margins of the frond. Within the stalk are two rather large fibro-vascular bundles just beneath the sides of the middle furrow, and back of them about seven much smaller bundles arranged in a semicircle. The fronds sent by Dr. Garber vary from less than an inch long, in seedling plants, to others nearly three feet long and over two inches wide in the middle. These measure- ments are sometimes exceeded in exotic specimens: I have one frond from the province of Huasteca in Mexico, collected by Ervendberg, which is fully four and a quarter inches wide 324 I'liUNS 1)1' NORTH AMURICA. in the widest^ place. The apex of the frond narrows gradually to a point, but is seldom fairly acuminate. From about the middle, or a short distance below the middle, the frond tapers gradually to the base, and passes into the stalk by such in- sensible degrees that it is impossible to say where the stalk ceases and the blade begins. The substance of the frond is thin, but rigid, having almost the consistence of parchment. It is smooth and glossy on both surfaces. The color of the living fronds is said by Dr. Garber to be yellowish-green, and he notices a translucency which is mostly lost in drying. A monstrosity having fronds with laciniately multifid apices is occasionally seen in cultivation. Mr. Wright collected a few such specimens in Cuba, and Plumier's plate 131 rep- resents the same thing. The midrib is straight and strong, flat or slightly furrowed above, and very prominent beneath. Owing to the rigidity of the whole frond, and especially of the midrib, the fronds stand very erect and straight, and have nothing of the grace- fully recurved appearance which is seen in Asplcnitim scyratum (see page 18 of this work). The margins of the frond are lightly undulated, and the very edge is thickened, thereby in- creasing the rigidity ff the frond. The primary veins i.re exceedingly numerous and very conspicuous. They •^livorge obliquely from tne midrib, and run nearly straight almost to the edge of the frond. As in the other species of the section Campyloncuron, the primary veins are connected by arched veinlets, which emit from their FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 325 !• outer side several ray-like veinlets. In the present species the middle ray is generally continued to the next arch, and so the primary areoles are divided by a veinlct parallel to the main veins and between them, but more or less interrupted in its course, and never extending down to the midrib. The other rays are shorter, and cither simple or forked, the ends being free and slightly enlarged; this enlarged end is often marked on the upper surface of the frond by a minute dot, either blackish or white and chalk-like. Below the end these rays bear rather large rounded fruit-dots, generally two in each primary areole. Rarely, the radial veinlets are so irregu- lar that the space between the arches is cut up into numer- ous undefinable polygons. Something of this may be seen in plate XXIV of the work on the Ferns of the Lcipzic Garden by Dr. Mettenius. The spores of this fern are oblong-ovoid, or slightly reniform, and marked with a single vitta. The species of the section Campylonetiron are few in number. Those admitted by Hooker and Baker are P. ongus- tifolmm, P. lucicinm, P. sphcnodcs, P. coarctatiun, P. Iccvigatum, P. repens, P. P/iyllitidis, P. dcctirrens and P. Fendleri. The last two have pinnate fronds: all the others have more or less elongated simple fronds. All are American, none of the section having ever been discovered in any part of the Old World. In the narrowest forms the peculiar venation is not so clearly evident as in the broader ones, and shows some- thing of a transition to that of Goniophleb'mm. But on the 326 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. whole the group is very natural, and is maintained as a genus by Foamier, although he rejects Goniophlebium and Lepicystis. Phyllitis is an ancient name of the Hart's-tongue, and the specific name given to the present fern by Linnaeus refers to the similar shape of the fronds of the two species. Plate XLIL — Fig. 4-7. Polypodium Phyllitidis. Fig. 4 is a frond of the natural size, collected by Dr. Garber. Fig. 5 is a seedling plant. Fig. 6 is a portion of a frond somewhat enlarged, and showing the venation. Fig. 7 is a spore, highly magnified. ■ pAb: * » 4^: r\ . ..^r:^^!!^ Si. Co i.lth BU ii ■.: i-:NEHA, Gillie.-. r \ ■■ t. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 327 Plate XLIII.— Fig. 1-4. PELL^A BRIDGESII, Hooker. Bridges's Cliff-Brake. Pell^a BRIDGESII :_ Root-stock short, creeping, densely chaffy with narrow scales; stalks three to six inches long clustered, terete, wiry, dark-reddish-brown, smooth and shin- ing; fronds as long as the stalks, linear-oblong, simply pin- nate; pinn^ five to eighteen pairs, mostly opposite, nearly sessile, glaucous-green, coriaceous; sterile ones orbicular or sub',ct:on of ^he stem shows on the exterior a single layer of niinutc lirrn-walled cells, and in the middle of the paren- chyma a well defined circle of sclerenchyma, within which is a single horse-shoe-shaped fibro-vascular bundle. The frond is from three to six inches long, and rarely over three-fourths of an inch wide. It consists of a terminal pinna and from five to eighteen pairs of lateral pinnae, the upper ones and the lowest but very little smaller than the rest, all attached by very short plum-colored or reddish-brown petioles to a ra- chis which is like the stalk in all its characters. The pinnae are almost coriaceous in texture, perfectly smooth, and of a pale glaucous-green, certainly in dried plants. The sterile pinnae are orbicular with a slightly heart-shaped base, which often somewhat encloses the rachis: they are usually about four lines in diameter and length, but occasion- ally are found fully twice this size. The fertile pinnae are as long as the others, but commonly a little narrower, so as to l___l_. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 329 be cordate-ovate in shape. They arc almost always folded longitudinally, so that the two sides have their under surfaces closely applied together, and they are then slightly curved up- wards along the midvein, giving them something of a crescent- like shape. The veins, of which there are from eight to twelve pairs in a pinna, diverge angularly from the midvein, and curve outwardly. They are dichotomously forked three or four times, so that the veinlets near the margin are very close together— not the hundredth part of an inch apart. Here and there the veinlets are seen to anastomose angularly, es- pecially near the midvein, less regularly so, however, than in the two species composing Mr. Bakers section Holcochlcena. The sporangia form linear sori on the upper part of the veinlets, often descending as far as the last forking of the veinlets. As the veinlets are so very close together, the sori collectively form a broad intramarginal band of fructification. The margin of the pinnae is thin, wrinkled, white and carti- laginous, and is at first so reflexed as partly to cover the sporangia, but it is soon flattened out. The spores are nearly globular, roughened, and faintly trivittate. A thing which has escaped notice hitherto is the presence on the back of the frond, especially between the lines of sporangia, of a little of the same yellowish ceraceous powder which is characteristic of the section Cincinalis of Notholcena, and of certain species of Clieilanthes and Gymnogramme. In- deed the very scantily reflexed involucre would seem to indicate that the plant would be quite as well placed in Notholcena m, m 330 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. as in Pellcea, a genus in which, I believe, no other species with farinaceous fronds have as yet been placed. But the fern most nearly resembling this one is Pellcea roiundi/olia, of New Zealand, a plant with taller fronds, equally rounded pinnse, and a shaggy-paleaceous stalk and rachis. I am con- tent, therefore, to leave this fern in Pellcea, section Platyloma, where it is placed in Synopsis Filicum. Plate XLIII. — Fig. 1-4. Pel/tea Bridgesii, a specimen from the Mariposa Grove collected by Mr. Bolander. Fig. 2 is an enlarged pinna. Fig. 3 is a portion of a pinna more highly magnified, and showing the margin partly reflexed. Fig. 4, a spore. mm FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 331 Plate XLIII. — Fig. 5-8. PELLyEA BREWERI, D. C. Eaton. Brewer's Cliff-Brake. Pell^a Breweri:— Root-stock ascending, short, stout, very chaffy with narrow linear-acuminate fulvous scales ; stalks crowded, two to four inches long, terete, very fragile, bright- brown, chaffy only at the base; fronds as long as the stalks, oblong, pinnate; pinnae six to twelve pairs, short-petioled, membranaceous, half to three-fourths of an inch long, mostly two parted, the upper lobe largest; lobes and simple upper pinnae ovate or triangular-ovate, cuneate and often sub-cordate at the base; veins free, curving outwards, twice or thrice forked; sporangia at the ends of the veins, covered by a del- icate continuous involucre. Pellaa Breweri, Eaton, in Proceed. Amer. Acad., vi, p. 555; Botany of U. S. Geol. Expl. of 40th Parallel, p. 395, t. xl, fig. i;.— Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 145, Hab.— Common in the clefts of exposed rocks in the higher can- ons of the Sierra of California, and thence eastward to the East Hum- boldt Mountains and the Wahsatch ; also found near Loma in Colorado, near the Rio Grande. First collected in 1863 by Professor W. H. .Brewer near Sonora Pass, at 7,000 to 8,000 feet elevation, and after- wards in Ebbett's Pass at the same altitude. Mono Pass, at 9,000 to 332 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 10,000 feet elevation, Bolander. East Humboldt Mountains, Watsov. Wahsatch Range, Watson, Eaton. Loma, Loew. Description: — In its habit of growth this little fern is very much like the last; it is about the same size, it grows in similar places, and the root-stocks are similarly condensed and very chaffy, but the scales are longer and have a brighter color; they are more crisped and much softer, and have no ves- tige of a midnerve. The stalks arc very numerous and densely crowded; they are terete, wiry, bright-brown and lustrous, but they are marked, in herbarium specimens at least, with many little transverse depressions, or incipient cracks, so that they are extremely fragile. They commonly break off about an inch from the root-stock, leaving their lower portion for a long time adherent to the latter. They are chaffy only at the very base, the scales being similar to those of the root- stock. The transverse section shows a single central fibro- vascular bundle something the shape of the expanded wings of a butterfly, surrounded by a very thin layer of scleren- chyma. The frond is usually about four inches long, and a little more than an inch wide, but some specimens have fronds a little smaller than this, and now and then one is seen consid- erably larger. The frond consists of a rachis like the stalk in color and fragility, and of several pairs of pinnas, commonly about nine pairs, besides the terminal pinna. The terminal pinna and a few of those nearest it are triangular-ovate, entire and almost sessile by a contracted base: the lower pairs are FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 333 more and more distinctly two-lobed, the upper lobe very much larger than the lower one in the middle pinn.x- and considerably larger in the lower pinnae. In a few little fronds from Loma the lower two or three pairs of pinncie have three or four 'obes, the middle or terminal lobe the largest. When three-lobed, the pinnae are hastate; when four-lobed there arc two lateral lobes on the inferior side and one on the supe- rior. The pinnaj are bright-green in color, and thinly mem- branaceous in texture, much thinner than in Pclhca Biidgcsii, P. andmnedcrfolia and P. flcxuosa, though not so delicate as in P. gracilis. The veins are pinnately arranged along the sides of a rather delicate and slightly flexuous midvein ; they fork twice or three times, and the veinlets curve gradually more and more away from the midvein, until they terminate just at the edge of the pinna in the sterile fronds, or just at the begin- ning of the delicate, whitish and conspicuous involucre in the fertile ones. The sporangia grow on the veins, just at their tips; at first they are covered by the involucre, but when fully ripe they often extend a very little beyond its reach. The spores are nearly globose, and have three faint radiating vittc-e. Among American ferns this species comes nearer to Pel- leva gracilis than to any other, but has a stout root-stock, a far heavier stalk and rachis, diff-reutly shaped and differently compounded fronds, and veins placed very much closer to- gether. Pelleea auriculata, from Cape Colony, is perhaps a 334 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. nearer ally, but in that species, too, the pinncie arc usually symmetrically lobed and the veins less crowded. Chcibpiccton was a genus proposed by Fee ( Al^ni., P- 2>'^ for the Mexican Pteris rigida of Swartz. It differed " from Ptcfis in the absence of a receptacle, froni the PcUccas in having convoluted and veiny margins, and from Clicilanthes in appearance, consistence, and the shortness of the sori, which are hidden under the infolded margins." This name Chcilo- piccton was taken, by the authors of Synopsis Filicum, for the name of a section of Pellcca, characterized by an herbaceous or subcoriaceous texture, clearly visible veins, and a broad involucre, which in most of the species is rolled over the sorus till full maturity. To this section are referred Pellcca atiriciilata, Brcwcri, Sccmamii, gracilis, pilosa, colw a, ger- auicc/olia, Taviburii, ilcltoidca, Skinneri, rigida. B ^ne of the added species show so strongly a revolute or so plainly a striated involucre as are seen in Fee's original species, and several of them differ very much in habit from the others; it seems, therefore, most probable that in the next general revision of the genus some new arrangement of the sections will be necessary. Plate XLIII. — Fig. 5-8. — Pcllaa Breweri, from Mono Pass. Fig. 6 is a lower pinna, enlarged. Fig. 7, a small part of the same more highly magnified. Fig. 8, a spore. wmmmm FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 335 Plate XI.III. — Tio. 9-13. NOTHOL/ENA TENERA, Gillies. Tender Notholeena. NoTHOL/ENA TENERA: — Root-stock short, "eroct," chaffy with narrow linear-acuminate ferruginous scales; sialics tufted, wiry, brownish, smooth and shining; fronds (in our plant) one to four inches long, oblong or the larger ones ovate-pyramidal, once to thrice pinnate ; pinna? mostly opposite, rather distant, the lowest pair usually largest and most compound; ultimate pinnules one or Uvo lines long, ovate, often sul>cordate, ob- tuse, smooth and naked on both surfaces, tender and herba- ceous, but slightly fleshy; sporangia borne on the upper part of the forked veins, sometimes covering the greater portion of the surface of the pinnule. Notholcetia tenera, Gillies, in "Bot. Mag., t. 3055." — Kunze, Die Farrnkrauter, i, p. 44, t. xxii, 2. — Hooker, Gen. Fil., t. l.wvi, A; Sp. Fil., V, p. 122. — Br.\ckenridge, Fil. of U. S. Expl. Exped., p. 20. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 46. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 373. — Eaton, Ferns of tlie South- West, p. 309. Cincinalis tcncra. Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 160. — J. Smith, Ferns, Brit, and Foreign, p. 178. Gymnogramnie tcncra, Mettenius, Cheilanthes, p. 7. Hab. — Crevices of perpendicular rocks in Southern Utah, Dr. Parry, May, 1874, Dr. Palmer, 1877. Chili, Bolivia and Peru. 336 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Description: — The root-stocks are very short, ascending or erect, and chaffy with very narrow slender-pointed ferrugi- nous scales destitute of midnerve. The stalks aiC sometimes several inches long, especially in the specimens collected near Obrajillo in Peru by the botanists of the U, S. Exploring Expedition, but in the specimens from Utah they are not more than two inches long, sometimes much less. They are wiry, dark-brown or almost black, smooth and shining, though without the high polish of the stalks of most Adianta. The stalks and the similar rachis, with at least the lowest portion of its branchlets, persist long after the pinnae have fallen off, so that the fronds are surrounded by a bristling mass of old stalks. The section of the stalk shows a solitary central somewhat triangular fibro-vascular bundle. The fronds, in our plant, are from one to three inches long. The fronds of the smallest plants are simply pinnate, with a few pairs of roundish or slightly cordate sterile pin- nae about two lines long and broad. The fronds of larger plants are narrowly triangular-ovate in outline, and are twice pinnate, all but the uppermost pinnae having a distinct peti- ole of the same rigid character and dark color as the rachis. The pinnae are mostly divided into about five ovate or sub- cordate pinnules from one to two lines long. In the lowest pinnc-e these pinnules show a tendency to become again divided. The texture of the pinnules is tender, but at the same time rather fleshy, or sub-coriaceous. They have both surfaces per- fectly smooth, and the color is a full herbaceous green, in- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 337 dining to glaucous, according to Kunze and Hooker. The veins are rather few, and are once, or the lower ones twice, forked, the veinlets curving outward to the margins of the pinnules. The sporangia are seated on the upper part of the veinlets, but often descend so far towards the midvein as to give the plant fully as much the character of Gymnogramme as of Not/iolatta. The green margin of the pinnules ex- tends a little beyond the end of the veinlets, and is a little thinner than the middle part of the pinnules; it shows a faint tendency to be reflexed over the outermost sporangia, but is by no means a true involucre. The spores are globose and faintly trivittate. There is a little doubt as to whether the specimens sent from Utah by Drs. Parry and Palmer can be fairly referred to the South American A^. fenem. I learn from Professor Gray that Mr. Baker, who has access to the original speci- mens collected in Chili by Dr. Gillies, thinks that they can- not, and it is with no little hesitation that I venture to adhere to the contrary opinion. I have not seen the figures in the Botanical Magazine, and the specimens I have from Chili and Peru are scanty. But they are taller and larger than the Utah plant, more compound, and have the "ellipti- cal" pinnules described by Hooker^ and figured in his Genera Filicum. On the other hand our plant corresponds very well to Kunze's figures, especially to that marked a in his plate, where v/e see one of the fronds simply pinnate with cordate- ovate very slightly hastate pinnules, almost exactly like some 338 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. of the Utah specimens. The subcoriaceous, yet herbaceous and tender texture of the pinnae is not less characteristic of our plant than of the Chilian, and the sori, sometimes sub- marginal, sometimes descending far towards the midvein, are the same in both. In fact, the difference is just about the same as that existing between the Pellaa pulchella of New Mexico and the same species as collected in Chiapas. Notho- lana tenera is confessedly very near to N. nivea, from which it differs mainly by the absence of ceraceous powder from the under surface of the frond; but Hooker found traces of the powder in specimens from Bolivia, and has expressed a doubt as to the distinctness of the two species. Plate XLIII. — Fig. 9-13. Notholana tenera. The plants repre- sented are all from Southern Utah, collected by Drs. Parry and Palmer. Fig. 12 is an enlarged pinnule. Fig. 13, a spore. ^4^ €t 'm H' if: FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 339 Plate XLIV. DICKSONIA PILOSIUSCULA, Willdenow. Hay-scented Fern; Hairy Dicksonia. DicKsoNiA PILOSIUSCULA: Root-stoclc very slender, creep- ing, much elongated; stalks scattered, erect, sometimes a foot long, greenish in the living plant, fading to brownish-straw- color, slightly puberulent ; fronds one to three feet long, ovate- lanceolate in outline, long-pointed, delicately herbaceous, hairy and minutely glandular, pinnate or almost bipinnate"; pinna numerous, lanceolate, pointed, the second pair a little longer than the first; pinnules adnate to the secondary midrib, and usually decurrent on it, rhomboid-ovate, pinnatifid into oblong and obtuse cut-toothed lobes; sori minute, in cup-like involu- cres which are seated on minute recurved teeth, usually one at the upper margin of each lobe of the pinnules. Dicksonia pilosiuscula, Willdenow, "Enum. PI. Hort. Berol., p. 1076; Sp. Fil., V, 484.-PURSH. Fl. Am. Sept.. ii, p. 671. — Hooker. Fl. Bor.-Am., ii, p. 264.— Torrey, Fl. New York, ii, p. 502.— BiGELow, Fl. Boston., ed. iii. p. 424.— Wood. Botanist and Florist, p. 376. Polypodium pilosiusculum, Muhlenberg " in litt." Sitolobium (or Sitobolium) pilosiusailum, Desvaux, "Prodr., p. 262." Adcctum piiosiuscu/um, Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 42. -I'l 340 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Dicksnnia pubescens, Swartz, in Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 125, t. 131. — Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 136. Dicksonia punctiloba. Hooker, Sp. Fil., i, p. 79. — Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 55. — FiE, Gen. Fil., p. 355. Aspidium punctilobum, Willdenow, Sp. PI., v, p. 279. — Pursh, F1. Am. Sept., ii, p. 664. Sitolobium pututilobum, J. Smith. Dicksonia punctilobula. Gray, Manual, ed. i, p. 629, etc. — Kunze, in Sill. Journ., July, 1848, p. 87; in Linnxa, xxiii, p. 249. — Darlington, FI. Ccstr., ed. iii, p. 394. — Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 105. — E.\T0N, in Chapman's Flora, p. 597. — William- son, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 119, t. xlvi. Nephrodium puncliiobulum, Michaux, F1. Bor.-Am., ii, p. 268. Aspidium punctilobulum, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 60. Dennstadtia punctilobula, Moore, Index Fil., p. xcvii, 307. — Lawson, in Canad. Nat., i, p. 287. Hab. — Moist woods, and often in low grassy places; a common fern in New Brunswick, Canada, New England and the Middle States extending westward to Indiana, and possibly farther, and southward as far as Central Alabama, where it was found on the cliffs of the Cohaba River by Professor Eugene A. Smith. It is not mentioned in the cat- alogues of plants of Wisconsin, nor does Professor Harvey report it as found in Arkansas. It is probably confined to Eastern North America, although Kunze claimed to have specimens from the West Indies. Description : — The root-stock creeps extensively an inch or two below the surface of the ground. It is about a line and a half or two lines thick, perfectly round, and nearly naked, bearing instead of chaff a very scanty covering of FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 34» slender jointed hairs at its growing extremity. It is irregularly branched, often forked, and emits long and slender rootlets along its whole extent. The section shows a broad exterior ring of light brown parenchyma; inside of this is a broad circle of minute white starch-cells, then the scalariform ves- sels in a narrow ring, bordered by other minute cells, which are most probably bast-cells; inside of this is another broad circle of the starch-cells, and in the very centre is a roundish mass of brown sclerenchyma. The whole section has such a regular concentric system that it is not only very pretty to look at, but would be very well suited for anatomical study m the class-room. The stalks are seldom more than two or three to a root- stock, and rise from it several inches back of its apex. In advance of them may be seen the rudiments of next year's stalks. The stalks are roundish on the back and furrowed on the front. They are not articulated to the root-stock, but are continuous with it. Very often the stalk is found to have a short branch just above its base. This branch has the structure of the root-stock, and undoubtedly may grow into a full-sized rhizoma. The section of the stalk shows a thin outer sclerenchymatous sheath, and, within the colored paren- chyma, a broad and thin vascular band, its edges turned up almost at right angles with the middle part. This structure may be seen, though somewhat modified, even below the little branch just described, proving, what is perhaps hitherto un- known in ferns, that a stalk may branch out into a root-stock. 34a FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA, The fronds are singularly feathery and graceful in their appearance. They are rarely less than a foot long, and may attain a length of over three feet. They are green, delicately herbaceous, withering very quickly when plucked, but often bleaching very prettily in the autumn. The upper surface is nearly smooth, but the under-surface is minutely glandular- puberulent, and sometimes finely hairy. In drying they give out a rather pleasant hay-like odor, though by no means so fragrant as two or three of the wood-ferns. They are ovate- lanceolate in outline, tapering very gradually from just above the rather broad base to a long and slender apex. The pinnae repeat in miniature the outline of the frond. In all but the lower pinnae of the very largest fronds the secondary rachises are narrowly wing-margined by the decur- rent bases of the adnate segments or pinnules. These seg- ments are oblong-ovate, mostly obtuse, pinnatifid often rather more than half way to the midvein into oblong toothed lobes. The largest pinnae are from three to six inches long; the pinnules from half an inch to an inch long; the lobes from one to three lines long, and the teeth about the fourth part of a line. The veins and veinlets are all free; the latter so branched that a veinlet runs to every one of the minute lobules or teeth. A fertile frond, as is very common in ferns, is fertile only in its upper half, the lower pinnae being usually sterile. The fruit-dots are very minute, and arc placed on the lowest tooth on the upper side of the lobes of the segments. Com- FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 343 monly there is but one fruit-dot to a lobe, but sometimes there are two on the upper side, and rarely a third on the lower. The involucre is like a little cup, and is formed partly from the reflexed tip of the fertile tooth or lobule, and partly of a special true involucre, which meets the other part and is united with it. Inside the cup are found about a dozen spo- rangia, which have from twenty to twenty-four articulations in the ring. The spores are trigonous with somewhat im- pressed sides, and three faint vittae along the angles. There has been a great deal of confusion respecting the names of this fern, both generic and specific. The genus DicA'souia was proposed by L'Heritier in 1788 for two species, /?. Culcita of the Azores and Madeira, and D. arborcsceus of St. Helena. In these the involucre is very distinctly two- valved, the outer valve formed from the apex of a lobe. About a dozen other species are now known, which are plainly con- geners of these two. In 1801, Bernhardi proposed a genus Dennstadtia for the Trichomanes floccidimi of Forster, a fern much more like our own, and, like it, having a cup-like, and hot two-valved, involucre. But the proposed genus was promptly rejected by Swartz, Schkuhr and Willdenow, and the plant referred to Dicksonia, which by 18 10 was made the recipient of as many as twenty species. Since then 5//- obolium (or Sitolobiwn), Patania and Adectum have been proposed for some of these species with cup-like involucres. Some of these names have met with a limited acceptance, but all were rejected by Hooker. The authors of Species 344 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Filicum have also added the species of Cibotium to Dicksonia, but these have the outer half of the involucre separate from the lobule; and this character, with their peculiar habit, is, perhaps, enough to justify their being kept distinct. The oldest name for our plant is Ncphrodium punctilobulum, of Michaux, published in 1803. In 1806, Swartz called it Aspid- ium punctilobulum. In 1809, Willdenow named it Dicksonia pilosiuscula, and in the same year, as nearly as I can discover, Schkuhr figured and described it as D. pubescens, although attributing the name to Swartz. It was not till about 1843 that Hooker published the name of D. punctiloba, taking the orthography from Willdenow's Aspidium ptinctilobum. In the Spring of 1848, Gray's Manual first gave the name D. pmtc- tilobula, and Kunze followed in July of the same year with the same name. But if a species is to have the name under which it was first referred to its proper genus, then cither Willdenow's or Swartz's name is to be chosen. The specimen figured was collected on the Peaks of Otter, in Virginia, by Mr. A. H. Curtiss. The cup-like involucre and the other magnified details are well represented by Mr. Faxon. _a|j.- Uf • ->_^ fe ^'l }l -^-'^-^ •L'i ;fi\ FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 345 Plate XLV. — Fig. 1-5. CHEILANTHES TOMENTOSA, Link. Webby Lip-Fern. CHEILANTHES TOMENTOSA : — Root-stoclc short, chaffy with glossy subulate scales; stalks tufted, four to eight inches long, erect, rather stout, clothed with soft woolly pale-ferruginous hairs, intermixed with others which are flattened and decidedly paleaceous; fronds eight to fifteen inches long, oblong-lanceo- late, webby-tomentose with slender brownish-white obscurely articulated hairs, especially beneath, tripinnate; primary and secondary pinnae oblong or ovate-oblong; ultimate pinnules closely placed, but distinct, roundish-obovate, sessile, or ad- nate to the tertiary rachis, one-half to three-fourths of a line long, the terminal ones twice longer; involucres whitish, con- tinuous round the pinnule and very narrow. CheilantJus hmcniosa. Link, " Hort. Berol., ii., p. 42." — Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 65. — KuNZE, in Sill. Journ., July, 1848, p. 87; in Linna;a, xxili., p. 245. — Gk.\v, Manual, ed. ii., p. 592.— Mettexius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 50; Cheilanthes, p. 37. — E.\ton, in Chapman's Flora, p. 590; Ferns of the South-West, p. 314. — Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 140.— Williamson, Ferns of Kentucky, p. 49, t. xi. 1 .34'' FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Myriopteris tomentosa. Fee, Gen. Fil., p. 149, t. xii., A., f. 2 (a pin- nule).— FouRNiER, PI. Mex., Crj'pt., p. 125 (species exclusa). Notholana tomentosa, J. Smith. Cheilanthes Bradburii, Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 97, t. cix., B. — Metten- lus, Cheilanthes, p. 37. Hab. — Sandstone rocks along the French Broad River, in North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee, Professor Gray, Mr. Canby, Rev. D. R. Shoop, Professor Br^vdley, etc. Texas, Lindheimer, No. 743. Moun- tains of Virginia (?) and Kentucky, according to Gray's Manual, but Mr. Williamson has hitherto failed to find it in the last named State. The Kew herbarium contains, besides Lindheimer's plant, a very imper- fect specimen marked " Manitou Rocks, 250 miles up the Missouri, Bradbury," and good specimens from Texas collected by Drummond. Kunze states that it was raised [at the Leipzig garden ?] from Mexican spores, and that Rugel collected a few specimens in North Carolina ; but Fournier rejects it as a Mexican species. Description: — This is decidedly the largest plant among all our North American species of Cheilanthes, some of the tallest specimens measuring nearly two feet in total length. The root-stock is short, and disposed to branch. It is thickly clad with fine subulate chaff, many of the scales with a dark and rigid midnerve, and others lighter-colored and without midnerve. The plant evidently grows in dense masses. The stalks are clustered, each root-stock sending up a large num- ber of them. They are rigid, wiry, terete and covered with grayish-tawny spreading soft woolly hairs, intermixed with a few which are broader and decidedly paleaceous, especially FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 347 towards the base. The section is round, and shows a firm exterior sclerenchymatous sheath, within which is a broad circle of brownish parenchyma, and in the middle a single fibro-vascular bundle obtusely triangular in shape, but with the sides slightly hollowed in. The fronds vary from a few inches to over a foot in length; their general shape is ovate-lanceolate, or oblong-lan- ceolate; they are in general of a grayish color from the abundance of a fine entangled tomentum, which covers both surfaces, though it is a little thinner and whiter on the upper surface. The large fronds are fully tripinnate. The primary pinnae are oblong-ovate, short-stalked, one to nearly two inches long, and a half to three-fourths of an inch broad at the base. They are either opposite or alternate, the lower ones, as usual, more separated than those that are higher up on the frond. The secondary pinnae are close-placed, oblong, obtuse, and again pinnated into from two to five minute rounded or rounded-obovate sessile or adnate-decurrent pin- nules on each side, besides a terminal oval pinnule which is twice as large as the lateral ones. These ultimate pin- nules are innumerable, and it is in allusion to their very great number in this and the allied species that the generic name Myriopteris was proposed by Fde for the group. The whole margin of the pinnule is recurved, and from the edge of it is produced a very delicate whitish involucre, the whole forming a sort of pouch, as is admirably repre- sented in the figure given by Fee. The sporangia have a ring 348 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. of about twenty articulations: F6c says there are vittate or knotted hairs growing among them. The spores are rather large, amber-colored, globose, and delicately trivittate. Accord- ing to Fee, when placed in water they burst and dissolve into excessively minute sporules. There can be no doubt that our plant is the Clieilanthes tomentosa of Link. Kunze, who knew Link's plant perfectly well, referred the North Carolina specimens to it; and Dr. Mettenius, who succeeded to the care of the Leipzig garden, favored me with specimens which are precisely the same thing as the plant here described. But none of the Mexican collectors seem to have found the species, and it may be legitimately queried whether the commonly reported origin of Link's specimens is the true one. The Clieilanthes tomentosa of the Species Filicum is partly this plant, but mainly the species next to be described. Plate XLV. — Fig. 1-5. Clieilanthes tomentosa. Fig. i represents one of Professor Bradley's specimens. Fig. 2 is an enlarged pinnule. Fig. 3, an enlarged portion of a pinnule. Fig. 4, some of the woolly hairs magnified, and Fig. 5, a spore. FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 34$ PijvTE XLV.— Fig. 6-12. CHEILANTHES EATONI, Baker. Eaton's Lip-Fern. Cheilanthes Eatoni: Root -stock short, chaffy with rather long slenderly acuminate glossy scales; stalks clus- tered, four to eight inches long, erect, wiry, covered, as are the rachis and its divisions, with narrow shining pale-ferruginous scales and paleaceous hairs intermixed; fronds four to nine inches long, oblong-lanceolate, pubescent above with whitish entangled woolly hairs, beneath covered with a heavy matted ferruginous tomentum, and more or less scaly, especially when young, tripinnate; pinnae ovate-oblong, lower ones rather dis- tant, upper ones crowded; ultimate pinnules contiguous, half a line long, rounded, but narrowed at the base, the terminal ones often twice larger and more decidedly obovate; margin of the pinnules continuously recurved, the edge slightly mem- branaceous. Cheilanthes Eatoni, Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 140.— Poktek & Coulter, Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado, p. 153.— -Eatox, Ferns of the South-West, p. 315. 35° FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. Cluilantlus tonuntosa. Hooker, Sp. Fil., ii., p. 96 (description and Texas plant), t. cix., A. — Eaton, in Botany of the U. S. and Mexican Boundary Survey, p. 234. Had. — Texas and New Mexico, Wright, No. 816; Fendler, No. 1016; Indian Territory, between Fort Cobb and Fort Arbuckle, Palmer; near Canon City, Colorado, Brandegee; from the Rio Grande west- ward along the Gila to the Colorado River, Collectors of Mexican Boun- dary Survey. The kind of place where this fern has been collected is not recorded, but it probably grows in the clefts of rocks along the sides and edges of canons. Description: — This fern bears so close a resemblance to Cheilanthes tomentosa, that it is not at all surprising that there has been more or less of confusion between the two. It would seem that wheh writing his account of the genus Cheilanthes for the Species Filicum, Sir W. J. Hooker had, in his collection, no examples of the North Carolina C. tomen- tosa, and could identify it only by Link's rather imperfect description and Kunze's remarks in Silliman's Journal. Hav- ing Wright's specimens of the plant here described, and Gor- don's fern from the Rattene Mountains — a plant not yet satisfactorily identified — he referred them to the species named by Link; and then perceiving with his accustomed delicate discrimination that Lindheimer's and Bradbury's plant was distinct from Wright's, he gave the former the name of C. Bradburii. It was not until i860, when the Ferns for Chap- man's Flora were being prepared, that any one suspected that the C. Bradburii was the true C. tomentosa. In 1866, I had FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 35 « an opportunity of explaining the matter to Mr. Baker, then at work on the Synopsis Filicum, and not long after, I was surprised, and I need not say pleased, by finding that he had given to Hooker's C. tomentosa the name it now bears. The root-stock is short, assurgent, and chaffy with rather rigid slender-pointed scales, most of them furnished with a dark midnerve. The stalks are tufted, and are perhaps a little slenderer than those of C. tomentosa. They are chaffy throughout, but more especially at the base, with narrow pale- ferruginous scales, intermixed with still slenderer paleaceous hairs. The section is slightly flattened on the anterior side. The exterior sheath is firm; inside of it is brownish paren- chyma, and in the middle a semicircular fibro-vascular bundle, the ducts in the centre of it arranged in a figure much like a letter X. The fronds are considerably smaller than in C. tomentosa. They are similarly oblong-lanceolate and tripinnate, the ulti- mate pinnules being very numerous and rather more closely crowded than in the other species just referred to. The pubescence is harsher and not so webby on the upper side, and is decidedly heavier and more matted on the under sur- face. The scales of the branches, or secondary rachises, are broader and shorter than those of the stalk and are very conspicuous in young fronds. In older fronds they fall away, to some extent, and are then less abundant. The pinnules are rather rounder and less oval than in C tomentosa, and though they are somewhat purse-shaped. 352 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. the involucre consists almost entirely of the recurved herba- ceous margin, the proper whitish and delicately membranous involucre being nearly suppressed. The spores are sub-globose, amber-colored, faintly trivit- tate, and have a finely pustulated or granular surface. In respect to the narrow herbaceous involucre this fern comes nearest to Chcilanthcs lanuginosa, of Nuttall, figured at Plate VI of this work. It has, however, much larger fronds; and the copious, though narrow scales of the stalk, as well as the scales of the rachises, will readily distinguish it. It is among the Ferns which have been cultivated by Hon. J. Warren Merrill, though I am not informed what are its special needs in the way of soil, moisture, etc. Plate XLV. — Fig. 6-12. CJuilanthcs Eatoni from one of Mr. Brandegcc's Colorado specimens. Fig. 7 is an enlarged secondary pinna. Fig. 8, a segment still more enlarged. Fig. 9, a part of the rachis, enlarged, and showing the scales. Fig. 10, a scale from the rachis, magnified. Fig. 11, some of the tomentum magnified. Fig. 12, a spore.