^wmo^ ^OF-CAll ^OJIWD-jO^ ^Of-CALI & &- § IVf^f §vr/ v^ ^jojiivj-jo^ %ojnv>jo^ sVlOSANCfl^ ^.OF-CAtlFOft^ ^OF-CAllFOft^ Si * I 3 pnj pn y0AHVH8ltt^ y0AHVH8IK . \W. UmVtK5/A. .vvLUiANLtU % ^^z f>>- 1 1 i s OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES Synoptical Descriptions of the American Pteridophyta North of Mexico LUCIEN MARCUS UNDERWOOD SIXTH EDITION, REVISED NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1900 COPYRIGHT, 1888, 1900, BY HENRY HOLT & CO EGBERT DEUMMOND, PRINTER, NEW TOEK. QK PREFACE. WHEN the writer issued this little book in 1880 as the honest effort of a novice to provide for the study of our ferns a convenient handbook by means of which they might be identified, he had no idea that the first edition would be exhausted within a year, and much less that a sixth edition would ever be called for. Though frequently urged to extend its scope, he has felt that if, with all the traces of its early imperfections of plan, there is still a demand for such a handbook, it is best to leave it in its original form, with only such changes as our changed conceptions of structures, relationships, and definition of species demand. No.t only is this preservation of the original plan in harmony with the feeling of sentiment, but it seems the more desirable since the writer is preparing a monograph of all the North American Ferns (including those of the West Indies and the continent as far as the Isthmus), and in this more elaborate work he hopes from a study of a wider range of forms to include many more general matters that our own limited fern flora, though quite diverse, do not furnish a sufficient basis for inclusion here, and others still that would be out of place in an elementary manual. Changes in this edition are mostly verbal and such as arise from the modifications of nomenclature or the changed ideas of homologies and relations of structures. The chapter on nomenclature has been wholly rewritten and extended, particularly because the present edition more than any other contributes to a modification of generic names. v 473907 VI PREFA CE. In the systematic part the sequence has also been modified, bringing the simpler eusporangiate forms first and introduc- ing the desirable distinction between orders and families which botanists have too long confused. The number of species is considerably increased, owing, in part to new discoveries and in part to the seeming necessity of reestablishing the earlier and in many cases clearer views of the earlier writers on ferns, many of whose species have been "reduced to synonymy by the English (Kew) school of fern writers whose dictum has hitherto been followed by American fern students. The number of genera has also been increased in accordance with the views of earlier and more scientific fern students. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, June, 1900. TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION ix CHAPTER I. HAUNTS AND HABITS OF FERNS i II. THE ORGANS OF THE GROWING FERN 8 III. FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS 10 IV. GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES 19 V. FERN STRUCTURE 24 VI. THE FERN ALLIES 28 VII. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE 41 VIII. THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE 54 IX. DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE 60 OUR NATIVE PTERIDOPHYTA. ORDER FILICALES. FAMILY i. OPHIOGLOSSACE^E 66 2. HYMENOPHYLLACE^E 74 3. SCHIZ/EACE;E 75 4. OSMUNDACE/E 77 5. CERATQPTERIDACE,*: 78 6. POLYPOUIACE^: 78 7. MARSILIACE^E 123 8. SALVINIACE^E 125 ORDER EQUISETALES. FAMILY i. EQUISETACE.E 126 ORDER LYCOPODIALES. FAMILY i. LYCOPODIACE^E 130 2. SELAGINELLACE^E 137 3. ISCETACE^; 142 ABBREVIATIONS 150 GLOSSARY AND INDEX 151 vii INTRODUCTION. IN the entire vegetable world there are probably no forms of growth that attract more general notice than the Ferns. Deli- cate in foliage, they are sought for cultivation in conservatories and Wardian cases, and when dried and pressed add to the culture of many a domestic circle by serving as household deco- rations. They furnish to botanists a broad and inviting field for investigation, and he who examines their more minute struc- ture with the microscope will find deeper and still more myste- rious relations than those revealed to the unaided eye. Ferns thus appeal to the scientific element of man's nature as well as to the aesthetic, and while they highly gratify the taste, they furnish food for the intellect in a like degree. The Fern allies have also played their appointed part in the domestic and decorative economy of this and other generations. The scouring-rushes served our ancestors for keeping white their floors and wooden -ware in the days when carpets were a luxury. The trailing stems of various species of Lycopodium have long been valued for holiday decorations ; while their burning spores have flashed in triumphal processions, and have added their glow to the fervor of political campaigns. In olden time the obscure fructification of the common brake led to many superstitious ideas among the common people, and the older poets have woven these popular notions into our litera- ture. Butler tells in Hudibras of bugbears so often created by mankind : " That spring like fern, that infant weed, Equivocally without seed, And have no possible foundation But merely in th' imagination." x INTRODUCTION. Shakespeare only reflects a prevalent belief of his time when he says : " We have the receipt of fern seed ; we walk invisible." Others allude to the falling of the seed on the anniver- sary night of the birth of John the Baptist. The old simplers with their lively imagination were impressed by the fancied resemblances of some parts of fern growth to various organs of the human body, and introduced them into their system of specifics. Traces of their influence still remain in the names of some of our common ferns, as spleenwort and maidenhair. To form a correct understanding of ferns we must study the ferns themselves as well as the text-book, as it is only by direct contact with nature that we gain definite and satisfactory informa- tion. The text-book is useful only in giving directions how to investigate. To understand thoroughly an animal we must study its habits in its native haunts. To know its structure and posi- tion in the animal kingdom we must carefully dissect a large number of specimens, and study the development of .the individ- ual from its beginning. In like manner, to understand fully a fern we must search where nature has planted it, watch it as it un- coils from the bud, matures, produces its fruit, and finally returns to the earth ; examine it with needles and lenses, and discover its minute structure and its life-history. These pages, which aim to give an outline of the forms of fern growth, the methods of fruiting, the germination or growth from the spore, and finally the more minute structure of the entire plant, can only be thoroughly understood by taking the ferns in hand and studying them in connection with the text. Let no one imagine that the study of ferns will be an easy one. Patient application and careful observation are essential to success, yet he who becomes once interested in the work will find a subject that deepens in interest with every step, and even becomes enchanting as he seeks to determine the mysteri- ous processes of fern development and the marvels of fern structure. OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. CHAPTER I. HAUNTS AND HABITS OF FERNS. Our outward life requires them not, — Then wherefore had they birth ? To minister delight to man, To beautify the earth. — MARY HOWITT. 1. General Characters. — Our native ferns comprise plants varying in height from less than an inch to six or seven feet, or even more. Some are stout and fleshy, others are delicate and even filmy, but most are herbaceous, resembling ordinary flowering plants in the texture of their foliage. While most would be recognized as ferns by even a novice, a few differ so widely from the ordinary typical forms that to an unskilled ob- server they would scarcely be considered as bearing any resem- blance to ferns whatever. The fronds of one of our Florida species resemble narrow blades of grass, and the fertile spikes ot another from New Jersey might be mistaken for a diminutive species of sedge. A third from Alabama would, perhaps, be called a moss by the inexperienced, while the " Hartford fern," found from New England to Kentucky, has a climbing stem and broad palmate leaves. When we add to these peculiar forms of our own country those of foreign lands, and include the immense tree-ferns of tropical regions, we find our early conception of a fern inade- quate to cover this diversity of forms. Without attempting an accurate definition of a fern, let it be regarded for present pur- 2 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. poses as a flowerless plant, producing spores instead of seeds, possessing more or less woody tissue, and having its leaves coiled in the bud from apex to base. After the necessary study of the structure of some of our common ferns, we will be able to comprehend the more technical definition found later in the work. 2. Mode of Growth. — Ferns vary greatly in their method of growth, yet each species has a plan which, within certain limits, is fixed and definite. Some, like the common brake, have their fronds rising from more or less distant portions of the creeping rootstock. Others, like Asplenium trichomanes, are tufted, many fronds rising irregularly in a cluster ; while still others, like the ostrich-fern (Matteiiccid), and .many shield- ferns (Dryopteris), grow in crowns or circles, the later fronds continually rising within the older ones. In the grape- ferns (Botrychium) the rootstocks usually produce a single frond each season, the bud for the succeeding year growing within the base of the common stalk. 3. In many there is a tendency to dimorphism, the fertile or fruit-bearing fronds differing to a greater or less extent from the sterile ones. In a few species, like the sensitive-fern (Ono- clea) and some others, this is carried so far that the sterile and fertile fronds bear no resemblance to each other, and in one instance have been mistaken for different species, and so de- scribed. Osmunda cinnamomea, Woodwardia areolata, our two species of Cryptogramma, and Struthiopteris offer further ex- amples of this principle of growth. 4. Variation. — The same species will often present wide differences in the size of the fronds. This depends to some ex- tent on the character of the soil and the ordinary climatic con- ditions. For example, the lady-fern (Asplenium filix-fcemina), which in ordinary locations grows from two to four feet high, in mountainous regions is sometimes reduced to from three to six inches, when it forms the var. exile. In like manner the marginal shield-fern (Dryopteris marginalts), usually two or three feet high, is reduced to five inches when growing on rocky cliffs, and yet regularly produces fruit.* * Cf. Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club, VI. 266 (Oct. 1878). HAUNTS AND HABITS OF FERNS. 3 5. In some cases there is a tendency to variation in size that cannot be referred to soil or climatic influences. The com- mon grape-fern (Botrychium Virginianunt) will be found in some localities to vary from six inches to two feet in height, all well fruited and matured, and with the extreme sizes growing within a pace of each other in the same soil and with the same environment. The other species of the same genus present similar variations, and judging from size and external appear- ance alone, a regular gradation of forms might be arranged from the most diminutive undivided forms of B. simplex to the larg- est of B. Virginianion. 6. Another tendency to variation is noticed in the forking of fronds either at the summit or at the ends of the branches. The hart's-tongue (Phyllttis) is frequently forked at the sum- mit, the walking-leaf (Camptosorus) less commonly, while the same tendency is noticed in various compound forms, as Asple- nium august if olium, Cheilanthes lanosa, Gymnopteris hispida, Dennstcedtia, Pellcza atropurpurea, and others. Some of the species of Botrychium show the same tendency, especially in their fertile segments. It is probable that all our species will be found to fork under certain conditions. More definite in- formation is desirable with regard to many species that show this tendency, as it doubtless involves the question of ancestry of existing ferns. 7. In those species whose sterile and fertile fronds are un- like, forms often appear that are intermediate between the ster- ile and fertile fronds, and sometimes even form a graded series from one to the other. This is especially true of the sensitive- fern (Onoclea) and the cinnamon- fern (Osmunda cinnamomea), and has frequently been the source of so-called "varieties." Whether this variation arises from some peculiarity of environ- ment, or from some inherent tendency to reversion toward an older form, will require more extended observation to deter- mine. One of the varieties of Botrychium obliqiium seems to have been founded on a condition which is intermediate in structure between the sterile and fertile segments. 8. In a few forms there is an apparent mimicry, one species imitating another in foliage or method of fruiting. In the cin- namon-fern just alluded to, which has a cinnamon-colored 4 OUR NATIVE FERNS AXD THEIR ALLIES. sterile frond totally unlike the fertile, sterile fronds will some- times be found which are fertile at the apex — the normal method of fruiting in the royal flowering-fern (Osmunda regalis) ; and in turn the royal flowering-fern is sometimes fertile in the middle, in imitation of Osmunda Claytontana. 9. Time of Fruiting. — The time of maturing fruit is dif- ferent among different species, and also varies with geographi- cal location and proximity to tropical climates. In the Northern States some species produce their fruit as early as May (Osmunda cinnamomea), and others as late as September (Lygodiwri), but the greater number are best studied in July and August. In the Northeastern States, where the two species of Filix abound on limestone rocks, F.fragilis matures its spores and withers in June or July, while F. bulbifera reaches its maturity only in August or September. In semi-tropical climates, like Southern California and the Gulf States, the time of fruiting i^ often earlier, sometimes occurring in February or March. Some fronds are killed by the early frosts, while others, like the Christ- mas-fern, are evergreen, and may be gathered in midwinter. 1 O. Local Distribution. — Ferns are largely dependent for successful growth on the amount of warmth, moisture, and shade to which they are subjected, and we would naturally ex- pect to find them reaching a maximum in size and abundance in warm swamps or shady marshes. While this is in general true, we nevertheless find many species thriving only in rocky places, thrusting their roots into the crevices of the rocks with little earth for their nourishment, and many times exposed to the scorching rays of the sun. Of necessity, such species are of comparatively small size, and likely to be protected in some way against the heat of the sun, and provided with means to retain their moisture in times of drought. Others still are found in wet, rocky ravines, often where moistened by the spray of cascades or waterfalls, and consequently have no such pro- vision against the heat of an extended summer. Certain others thrive in open fields that are comparatively dry and unshaded. One species of Southern Florida is aquatic, having the sterile fronds floating in shallow water. A few species are epiphytic, or grow on other plants, some being found on tree-trunks to the height of 150 or 200 feet! HAUNTS AND HABITS OF FERNS. 5 So, while moisture, warmth, and shade in abundance are the climatic conditions essential to promote luxuriant fern growth, it can and does continue when any or all these conditions are reduced to a minimum. 1 1 . Ferns may then be sought in any of the following situa- tions, and it will be seen that each situation has its charac- teristic species : A. Wet swamps or marshes with or without abundant shade. B. Rich woods, more or less moist. C. Uncultivated open places and dry hillsides. D. Moist, rocky ravines or rocky places not subject to sum- mer drought. E. Exposed rocky cliffs. F. Standing water. G. Growing on other plants. (Epiphytic.) 1 2. In the first location mentioned above, we may find the chain- ferns ( Woodivardia), many of the spleen worts (Asplem'um}, a few of the shield-ferns (Dryoptcrts),\.\\& flowering-ferns(C>.y;/ztt«- da), as well as the genera Acrostichtun, Onoclea, etc. These in- clude some of our largest and coarsest ferns. A few more deli- cate in structure are also found here, notably the dainty Phegop- teris dryopteris. \ 3. In the second we find a few spleenworts, most of the shield-ferns, the beech-ferns (Phegopteris), most of the grape- ferns (Botrychium), the maidenhair (Adiantum), Dennst&diiu, and some others. In this situation we find the finest develop- ment of foliage and the greatest artistic finish among all the ferns. 14. In uncultivated places and on rocky hillsides we often find the common bracken or brake (Ptertdium), and also the lady-fern (Asplenium filix-fcemtnd), though these are by no means confined to these locations, the latter growing quite fre- quently in moist woods, and even in cold, wet swamps. Many other ferns are found occasionally in openings of the forest or recent clearings, where they maintain a sickly existence, some- times for a series of years. In such locations ferns often be- come contracted and abnormal in growth, and take on a faded yellow hue from their exposure to the open sunshine. 1 5. In moist ravines and on rocky banks the bladder-ferns (Ft'ltx) may be found, with the peculiar walking-leaf (Camfi- 6 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. tosorus), the rare hart's-tongue (Phyllitis)* and many of the smaller spleenworts. The long, pendent fronds of our Filix bulbifera add greatly to the beauty of our natural ravines, and often serve to conceal the uncouth rocks, or at least draw the attention to that which is more delicate and artistic. On dripping rocks, or where the sides of ravines are kept con- tinually moist by the spray of waterfalls, such delicate pellucid ferns as the filmy-fern (JTrickomanes) and one Cryptogramma may be sought. There seems to be a direct connection between the environment and the texture of the fern. The last two mentioned grow in very damp situations, and are pellucid and almost membranous. The Filix in somewhat drier situations is thinly herbaceous, while Asplenium trichomanes and Camp- tosorus, requiring less moisture, are more firm, and form the transition to the next group. 1 6. On dry cliffs we may look for the various species of Woodsia, the cloak-ferns (Notholcena), the lip-ferns (Chetlanthes), and the cliff-brakes (Pellcea). Many of these are firm and even leathery in texture, and others are thickly covered on one or both sides with tangled hair or scales, fitting them to survive long periods of drought. 1 7. Only one of our native species is strictly aquatic, the anomalous Ceratopteris thalictroidcs found in Southern Florida, though Acrostichuin aureum is often found with its rhizoma rising from the water of salt marshes. Osmunda regalis is oc- casionally found in standing water several inches deep, though this is not usual. 1 8. Among the epiphytic ferns are several species of Poly- podium, P. polypodioides, P. Scouleri, and Phlebodium, the last always being associated with the cabbage-palmetto (Sabal pal- metto). Vittaria, Cheilogramma, and Nephrolepis are also of this class, and are frequently pendent from the same plant, though occasionally found on other tree-trunks. Cheiroglossa palmata, another peculiar tropical fern-ally, belongs to the same * This rare fern seems to show a decided preference for limestone rocks, and thus far has been found only above the geological formation known as the Corniferous limestone. I believe a thorough search for this fern along the outcrops of the formation in Central New York and elsewhere would show a wider distribution than is at present attributed to this species. HAUNTS AND HABITS OF FERNS. J list. Even in the streets of Southern cities, Polypodium poly- podioides is often seen growing with various mosses well up on the trunks of shade-trees. It is only in tropical regions, however, that epiphytes are seen in profusion. 1 9. These principles of climatic distribution are necessarily modified by the geographic range of species, which must be considered in this connection. For example, Dryopteris spinu- losa or its varieties form the leading foliage ferns of Northern New England and New York, and Dennstcedtia, less common in those localities, largely replaces them from Connecticut south- ward. This subject will be more fully discussed in a later chapter. LITERATURE. Most of the American literature bearing on this subject is in the form of short notes which have appeared from time to time in our two botanical monthlies;* a classified summary appears below : HABITS. — Botanical Gazette, I, 2 ; II, 100 ; in, 82 ; IV, 140, 177, 232; v, 27, 30, 43, 48; vi, 161, 295; vn, 86. DIMORPHISM. — Torrey Bulletin, vm, 101, 109 ; ix, 6 ; xin, 62. FORKING FRONDS. — Botanical Gazette, \, 50; n, 80; 111,39; vi, 220; vm, 242. — Torrey Bulletin, vil, 26, 85; IX, 116, 129; x, 4. RELATIVE ABUNDANCE : — DAVENPORT (George E.). A Bit of Fern History. In Botanical Gazette, vil, 60-64 (May, 1882). CULTIVATION : — JACKSON (Robert T.). Cultivation of Native Ferns. In Garden and Forest, I, 317, 318; 330, 331; 340-342; 352-354 (Aug.-Sept. 1888). ROBINSON (John). Ferns in their Homes and Ours. i2mo, illustrated. Salem, 1878. A valuable outline of fern cultiva- tion, indispensable to those desiring to undertake the cultivation of ferns either in conservatories or Wardian cases. SMITH (John). Ferns, British and Foreign, 8vo. Lon- don, 1879. * Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club (Columbia University, New York City) and the Botanical Gazette (University of Chicago). Many notes in recent years have appeared in The Fern Bulletin (Binghamton, X. Y.). 8 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. CHAPTER II. THE ORGANS OF THE GROWING FERN. Pour bien savoir une chose, il faut en savoir les details. — LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 20. EVERY one familiar with the forest and its products must have seen the young ferns unrolling from the bud in spring and early summer. It will be noticed that the fronds are coiled from the apex to the base, and form crosiers, so called from their resemblance to the head of a bishop's staff. This method of vernation is called circinate, and is rarely found except among ferns. In the grape-ferns and adder-tongues the vernation is straight or merely inclined, thus approximating that of ordinary flowering plants. 2 1 . Rootstock. — Ferns usually spring from an under- ground stem called the rootstock. This may be simple or branched, smooth or scaly, horizontal, oblique, or even vertical. In some ferns it is fine and hairlike, while in others it is very large and stout. In some cases the rootstock creeps at the sur- face of the ground and even rises above it, as in the variety of Dryopteris contermina which grows in Florida. In the tree ferns of warmer climates it often forms a trunk fifty feet high, bearing the fronds at the summit, when it takes the name of caudex. 22. Frond. — The aerial portion consists essentially of a leaf-stalk and blade; the former is technically called the stipe, and the latter the frond. Though these are usually distinct from each other in appearance, the stipe is sometimes wanting, and in others no distinction can be made between them. Both stipe and frond, or either one, may be glabrous (smooth), pubes- cent (softly hairy), hairy, woolly, or scaly ; when the scales are small and somewhat appressed, the surface is said to be squa- mous. The careful discrimination of these hairy or scaly appendages becomes a matter of importance in distinguishing many of the species of Cheilanthes. In a few of our native ferns THE ORGANS OF THE GROWING FERN. 9 the under surface is covered with a white or yellow powder bearing some resemblance to flour or corn starch. For this reason a surface of this character is called farinaceous. Such is the California gold-fern or "golden back" (Gymnopteris trian- gitlaris), and several of the cloak-ferns (Notholczna), and such are the various gold and silver ferns of conservatories, including some of the richest and most beautiful in the world. 23. The frond may be simple, when it consists of a single undivided leaf, as in Phyllitis or Camptosorus ; or compound, when it is divided into segments. The exquisite delicacy and the extent to which this dividing is carried in some ferns deter- mines largely their aesthetic value. The continuation of the stipe through a simple frond is called the midvein ; through a compound frond is called the rachis, and is further distinguished as primary when the frond is much compounded. A frond is entire when the margin forms an unbroken line; when so cut as to form lobes extending half way or more to the midvein it is called pinnatifid ; when these incisions extend fully to the midvein the frond is said to be simply pinnate, and the divisions are called pinnce. When the pinnae are cut into lobes the frond is bipinnatifid and the lobes are called segments, and when these extend to the secondary midveins it is bipinnate and the divisions are called pinnules. The secondary midvein then becomes a secondary rachis. In like manner we may have ferns that are tripinnatifid and tripin- nate, quadripinnatifid and quadripinnate. The last lobes are designated ultimate segments, and the last complete divisions ultimate pinnules. All these various forms from entire to quad- ripinnate are abundantly represented among our native ferns. 24. In some pinnate fronds, as in the oak-fern {Phegopteris dryopteris), the lower pair of pinnae is greatly enlarged and more compound than those above, so that the stipe appears to form three branches bearing similar and nearly equal portions. Fronds of this character are usually triangular or pentagonal in outline, and this method of branching is called ternate. It will be readily seen that this is merely a modified form of the ordi- nary pinnate frond. Throughout the domain of nature there is infinite variety of form and structure, and at the same time unity in plan and conformity to a few generalized types. 10 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 25. Venation. — The method of veining admits of great variation, often serving to distinguish species, and more especi- ally the sections of the various genera. In some ferns, like most shield-ferns (Z?ry^/^r«), the veins are free — that is, arising from either side of the midvein they do not unite with any other vein. In some of these the vein is simple (not branched), in others variously forked. In many the veins repeatedly anastomose or unite together, forming a series of network or areolce. This may be somewhat irregular, as in Onoclea ; or forming a single row of areolse next to the midvein and thence free to the margin, as in Woodwardia Virginica ; or forming many uniform areolae by the parallel transverse veinlets connecting the distinct and parallel primary veins, as in Campyloneuron phyllittdts. In case the venation does not appear when examined by reflected light, it may be brought out clearly by holding the frond between the observer and the light, and then using a lens if necessary. A few fleshy species require dissection to show the veins. CHAPTER III. FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS. " But on St. John's mysterious night, Sacred to many a wizard spell, The hour when first to human sight Confest, the mystic fern-seed fell." 26. Spores and Sporangia. — In the flowering plants (SPERMAPHYTES) seeds are pro- duced by a complex process in- volved in pollination, the growth of the pollen tube, and the sexual process which results in the em- FIG. i.— Enlarged section through a bryo of the nCW plant. The sorus of PolypoJiu»t falcatum Kellogg, _ 3 showing the stalked sporangia. Ferns, on the contrary, produce no flowers. Instead of seeds developed from fertilized ovules, minute spores are produced asexually, from which new ferns are developed by a peculiar process of germination very unlike that FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS. 11 of flowering plants. These spores are collected in little sacs known as sporangia or spore cases. The sporangia in the true ferns (POLYPODIACE.E) are collected in little clusters on the back of the frond, or are variously arranged in lines along the veins or around the margins (Fig. i). These clusters of spo- rangia are called sort, and may be naked, as in Polypodtutn, or provided with a special covering known as the indnsium, as in Dryopteris (Fig. 8). The various forms of the sori and indusia serve as the basis for classifica- tion into genera and tribes, while each sub-order has its peculiar form of sporangia. 27. In the PoLYPODiACEjfc the sporangia are more or less completely surrounded with a jointed vertical ring or annulus, and at maturity burst open transversely by the straightening of the annulus and discharge their copious spores (Fig. 2). The clusters of sporangia are said to be marginal, intramarginal, or dorsal, according as they have their position at the margin or more or less remote from it. They may be roundish, oblong, or linear in shape, or arranged in variously forking lines, or may even be spread in a stratum over the entire under surface of the frond. They are called indusiate or non-indusiate according as they are covered or naked ; and the indusia may be inferior (at- tached below the sorus), as in Woodsia (Fig. 9), or superior, as \nDr)>0fi/erz's(Fig.8), or of various intermediate methods of at- tachment. 28. In the other families of Ftlicales the sporangia are variously arranged. In the HYMENOPHYLLACE^E or filmy ferns the flattened spo- rangia are sessile along a filiform receptacle, and are surrounded with a complete transverse annulus. At ma- turity they open vertically (Fig- 3)- In the SCHIZ^EACE/E the sporangia are ovate, sur- Fic.2. — Sporan- Polyt of Polyp lar&ed- FIG. 3. FIG. 4. Fig. 3. — Enlarged sessile sporangium Fig. 4.— Sporangium of Schiztea /»- silla Pursh, showing the apical ring. Much enlarged. 12 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. rounded at the apex by a complete annulus, and open by a longitudinal slit (Fig. 4). In the OSMUXDACE.E or flowering ferns the sporangia are larger, globose, and naked, with the mere trace of a transverse annulus, and open longitudinally. The various methods of fructification can be best understood by describing the peculiarities of the various genera in regular succession and noting the variations occurring in the sections or sub-genera. By this means we will arrive at a better under- standing of the principles of fern classification as discussed in a future chapter. As the subject of venation is closely connected with that of fructification, it will be treated in the same connec- tion. 29. Acrostichum. — In this genus the sporangia are spread in a stratum over the under surface of the upper pinnae in our solitary species, but in some exotics they cover portions of the upper surface as well. There is no indusium. 30. Polypodium (Fig. i). — Formerly all ferns agreeing in the possession of roundish naked sori were placed in this genus notwithstanding the fact that the venation was widely different ; it seems more logical to regard some of these sections as genera. In § EUPOLYPODIUM the veins are free, yet are occasionally known to unite,* thus indicating a tendency to vary toward the next section. The sori are generally found at the end of a free veinlet. In § GONIOPHLEBIUM the veins unite near the margin, form- ing large areolae, each containing a single free veinlet which bears the sorus at its end. A tendency to variation is seen in P. polypodioides, whose veins are free, as well as in P. Calif or- nicum in which they are often partly free. 3Oa. Phlebodium. — In this genus ample areolae are next the midvein, and frequently in one or more secondary rows, each bearing a single sorus at the junction of two or more vein- lets. A large number, however, bear the sori at the end of a single veinlet. From the fertile areolae to the margin the veins anastomose more copiously. * Catalogue of the Davenport Herbarium, p. 8. FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS. 13 3Ob. Campyloneuron has areolse, each usually bearing two sori ; they are found between the parallel primary veins which extend from the midrib to the margin. 3 1 . Gymnopteris. — In this genus the sori follow the course of the veins, and consequently vary with the venation, being simple, forked, pinnated, or anastomose with each other. The sori are non-indusiate. 32. Notholaena.— In the cloak-ferns the sori are marginal, and provided with no indusia. This genus is linked very closely to Gymnopteris on one hand and to some species of Cheilanthes on the other. From the latter it is separable only by the ab- sence of the marginal indusium ; the two are likely to be con- founded by beginners. 33. Cheilogramma has simple fronds, the fructification in a continuous sub-marginal line near the apex of the frond. 34. Vittaria. — This peculiar genus occupies a somewhat in- termediate position between the indusiate and non-indusiate genera, and while usually associated with the latter has consid- erable claim to be ranked with the former. The fronds are nar- row and grass like, bearing the sporangia in an intramarginal groove, often more or less covered by the inrolled edge of the frond. The venation is very obscure. 35. Adiantum (Fig. 5).— The maidenhairs have a peculiarly smooth foliage, and usually possess no midvein. The veins are usually flabellate, and after forking one or more times bear the sori at their extremities. The margin of the frond is reflexed, thus forming an indusium which bears the sporangia on its under surface. FIG. 5-— A segment of Adiantutn, showing the 36. PteriS (Fig. 6).— In this genus, sori covered by indusia now excluding the common brake, the ^ftfiftSPftS otherwise free veins are united by a fill- Le Maout and Decaisne- form receptacle which bears the sporangia. This continuous marginal line of fructification is covered by a membranous in- dusium formed of the margin of the frond. 37. Cheilanthes. — The lip-ferns found within our limits are unequally divided among four sections, all agreeing in bear- 14 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. ing the sori at or near the ends of the veins, covered by an in- dicium formed of the margin of the frond. In § ADIANTOPSIS the indusia are distinct, and confined to a single veinlet. One of our species varies from the typical species of this section, and has even been assigned to a separate genus. In § EUCHEILANTHES the indu- FIG. 6.—Ptfris longifoiia L. En- sia are more or less confluent but larged segment of pinna, showing the .. vein-like receptacle under the margi- not Continuous, usually extending nai indusium. over tlie apjces of several veinlets. In § PHYSAPTERIS the ultimate segments are bead-like, and the indusium is continuous all round the margin. § ALEURITOPTERIS has the fronds farinose below, and in- cludes a single species somewhat doubtfully assigned to cur limits. 38. Cryptogramma has dimorphous fronds, the margins of the fertile being closely rolled toward the midvein, thus cov- ering the confluent sori. At maturity these open flat in order to discharge the spores. 39. Pellsea has representatives of three sections within our limits, all agreeing in possessing intramarginal sori, which finally became confluent and form a marginal line covered by an indusium formed of the margin of the frond. § CHEILOPLECTON includes herbaceous species with visible veins and broad indusia. § ALLOSORUS includes coriaceous species having wide indusia, while § PLATYLOMA includes species similar in texture, but with extremely narrow indusia and broad segments. 40. Ceratopteris is an anomalous genus from southern Florida, having a few sori arranged on two or three veins par- allel to the midvein, and covered by the broadly reflexed margin of the frond. It properly forms the type of a family. 41 . Struthiopteris (Fig. 7) is intermediate between those genera in which there is an indusium formed of the revolute margin of the frond and those in which the indusium is remote from the margin. Our single species has dimorphous fronds, free veins, and the fructification in a broad band next the mid- FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS. vein, covered by acontinuous and distinctly intramarginal indu- sium. This genus closely resembles the next in general habit, and is sometimes united with it. 42. Blechnum. — In this genus the sori are linear and near the midvein, and are covered by a membranous indusium which is fixed at its outer margin, burst- ing at its inner margin when the spo- rangia are mature. A single representa- Y^1__St,.uthil,f>terisspi. live is found within OUr limits. cant. Enlarged section of 43. Woodwardia. — Three Species showingtntramarginalPindu' of chain-ferns occur within our limits, sium- and each represents a distinct section based on the methods of venation. All have oblong or linear sori more or less sunken in the frond, covered by special lid-like indusia burst- ing at their inner margins, and arranged in chainlike rows near the midvein, thus giving the popular name to the genus. § EUWOODWARDIA has uniform fronds and veins forming at least one series of areolae between the sori and the margin. § ANCHISTEA has also uniform fronds, but with free veins from the sori to the margin while § LORINSERIA has dimor- phous fronds, and the veins everywhere uniting to form areolae, as in the sensitive-fern (Onoclea sensibilis). 44. Asplenium. — The numerous species of spleenworts are closely related to each other in their methods of fructifica- tion, but differ widely in the form, texture, and cutting of their fronds. The sori are placed on the upper side of an oblique vein (sometimes crossing it in § ATHYRIUM), and covered by an indusium of the same shape attached by its edge to the fruiting vein and opening toward the midvein. In some species part of the indusia are double. The veins are free in all our species. In § EUASPLENIUM the sori are straight or slightly curved ; in § ATHYRIUM they are often curved, even horseshoe shaped; and frequently cross to the outer side of the fruiting vein. 45. Phyllitis bears the linear sori in pairs, one from the upper side of a veinlet and its mate from the lower side of the next. The indusia are attached by their edges to the veins, and folding toward each other appear like a double indusium cover- 1 6 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. ing a single sorus. The veins extend nearly at right angles to the midvein, are free, and usually forked. 46. Camptosorus. — The walking-leaf has oblong or linear indusiate sori, which are irregularly scattered and borne partly on veins parallel to the midvein, and partly on those that are oblique. Those near the midvein are single, those toward the margin are often approximate in pairs and often form crooked lines. The veins are everywhere copiously reticulated. 47. Phegopteris. — In this genus the sori are round and naked as in Polypodium, with which this genus was formerly united. The sporangia spring from the back of the veins in- stead of the apex, as in the latter genus, and the veins are free except in the § GONIOPTERIS, in which they are more or less united. 48. Dryopteris is largely represented in our limits by two well marked groups which it is best now to regard as distinct genera, and two others with characters scarcely less distinct, containing each a single species. In all the sori are roundish, and borne on the back of the veins or rarely at their apex. In DRYOPTERIS the indusium is cordato-reniform or orbicular with a narrow sinus. This at first covers the sorus and is attached by its margin, but later bursts away at the margin but remains attached at the sinus. In some species in this section the indusium becomes shrivelled before FIG. s. — Under the fruit matures, and in this condition might ment°of ^ylpferit be mistaken for a non-indusiate species (Fig. 8). jilix-mas, with jn Polystichum the indusium is orbicular eight son. z, the indusium. Magni- and peltate, being fixed by the centre ; the veins fied. (After Sachs.) , • P x? ; are free, as m § NEPHRODIUM. In Phanerophlebia the indusium is the same as in POLY- STICHUM, but the veins tend to unite near the margin, while in Tectaria the veins anastomose copiously. 49. Nephrolepis Has roundish sori borne at the apex of the upper branch of a free vein, near the margin of the frond. The indusia are usually reniform, fixed by the sinus or base, and open toward the margins of the pinnae. 5O- Filix. — The small bladder-ferns take their popular name from the delicate, hood-like indusium which is attached FRUCTIFICATION IN FERNS. 1 7 by its broad base on the inner side of the roundish sorus and partly under it. Later this is thrown back and withers away. The veins are free, and the fronds have the aspect of species of Dryoptcris, but are usually more delicate in texture. 51. Onoclea. — -Two quite dissimilar species have unfortu- nately been united under this name, which best form two genera Both have dimorphous fronds, the margin of the contracted fertile frond being strongly revolute, and concealing the fruit. Matteuccia has necklace-shaped pinnae, crowded confluent sori, and free and simple veins. Onoclea has panicled berry- shaped pinnules and copiously anastomosing veins. 52. Woodsia (Fig. 9) has round- ish sori borne on the back of the veins, with the indusia attached be- neath the sporangia and flat and open, or early bursting at the top into ir- regular laciniae or lobes. In § Eu- WOODSIA the indusia are flat and open _ r FIG. g. — Jf- oodsia oHusa from an early stage, with their cleft Torr. Enlarged section of and ciliate margins concealed under and inferior indusia. the sori. In § HYPOPELTIS the indu- sium is more conspicuous and encloses the sporangium at first, but soon bursts at the top, forming several jagged lobes. 53. Dennstaedtia. — In this genus the small globular sorus is borne in an elevated, globular receptacle, and enclosed in an inferior, membranous, cup-shaped indusium. The veins are always free. The genus has been confused with tree-ferns. 54. Trichomanes (Fig. 10) has sessile sporangia borne on a filiform receptacle at the summit of a vein. The indusia are tubular or funnel- shaped, with an expanded and often somewhat two-lipped mouth. 55. Lygodium. — In our species of climbing-fern the fructification is borne on contracted, forked pinnules FIG. io.— Trichomanes radi- OCCUpying the upper portion OI the cans Swz. Enlarged section, frond. The ovoid sporangia are sol- itary or occasionally in pairs, and are borne in the axils of the 1 8 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. large, imbricated, scalelike indusia which are fixed by their bases to short, oblique veinlets. 56. Ornithopteris. — In this the two lowest branches of the frond bear panicles of fruit at the end of very long stalks. The ovate sporangia are sessile in two rows along the branchlets of the panicle, without special covering of any kind. In the section represented by our species the veins are free. 57. Schizaea.— In this genus the large ovoid sporangia are sessile in double rows along the single vein of the narrow fertile divisions. In our species the pairs of fertile pinnae form a dis- tichous spike (Fig. 11). 58. Osmunda has the large globose spo- rangia, short-stalked, and borne on the con- tracted fertile portions of the frond. In the cin- namon-fern (O. ctnnamomea) the fertile fronds are entirely distinct from the sterile, yet mani- festing a tendency to variation in the var. fron- dosa. In the interrupted flowering-fern (O. Claytoniana) the fructification is confined to a few of the middle pinnae of the frond. In the royal flowering-fern (O. regalis) the fructifica- tion is borne at the apex of the fronds. 59. Spores. — The spores of ferns constitute the so-called fruit. A spore consists of two* dis- tinct closed sacs and the cell contents, all of which differ from each other not only in struc- ture, but also in chemical composition. The FIG ii — Schiztea outer la>'cr (fxospore) consists chiefly of cellu- pusiiia Pursh. lose ; the inner layer (endosfiore) contains some Entire plant, nat- ural size. albuminous matter in addition, while the cell contents consist chiefly of a thin, colorless, jelly-like substance known as protoplasm, with grains of chlorophyll (the green * Campbell has recently demonstrated the existence of a third (middle) layer, which is not readily apparent until after germination. Cf. Memoirs Boston Soc. Nat. History, iv, \-jet seq. (April, 1887). GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES. 19 coloring matter of plants), starch, and oil. The exospore may be smooth or roughened by points, granules, warts, or prickles. The shape varies with different species, yet all are rounded, and most are oblong or at least longer than broad. All are micro- scopic, and many are of such a shape that they do not appear uniform owing to the various directions from which we view them. 6O. The number of spores produced by a single fern is in- credible. Lindley calculated that a single frond of the hart's- tongue produced about 80 sori, with an average of 4500 sporan- gia in each sorus, and each sporangium containing 50 spores, making a total of 18,000,000 spores. The copious green spores of Osmunda cinnamomea, or the pale-yellow, powdery spores of a well-developed specimen of Botrychium Virgmianum, must far exceed this computation. By drying either of these species under pressure between sheets of paper great quantities of the spores may be obtained for examination. Specimens for this purpose should be selected just before the sporangia reach their maturity. CHAPTER IV. GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES. Alle Glieder bilden sich aus nach ew'gen Gesetzen, Und die seltenste Form bewahrt im Geheimniss das Urbild. -GOETHE. 6 1 . THE germination of the fern spores usually takes place a considerable time after they are discharged from the sporangia, but in Osmunda, which develops its fruit early in the season, they commence their growth only a few days after dissemination. 62. Thalloid Phase. — In germination the exospore splits along the side, and the protruding endospore, sometimes with its divisions already formed by septa or partitions, forms, not a fern, but a thalloid structure resembling one of the lower 20 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. liverworts called the prothallium. Different ferns vary in the method of forming this prothallium, some producing it im- mediately at the spore and others after the formation of a thread- like growth known as the pro- embryo. The prothallium is en- tirely composed of cellular tissue, and in the true ferns (POLYPO- DIACE^E) is broadly cordate or reni- form in shape, and bears large numbers of root-hairs from the under part of its posterior portion (Figs. 12. 13). The prothallium varies in size from less than one tenth of an J%£' l^^S^^fo inch up to one third of an inch stages of growth. (After Moore.) jn ks widest part. Qn the under surface of the prothallium two sorts of organs are produced which represent the male and female structures, respectively known as antheridia and archegonia. The position of these organs on the prothallium varies in different sub-orders. In some species, notably the ostrich-fern, the two kinds of sexual organs are produced on separate prothallia, so that the plant becomes dioecious instead of monoecious. In nurseries where ferns are grown for sale immense quantities of prothallia are regularly developed from spores. 63. Antheridia. — These are small masses of tissue developed in the same manner as the root-hairs, consisting of a single layer of cells forming the wall, and containing a number of spirally coiled threads, usually with a number of cilia on their anterior coils. At maturity the antheridium swells by the ab- sorption of water and finally bursts its wall, discharging these coiled filaments, which possess the power of locomotion, and for this reason are called antherozoids. These antherozoids often drag with them a little vesicle which seems to play no part in the process of reproduction (Fig. 14). 64. Archegonia. — The archegonium (falsely called pistil- lidium) is also a rounded mass of tissue usually less prom- GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES. 21 inent than the antheridia, consisting of an external layer of cells and a large central cell, which soon divides into two. The lower portion, at first the larger, develops into a roundish cell, which is analogous to the ovum among animals, and is called the oosphere. The upper portion of the central celi develops between those composing the neck of the archegonium into a canal filled with a sort of mucilage; this finally swells up, forces the cells of the neck apart, and is expelled to aid in attracting FIG. 14.— Antheridium of Adia.ntum FIG. 15.— Young archegonium of Pteris ccif-Mus-vcneris L., showing the es- serrulata Linn, f., showing oosphere, caping antherozoids. (After Sachs.) neck, and canal-cell. (After Sachs.) and retaining the antherozoids at the neck of the archegonium. The oSsphere is thus left exposed (Fig. 15). 65. Fertilization. — The antherozoids, analogous to the sperm-cells, when discharged from the antheridium swim in the moisture always present on the under surface of the prothallium, swarm in large numbers around the neck of the archegonium, and are retained by the mucilage. Some finally force their way into the canal of the neck, a few reaching the oosphere and disappearing within its substance. There is thus a true sexual generation among ferns, and the formerly appro- priate term Cryptogamta (hidden marriage) loses its application under the untiring scrutiny of the microscopist. After fertili- zation the neck of the archegonium closes, and the fertilized 22 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. FIG. 16. —Adiant* capillus-veneris L. Pro- oosphere, now called the ovspore, increases in size, and finally develops into a true fern. 66. Pteridoid Phase.— After the oo- sphere has been fertilized it commences its growth by the ordinary processes of cell multiplication, and for a time remains with. in the walls of the archegonium, which continue to grow, until finally the interior growth breaks through the walls, differen- tiated into its first root and leaf. The young fern draws its nourishment from the pro- thallium for a time, but soon develops root-hairs, which, extending into the soil, maintain thereby an existence independent of the prothallium. The latter growth hav- ing accomplished its work, withers away ^KSShS.ni fem (Fig" l6)' The first PartS °f the rOOt- Stem> seen from below; //, and frond are very small and comparatively r thallium; b, first leaf; r •oot-hairs of prothai- simple in structure, but those formed later second ^'root's. ^"(After are successively larger, and not only bear Sachs-) a closer resemblance to the mature form of the species, but also develop increased complexity of struc- ture. " The fern continues to gain strength, not by subsequent increase of size of the embryonic structures, but by each succes sive part attaining a more considerable size and development than the preceding ones, until at length a kind of stationary condition is arrived at, in which the newly formed organs are nearly similar to the preceding ones." 67. The complete life-history of a fern illustrates a principle common among the lower forms of animal life known as "alter- nation of generations." Instead of the direct production of a mature sexual plant, as among the higher forms of vegetation, there is the production of a sexual growth resembling a lower form of vegetation, which in turn is followed by the growth of a mature plant producing its fruit without the assistance of sex- ual organs. 68. Recapitulation. — To review the life-history of a fern we find the following processes : GERMINATION OF FERN SPORES. 2$ A. Production of the spores asexually by the mature plant. (FRUCTIFICATION.) B. Growth of the prothallium from the spore with or with- out the development of a pro-embryo. (THALLOID PHASE.)* C. Production of sexual organs, archegonia (female) and antheridia (male), on the under surface of the prothallium, or on separate prothallia. D. Fecundation of the oosphere developed in the arche- gonium by the antherozoids developed in the antheridium. (FERTILIZATION.) E. Growth of the mature fern in successive stages from the oospore. (PTERIDOID PHASE.)* LITERATURE. BESSEY (Charles E.)- Botany, pp. 361-388. New York, 1881. (Henry Holt & Co.) GOEBEL (K.). Outlines of Classification and Special Mor- phology of Plants, pp. 189-298. (English Translation.) Ox- ford, 1887. (Macmillan & Co.) CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). Fern Notes. In Torrey Bulletin, x, 1 1 8, 119. (Nov. 1883.) The Development of the Prothallia in Ferns. In Botan- ical Gazette, x, 355-360, with Plate IX. (Oct. 1885.) The Structure and Development of the Mosses and Ferns. 8vo. London and New York, 1895. (Macmillan & Co.) This also contains an extensive Bibliography of the entire subject. * The terms " Thalloid Phase" and " Pteridoid Phase" in place of the older terms " sexual generation" and "asexual generation" were first sug- gested in the first edition of this work (1881). The older terms, although in common use by botanical writers, are decidedly unfortunate and misleading. A generation is properly the production of offspring resembling the parent, or the offspring thus produced, which the prothallium is not and the mature fern is not. The generation proper must then be considered as including the entire life-history of a fern, of which the prothallium and mature fern are suc- cessive phases. The terms "sexual " and "asexual " as used in this connec- tion are likewise misleading, as they might apply as well to the origin as to the producing power of the so-called " generation." The prothallium is asex- ual in origin, but develops sexual organs ; the mature fern, on the other hand, produces no sexual organs, but is itself the product of bisexuality. It is now more common to speak of these two phases of growth as the gametophyte and sporophyte respectively. 24 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). On the Development of the Antheridium in Ferns. In Torrey Bulletin, ..xill, 49-52, with Plate LIV. (Apr. 1886.) — : — The Development of the Ostrich fern. In Memoirs Boston Society of Natural History, iv, 17-52, with Plates IV- vii. (Apr. 1887.) On the Prothallium and Embryo of Osmunda Clay- toniana L. and O. cinnamomea L. In Annals of Botany, vi, 49-94, pi. m-vi (1892). CHAPTER V. FERN STRUCTURE. Be it ours to meditate, And to the beautiful order of thy works Learn to conform the order of our lives. — BRYANT. 69. Tissues. — The life-history of every plant commences in a single cell, and all the complications of vegetable growth depend on two simple processes, viz., the enlargement of indi- vidual cells to their full size, and their multiplication by divi- sion. The lowest forms of vegetable life consist of a single cell, either globular or elongate. Those of a somewhat higher grade consist of a single row of cells, or at most a single layer; while still higher forms of growth consist of masses of cells variously grouped together and specialized by differentiation from the typical form and character. 70. Cells become specialized or set apart to fulfil a certain function in the economy of plant growth in many ways. Some are lengthened for giving strength to stems or leaves; some have their walls thickened to give rigidity or hardness where protection is needed from injury to more delicate structures within ; and some are variously adapted for containing and dis- tributing the secretions or other fluids connected with the cir- culatory system of plant life. Seven distinct varieties of tissues are recognized by structural botanists, yet some of these are connected with each other by various gradations, FERN STRUCTURE. 2$ 71. Tissue Systems. — The earliest tendency to differen- tiation of cells is seen in the arrangement of the outer row of cells to form a boundary wall. In higher forms of growth the interior cells tend to form one or more series of string-like rows surrounded by the normal cellular tissue. We thus reach the basis of the classification of vegetable tissues into three groups : (a) Epidermal Syste.n. (b) Fibro-vascular System. (c) Fun- damental System (Fig. 17). The first and third are common to both ferns and mosses. The second is first seen in the ferns and their allies, where it is a character so constant that it serves as the basis for separating the so-called " vascular" cryptogams from other flowerless plants. These three forms of tissue may be seen by examining a thin cross-section of the stipe of a living fern with the microscope. Longitudinal sections will show still further the character of the tissues composing the fibro-vascular bundle. 72. Roots. — Roots are constantly produced as the root- stock advances, and consist for the most part of little fibrils which are naked for a short distance from the apex in order that they may freely absorb moisture from the earth. The epi- dermis is also thin, and usually consists of a single layer of small cells. It differs from that of the rest of the plant in having no stomata (77). As the apex continues to grow, the epidermis of the part behind becomes harder, and frequently develops hairs, or more frequently irregular scales. 73. Stipe. — The stipe is made up of the three forms of tissue (Fig. 17), and usually con- tains several bundles of vascular tissue. In the dried stipe these can be easily seen, by scraping off the external covering of the stem. These bundles of fibres give sta- bility to the fern, and are con- tinued through the rachises and veins, thus forming the frame- FlG. I7._Cross.section of stipe of work for the softer portions of ^V/Mr/ra«i'ff«(L.) Under*., showing . . ~. . two bundles of tibro-vascular tissue. the frond. 1 he stipes are some- times smooth and polished, sometimes hairy or beset with stalked glands, and sometimes densely clothed, especially near the base, with chaffy scales. 26 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 74. Frond. — In the HYMENOPHYLLACE^E the frond con- sists of a single layer of cells. This condition is also found in the leaves developed along the axis of growth among the mosses to which this sub-order is related in some of its forms. In all other lerns there are several layers of cells variously compacted together, and forming all the varieties of texture — membranous, herbaceous, coriaceous and fleshy. The epi- dermis is usually easily separable from the underlying tissue, when its peculiar markings can be studied. 75. From the epidermis a great variety of appendages are developed which are all modifications of hairs, and are all in- cluded under the term trichomes, however different in appear- ance or distinct in function. These are not confined to the frond, but develop here their greatest variation. They are fre- quently found on the roots, the rootstock, and the stipe, under the form of root-hairs or scales of various forms. Scales are especially abundant in certain forms of Dryopteris, as well as in Polystichum, Cheilanthes, and other genera. 76. Trlchomes. — On the fronds the trichomes may be de- veloped as simple unarticulated or articulated hairs, consisting of one or two cells at most. They may appear as stalked glands like those that arise from the stipe of Cheilanthes Coopcrce or the margin of the indusium of Dryopteris spimilnsa, •var. intermedia ; or they may be developed into scales of in- tricate cellular structure like those on the under surface of cer- •tain forms of Cheilanthes, particularly C. Fendleri and C. Cleve- landii. In the true ferns the sporangia are specialized, tri- chomes developed in clusters {sort) along the veins, or spread over the entire surface of the frond, or even arranged in spikes or panicles. The epidermis also develops an excrescence known as the indusium, which consists of a single layer of cells, and is variously arranged as indicated in Chapter III. In some cases a false indusium is provided, which is not a growth from the epidermis, and may consist of several layers of cells. 77. Stomata. — If the epidermis covering the under surface of a fern be examined under a high magnifying power, peculiar structures will be seen in the form of semi-elliptical or crescent- shaped cells connected at their apices and separated between. These are the guard-cells of stomata which control the open- FERN STRUCTURE. 27 ings to the air-chambers of the plant. The two elliptical cells form the mouth of the passage and expand when moist, allow- ing the atmospheric gases and watery vapor to escape or enter but close the entrance by contraction in time of drought. The stomata are not confined to the fronds, but are found to a greater or less extent on all aerial portions of ferns and higher plants, as well as on subterranean stems. 78. Asexual Propagation — Besides the ordinary meth- ods of sexual reproduction discussed in Chapter IV., most ferns are propagated by growth of therootstock under ground, giving rise to a succession of fronds each season. In addition to this, which is common to all perennial plants, there are some meth- ods of reproduction that deserve attention. The first is by 79. Buds and Bulblets. — In a few species of conservatory ferns adventitious buds are produced on the surfaces of the fronds. These soon develop into young ferns, and it is not un- common to see a large number in vari- ous stages of growth rising from a sin- gle frond. This peculiarity is common among several species of Asplenium, especially A. furcatum Thunb., and will be sometimes found to occur among some of our native species. Bulblets are found in the axils of the upper pinnae of our Filix bulbifera, which often fall to the ground and develop into new plants after a manner analogous to the devel- opment of the axillary buds of the tiger- lily. SO. Another method is seen in the walking-leaf (Camptosorus rhizophyllus), in which the long, attenuated, simple fronds bend over and take root in the adjoining soil in a manner quite analo- ^ gous to the propagation of strawberries showing peculiar' method of by runners (Fig. 18). The same method Pr°Pa£ation- of rooting at the apex has also been noticed in Asplenium pinnatijidum, A. platyneuron, and Phcgopteris reptans. 28 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. LITERATURE.* BESSEY. Botany. (See p. 23.) GOEBEL. Outlines of Classification. (See p. 23.) DE BARY (A.). Comparative Anatomy of Phanerogams and Ferns. 8vo. Oxford, 1884. (Macmillan & Co.) CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). A Third Coat in the Spores of the Genus Onoclea. In Torrey Bulletin, xn, 8, 9 (Jan. 1885). SCHRENK (Joseph). The Dehiscence of Fern Sporangia. In Torrey Bulletin, Xlll, 68, 69 (1886). LYON (Florence May). Dehiscence of the Sporangium of Adiantum pedatum. In Torrey Bulletin, xiv, 180-183 (Sept. 1887). ATKINSON (George F.). The Study of the Biology of Ferns by the Collodion Method. 8vo. New York, 1894. (Macmillan &Co.) CHAPTER VI. THE FERN ALLIES. Beneath my feet The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath. — EMERSON. A. THE GRAPE-FERNS AND ADDER-TONGUES. 8 1 . General Characters. — These peculiar plants, former- ly united with the true ferns, are now regarded as constitut- ing a distinct botanical family. They include mostly small, fleshy, terrestrial plants, and, like ferns, may usually be found in swamps or rich, moist woods. As already noticed (5), there is a marked tendency to variation in the same species, and numerous varieties have been established from the various forms. 82. The sterile and fertile portions of the plant are borne on a common stalk, and either portion may be sessile, long * See other references at close of Chapter X. THE FERN ALLIES, 29 or short stalked, in the various species. In Ophioglossum the sterile portion is simple, and in all our species appears like a leaf rising from the common stalk. Cheiroglossa has several spikes. In Botrychium (Fig. 19) the sterile segment (except in some forms of B. simplex) is somewhat pinnately or ternately divided, and in the larger forms of B. Virginianum is broad- ly ternate, with the divisions even tri — quadripinnatifid. The veins are free in the latter genus, but anas- tomose in the former. This charac- ter, however, is frequently obscured by the fleshy texture of the plant. 83. Vernation. — As has been before stated, ferns are rolled in the bud from the apex downward (cir- cinate), distinguishing them from the higher forms of vegetation. Among the OPHIOGLOSSACE.E, how- ever, the vernation is either straight, inclined at the apex of one or both segments, or else the fertile seg- ments are folded on the main stalk, making the vernation wholly in- clined. Until recently there has been much difficulty in distinguishing the smaller species of Botrychium, and some forms seem to connect the smaller ones with the reduced forms of 13. obliquutn and B. Virgini- anum. Mr. Davenport has investigated the bud characters of these intimately related species, and has made their identification a matter of comparatively easy investigation. The buds may be found enclosed in the base of the common stalk (except in B. Virginianum, where they are placed in an upright cavity at one FIG. 19.— Plant of Botrychium lunar ia, natural size. 30 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. side), and may be examined with a strong lens. The three di- visions are summed up as follows : "I. Vernation wholly straight. B. simplex Hitch. (Fig. 31). II. Vernation partly inclined in one or both portions. B. lunar ia Swz. (Fig. 32), B. boreale Milde, />. neglectum Wood (Fig. 33), and B. obliqiium Michl (Fig. 34) and its allies. III. Vernation wholly inclined, in the fertile frond recurved. B. lanceolatum Angs. (Fig. 35), a-nd B. Vtrgmtanuiii Swz." The special characters of each species will be found under the descriptions of the Botrychia later in this work. The cuts will be valuable for reference, and will enable even beginners to identify the species of this complicated genus with compara- tively little difficulty. 84. Fructification. — In this order of plants the fructification consists of sporangia, which; unlike those of the true ferns, are not reticulated, possess no trace of a ring, open by a transverse slit, and are variously spiked and panicled (Fig. 20). In the adder-tongues (Ophioglossum) the sporangia are large, and cohere in two ranks along the margins of a single spike, opening transversely to discharge their copious sulphur- yellow spores. In the grape-ferns (BotrycJiium} the sporangia are globular and arranged in double rows along the narrow segments, more or less in Panic'es- 1° both genera the sporangia are not developed from the epidermal cells, but arise from a transformation of the. interior tissue of the leaf. This, with other characters as clearly defined, serves to separate these anomalous plants from the families of true ferns. 85. Germination. — Among the OPHlOGLOSSACEvE, so far as known, the prothallia are destitute of chlorophyll, develop under ground, and are monoecious. In Botrychium lunaria the prothallium is an ovoid mass of cellular tissue, light brown without and yellowish white within. It produces a number of antheridia and archegonia on the upper surface as well as the lower, differing in a few minor points from the true ferns in the method of their development. THE FERN ALLIES. 3 1 LITERATURE. HOOKER (W. J.) and BAKER (J. G.). Synopsis Filicum, pp. 444-448. MILDE (J.). Botrychiorum Monographia. In Verhandl. der k.k. zool. bot. Gesellschaft,yi\\\\, 507-516 (1868); xix, 55-190; Tafel vii, vin (1869); xx, 999-1002 (1870). DAVENPORT (George E.). Notes on Botrychium simplex. 410, paper, with plates (1877). Vernation in Botrychia. In Torrey Bulletin, VI, 193- 199, plate (1878); vii, 115,116 (1880); vin, 100, 101 (1881). Cf. also xii, 22, 23. CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). The Development of the Root in Botrychium ternatum. In Botanical Gazette, XI, 49-53, with plate (March, 1886). A Method of Spore Germination. In Botanical Ga- zette, x, 428 (1885). JEFFREY (E. C.)- The Gametophyte of Botrychium Virgi- nianum. Ann. Bot., XI, 481-486 (1897). PRANTL (K.). Beitrage zur Systematik der Ophioglosseen. In Jahrb. ties Kon. Bot. Garten (Berlin), III, 297-350 (1884). B. THE HORSE-TAILS. 86. General Characters. — The horse-tails or scouring- rushes belonging to the genus Equisetum are perennial, rush- like plants, that may be found in damp, gravelly, or loamy soil, some species even growing in shallow water. Our native species vary in height from a few inches up to eleven feet, as seen in some of the larger forms of E. robustum. In some species only the root is perennial, the stems which are sent up for producing fruit dying down to the ground every year. In others the stems are evergreen, continuing through the winter. Some species, like the common horse-tail (E. ar-vense), are dimorph- ous, the fertile stems being simple and destitute of green color- ing matter (chlorophyll), while the sterile stems are green and copiously branched, The fertile stems of some other spe- cies, as E. sil-vaticum, which are simple at first, after maturing their fruit produce branches and resemble the ordinary sterile stems (Figs. 21, 22). 32 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 87. The furrowed stems are hollow, except in E. sctrpoides, and in addition to the large central cavity there is a series of smaller air-cavities opposite the furrows known as the vallecular canals, the furrows themselves being called -vallecula and the ridges carznce. Opposite the carinse there are still smaller cavi- ties known as car mal canals. The carinae vary in number from FIGS. 21, M.—Equisetum silvaticum L., showing sterile and fertile stems. (From Thome.) five to fifty in different species. The stems are also jointed, and at each node some species produce a whorl of branches which may be simple or compound. Some species, however, like the common scouring-rush (E. hiemale), produce simple stems. 88. The leaves are produced also at the nodes, and by the union of their margins form a short sheath which ends in a row THE FERN ALLIES. 33 of teeth. These teeth may be deciduous or persistent, and their number, varying from three upwards, indicates the number of leaves forming the united whorl. 89. Stomata (77) are distributed along the valleculae either irregularly or disposed in ranges on either side of the valleculae. The epidermis frequently contains much silica, and the rough- ened tubercles of some species give the surface a harsh feeling. 90. Fructification. — The fructification in Equisetum is arranged in cone-like spikes borne at the apex of the fertile stems. These spikes are composed of successive closely-placed whorls of shield-shaped, stalked scales or modified leaves, each of which bears from five to ten one-celled sporangia on its under side. The sporangia open along the inner side to discharge their numerous spores, whose outer coat is spirally split into two bands, forming the so-called elaters. The elaters when dry are spread out at right angles to each other in the form of a cross, and probably assist in scattering the spores ; when moist they rapidly absorb water, and become closely coiled around the spore.* 91. Germination. — The spores of Equisetum retaining their powers of germination only a few days, soon develop branched and irregularly lobed prothallia, which are provided with chlorophyll. These are usually dioecious, the male being smaller, and producing antheridia at the end or margin of the larger lobes. The antherozoids are large, and provided with a peculiar appendage known as the "float." The female prothal- lium may reach one half inch in length, and develops archegonia on the anterior margin of the fleshy lobes. The process of fertilization is similar to.that of ferns. * An interesting illustration of this can be seen by placing a mass of fresh spores on a slide uncovered, and examining it with a low power. By breath- ing on the slide the elaters coil closely about the spore ; as soon as the moist- ure evaporates they uncoil, and in their activity jostle each other in great confusion. 34 OVR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. LITERATURE. BAKER (J. G.). Fern Allies, pp. 1-6 (1887). BRAUN (Alexander). A Monography of the North American Species of the Genus Equisetum. With additions by George Engelmann, M.D. In Silltmatt's Journal, XLVI, 81-91 (1843). Describes the then known North American species of Equisetum. CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). The Development of the Male Prothallium of the Field Horse-tail. In American Naturalist, XVI, i-io (Jan. 1883). MILDE (J.). Monographia Equisetorum. 4to, pp. 607, with 35 plates. Dresden (1865). NEWCOMBE (F. C.). Spore dissemination in Eqitisetum. In Botanical Gazette, xm, 173-178 (1888). C. THE CLUB-MOSSES. 92. General Characters. — The club-mosses are chiefly small perennial plants usually growing in dry or moist woods, or even on exposed rocks with little soil for nourish- ment. Most of the species are somewhat moss-like in habit, as might be suspected from the popular names given to these plants, the genus Lycopodium taking the name of club-moss and Selaginella that of rock- moss. Various species of Lycopodium are also known as ground-pine, ground-fir, ground-cedar, running-pine, etc., from more or less marked resemblances (Fig. 23). In the curious Sela- ' ginella lepidophylla from copodium clavatum L. . . , , , (After Prantl.) Arizona the branches of the closely coiled central stem roll up when dry into a nest-like ball, and when moistened expand so as to appear flat or saucer- FIG. 23.— Portion f Lycop natural size. THE FER.V ALLIES. 35 shaped. As the plant retains this power indefinitely, it has sometimes been called " the Resurrection-plant." 93. The stems are usually creeping, yet in some species show a tendency to become erect, and most species send up erect branches which bear the fruit. Most species bear roots at irregular intervals along the under side of the creeping stems, but our solitary species of Psilotum is rootless, bearing only underground shoots which perform the functions of roots. The leaves are small and unbranched, in some instances resembling appressed scales, in others resembling the acicular leaves of Conifers, and are arranged in four, eight, or many ranks. In some species the leaves are of one kind, while in others two or even more forms may occur on the same plant. In Psilotum the leaves are all rudimentary. 94. Fructification. — The fructification of the club-mosses is chiefly borne on upright branches in solitary or clustered (2-5) spikes, which are formed of numerous scales or scale- like leaves, each bearing a single large sporangium in its axil. The sporangia open transversely, and are one-celled, except in Psilotum, where they are three-celled. In a few species of Lycopodium the sporangia are borne near the summit of the fertile stems in the axils of ordinary leaves. The usual shape of the fruit-bearing scales is represented in Figs. 24-26. 95. The spores of Lycopodium and Psilotum are of one kind (Fig. 24), but in Selaginella two kinds of spo- rangia are developed — the microspo- rangia, producing numerous micro- spores (Fig. 25) not unlike the spores of Lycopodium; and the macrospo- rangia, producing usually four macro- Spores (Fig. 26), SO Called from their bearing asporangium in itsaxii: FIGS. 25, 26.— Scales from fer- larger size. This character of Sela- tile spike of Selaginella rupes- 77 u- u • i- -11 -11 tris Spring,disclosing two sorts ginella, which it shares with the quill- of spores. (After Sprague.) worts and pepperworts soon to be described, serves as the basis for the division of the fern allies into two groups : the 4. — Scale of spike of •urn Carolinianum L., 36 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. tsosporous, producing spores of one kind ; and the Jictcrosporous, producing spores of more than one kind..* 96. Germination. — The germination of Lycopodium is only partially known, as the prothallia have been seen in only three species, and in these they have not been carried through all the stages of development. That of L. annotinum is a yel- lowish-white mass of tissue with a few small root-hairs.t The antheridia and archegonia are developed from the upper side of the prothallium. In L. cernuum, TreubJ found the pro- thallia much smaller (one twelfth of an inch long), vertical in growth, yellowish below and bright green above. The anthe- ridia and archegonia are found round the summit of the cylin- dric prothallium. 97. The germination of Selaginella is better known. The contents of the ripened microspores are transformed into a mass of tissue consisting of a few cells, one of which remains sterile and is considered a rudimentary prothallium, while the others give rise to antherozoids, and are consequently considered as a rudimentary antheridium. The macrospores, on the other hand, produce a many-celled prothallium, which develop a few root-hairs and numerous archegonia, which after fertilization give rise to a new plant. Two plants are sometimes produced on the same prothallium. 98. The microspores are thus seen to be male and the macrospores female, showing a clearer differentiation of sex in the products of the mature plant than appears in any other group of the fern allies already studied. This may be consid- ered a foreshadowing of the vastly more complicated repro- ductive processes of the flowering plants. In the method of formation of the embryo the Selaginella also differs from all other plants of this group, and approaches the flowering plants. * This division, though used by some of the best botanists, is at best an artificial classification, as it separates genera otherwise closely allied to each other. t Cf. J. Fankhauser, Botanische Zeitung, 1873, pp. 1-6; Bruchmann, Botanisches Centralblatt, XXI (1885). \ Cf. Treub, Ann. d. Jard. Bot. d. Buitenzorg, iv (1884). THE FERN ALLIES. 37 LITERATURE. Fern Allies, pp. 7-123. London, 1887. BAKER (John G.). (George Bell & Sons.) SPRING (A.). Monographic de la Famille des Lycopodia- cees. In Memoir es de I' Academie Roy ale de BeJgique, XV, i-no (1842); xxiv, 1-358 (1849). so named D. THE QUILLWORTS. 99. General Characters. — The quillworts from the appearance of the leaves, are principally incon- spicuous aquatic plants of a grass-like or rush-like aspect (Fig. 27). Some species afe always submerged — often in several feet of water ; others grow in marshy soil or in the shallow margins of ponds or streams, where they become ap- parently terrestrial in time of low water; while others still are found between high and low water marks, where they will be covered by water at high tide. The leaves are awl-shaped or linear, and are attached to a short fleshy trunk. They vary in number from ten to one hun- dred in each plant, and in length from two to twenty inches in various species. On account of their resemblance to the im- mature forms of rushes and other aquatic vegetation of a higher order, they have been very sparingly collected. Many questions of distribution, habits, and life-history may be studied by even amateur botanists in various sections of the country. FIG. 27.— size. (Rcdra L., natural from Sprague.) 38 OUR NATIVE FERXS AXD THEIR ALLIES. In this way valuable additions to science may be contributed by those whose labor misdirected might be wasted. 1 OO. Fructification. — The sporangia of the quillworts, like those of the club-mosses, are sessile in the base of the leaves. The leaf base, sometimes called the sheath, is some- what triangular from the broad insertion, convex behind and concave in front, where, there is a large depression known as \hefovea, which contains the sporangium. The margin of the fovea rises in the form of a delicate membrane called the velum, which in many species lies above the sporangium and en- closes it. The sporangia of the outer in2/."!^^"}^ en- leaves contain large spherical ma- larged." (After Sprague.) crospores ; those of the inner con-, tain numerous oblong, triangular microspores. The size and marking of the spores form important characters in distin- guishing species. 1 O 1 . Germination. — The microspore after remaining dor- mant through the winter forms a few-celled structure which produces the antherozoids, which are long and slender, and provided with a tuft of cilia at each end. The macrospore produces a prothallium much as in Selaginella (97) ; from this the germ of the mature plant arises after fertilization by the antherozoids. LITERATURE. BAKER (J. G.). Fern Allies, pp. 123-134 (1887). BRAUN (Alexander). On the North American Species of Isoetes and Marsilea. Communicated by Dr. G. Engelmann. In Sillimans Journal, Second Series, III, 52-56 (1847). CAMPBELL (D. H.). Contributions to the life-history of Isoetes. In Annals of Botany, v, 231-258, pi. xv-xvn (1891). ENGELMANN (George). Isoetes of Northern United States. In Grays Manual, Fifth Edition (1868). - The Species of Isoetes of the Indian Territory. In Bo- tanical Gazette, III, I, 2 (Jan. 1878). The genus Isoetes in North America. In Trans. St, THE FERX ALLIES. 39 Lout's Acad. Set., iv, 358-390 (1882). A valuable monograph of this most difficult genus of the fern allies. UNDERWOOD (L. M.). The distribution of Isoetes. In Botanical Gazette, XIII, 89-94 (1888). See also notes in Botanical Gazette, vr, 228. E. THE WATER FERNS. 1O2. General Characters. — This group includes plants of very diverse characters. Some, like Marsilea, root in mud and produce quadrifoliate leaves. Others, like Pilularia, re- semble the sterile forms of Eleocharis, or other sedges. Others, like Azolla or Salvinia, float on the surface of water, sending numerous roots into the watei . Marsilea and Pilularia have a circinate vernation like the ferns. 1 O3. Fructification. — The fruit of Marsilea consists of a hollow-stalked receptacle known as the sporocarp, which is oblong or rarely globose, and bears the spo- rangia in sori on the inner walls of its two valves. The spores are of two kinds, as in all rhizocarps. The numerous microspores are con- tained in microsporangia, while the macrospores are solitary in the few macrosporangia. 1 04. The sporocarp of Pilu- Iraia is globose, containing from two to four cells, which produce microsporangia in the upper portion and macrosporangia below ; the microspores are numerous, while a single macrospore is found in each sporangium. 1 O5. In Azolla the sporocarps are of two kinds, borne in the axils of the leaves ; the larger are glo- bose, and contain numerous microspores, which are aggregated in masses; the smaller are ovoid, and contain a single macro- spore. FIG. 30. — Salvinia na.fa.ns Hoffm.. natural size. (Re- drawn from Thom£) 40 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 1 06. Salvinia (Fig. 30), more often seen in cultivation, has the sporocarps borne in clusters on short branches of the floating stem, one or two of each cluster bearing ten or more macrosporangia, each of which contains a single macrospore, the remainder bearing numerous globose microsporangia with numerous microspores. 107. Germination. — In Marsilea the antherozoids are produced in a rudimentary prothallium which develops from the microspore and are corkscrew-shaped, consisting of several coils. The prothallium, developed from the apex of the ma- crospore is a hemispherical mass of tissue, and contains a sin- gle archegonium. Much is yet to be learned of the habits and life-history of our native species. LITERATURE. ANDREWS (W. M.). Apical growth in roots of Mars ilia quadrifolia and Equisetum arvense. In Botanical Gazette, XV, 174-177 (1890). BAKER (J. G.). Fern Allies, pp. 134-149 (1887). BRAUN (Alexander). On the North American species of Isoetes and Marsilia. In Sillimaris Journal, Second Series, in, 52-56 (1847). — Ueber Marsilia und Pilularia. In Monatsb. der Konigl. Akad. der Wissenschaft, 1863, 413-436; 1870, 653-753; 1872, 635-679. CAMPBELL (D. H.). The systematic position of the Rhizo- carpeee. In Torrey Bulletin, XV, 258-262 (1888). — The development of Pilularia globiilifera L. In An- nals of Botany, in. 233-264, pi. xin-xv (1888). — On the Prothallium and Embryo of Marsilia -uestita. In Proc. Cal. Acad. Science, III, 183-205, pi. Ill, IV (1892). — Some notes on Azolla. In Zoe, in, 340-343 (1893). — The development of the Sporocarp of Pilularia Ameri- cana A. Br. In Torrey Bulletin, XX, 141-148, pi. CXLVI (1893). ENGELMANN (George). New Species of Marsilia. In Silli- maiis Journal, Second Series, VI (1848). STRASBURGER(L.). Ueber Azolla. 8vo, 7 plates. Jena (1873). UNDERWOOD (L. M.) and COOK (O. F.). Notes on the American Species of Marsilia* In Torrey Bulletin, xiv, 89-94 (May, 1887). CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 4! CHAPTER VII. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. The education of a naturalist now consists chiefly in learning how to compare. — AGASSIZ. 1 08. Nomenclature. — The attempts in later years to bring the system of plant nomenclature to a stable basis has resulted in a number of annoying changes in the names of species, and as the present edition contributes something to the matter of change, it may justly be expected to give some reasons for these changes. It is well known that before the time of Lin- naeus, the method of naming plants and animals was a subject of much embarrassment to science, and the lack of a definite system gave rise to much inconvenience and endless confusion. Linnaeus adopted a simple method of naming living organisms, and to him belongs the merit of first extensively and systemat- ically introducing the binomial system of nomenclature which still remains universally in use. Many suppose that this was his own invention, but binomial Latin names for plants were used a hundred years before Linnaeus was born. Cornut, for example, in a rare book published in 1635 * illustrates two of our common ferns under the names " Filix baccifera " and " Adiantum Americanum " — probably the first illustrations ever published of American species. Genera existed prior to Linnaeus, and he was not always either wise or just in his selec- tion or use of names for those he recognized. For example, he changed the application of some of the names of that acute botanist, Tournefort (1656-1708), who in 1700 published one of the first accounts of genera.t a much more scientific treatise than anything Linnaeus ever produced. Linnaeus also arbitrarily changed names which his predecessors had used. Mitchell, in * Canadensium plantarum historia. t Institutiones rei herbaria. 42 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 1751, had used the name Aitgiopteris for one of our American ferns, but Linnaeus arbitrarily substituted one of his own (Ono- clea) in its place. 1 O9. The Linnaean system involved two names for every organism, a generic or group name and a specific or individual name. Generic names are often from the Greek, derived from some characteristic of growth or structure (Cryptogramma, Cheilanthes), or are Latinized in honor of some botanist or patron of botany ( Woodsia), or occasionally from some symbol- ical character (Osmunda). \ 1 O. Specific names are usually Latin or Latinized, and must agree in gender with the generic name, according to the rules of Latin syntax. Specific names frequently indicate some- thing regarding habit or mode of growth (bulbifera, tomentosa, atropurpurea), or may indicate the locality in which the organism was first discovered (Californica, Ilvensis). A few take their name from their discoverer, in which case the name is Latinized and takes a genitive ending (Boottii, Cooperee), or else an ad- jective form (Goldieana, Wrightiana). 111. The advantage of this binary nomenclature is at once evident when we consider the immense number of ferns alone, to say nothing of the remainder of the vegetable world and the hosts of the animal creation. By this means organisms of complex structure can be definitely characterized with com- paratively few words, and the scientific name once established, is recognized among scientists of all nations and languages. 112. Among some there is a tendency to regard scientific names with disfavor, on the ground that they are long and dif- ficult. But what shall we say of Geranium, or Gladiolus, or Fuchsia, or Phlox Drummondii, or a hundred others familiar to every lover of flowers ? Are these less difficult than Adianlum, NothoJana, Woodsia, or Pell&a Brewen"? A little reflection will convince a person of sense that such a criticism is unjust. 1 1 3. A worse tendency is perhaps that which prompts the introduction of " popular names" for ferns : occasionally a name of this kind is highly appropriate, and deserves wide-spread adoption, as in the case of " Christmas-fern " for Polystichum acrostichoides, suggested by Mr. Robinson; the greater part, however, have no merit, and when such monstrosities appear CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 43 as " Leather-leaf Polypody " for Polypodium Scouleri, " Mr. Goldie's Shield-fern " for Dryopteris Goldieana, nomenclature is made cumbrous instead of simple. 1 i 4. The Linnsean system, however, did not prove entirely stable. In the early days when communication among botanists was not easy, the same plant would be described independently by two botanists under different names. Or, in other cases, two botanists would independently establish a certain generic group under different names. For example, Swartz separated a group of plants under the name Botrychium which Linnaeus had included in Osmunda, leaving the latter name for the species we now know under that name. In the same year, and in fact in an article immediately following that of Swartz, Bernhardi separated the same two genera, but left the Botrychium species under the name Osmunda, and took the true Osmunda species out under the name Struthopteris. But errors of this kind were not the worst that existed. Botanists frequently cancelled good names that already existed, and deliberately substituted some of their own. Lamarck in 1797 called one of our Southern fern allies Osmunda bitemata ; in 1803 Richard called it Botrypus lunarioides, recognizing it as belonging to a genus distinct from Osmunda and unaware of the establishment of the genus Botrychium by Swartz. When Swartz in 1806 published the first manual of all known ferns * he properly transferred this species to his own earlier named genus Botrychium, but instead of adopting the oldest specific name he adopted the later one and called this fern Botrychium hinarioides. Willdenow enu- merated the ferns known to him in iSiot and quoted all three of these names, but rebaptized the plant as Botrychiitmfumarioides. Sprengel, seventeen years later, quoted all these names, includ- ing that of Willdenow, and gave the plant still another name, Botrychitwi fumarice. It will thus be seen that the period of eruption in nomenclature was in the early part of the century instead of the later, and largely on account of these early irregularities of procedure we have recently been undergoing something of an upheaval of nomenclature. * Synopsis Filicum, 1806. t Species Plantarum, vol. 5. 44 OUR NATURAL FERN'S AND THEIR ALLIES. \ 1 5. Synonymy. — It may also be remarked in this con- nection that different authors have described the same fern under widely different generic and specific names, owing (i) to the different conceptions that have prevailed at different times as to what constituted generic characters, and (2) to ignorance of what others had already written on species, redescribed as new. For example, the delicate Woodsia Ilvensis of Robert Brown was described as Acrostichum Ilvense by Linnaeus, Polypodium Il- vense by Swartz, Nephrodium rufidulum by Michaux, Aspidtum rufidulum by Willdenow, and Woodsia rufidula by Beck. Many other species have been as variously classified. The oppor- tunities for errors of this character are much less now than for- merly, yet redescription is not unknown in our day. 1 1 6. Species. — Goethe tells us that nature knows only in- dividuals, and that species exist only in the school-books. From this extreme there has been every grade of opinion respecting species to the one which regards species as invariable, actual existences, types originally ordained and summoned to existence by the Creator. Linnaeus, for example, defined species in these words : " Species tot sunt diversa, quot diversas formas ab initio creavit infinitum ens." * Various definitions have been given to species, but none accord with the actual practice of systematists, who seem inclined to make a species what they choose ; and indeed the existence of various connecting forms between many species distinct under normal conditions makes the prac- tical definition of the term almost an impossibility. We may, however, for practical purposes, regard as a species an assem- blage of individuals not differing essentially from each other, and capable of producing like individuals by the ordinary pro- cesses of reproduction. A recent writer defines species as " the present aspect of a line of organic development, destined to become something else in the future, as it was something else in the past," — a definition in accord with the now universally accepted biological doctrine respecting the origin of species. Species among ferns are founded chiefly on differences in the cutting of the fronds and their method of venation. * There are as many different species as the Infinite Being created in the beginning. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 45 1 1 7. Varieties. — Many forms differing only slightly from the ordinary specific types, and yet capable of transmitting their variations from generation to generation, are regarded as vari- eties. It was the opinion of a prominent botanist, that all so-called varieties among the lower plants " were purely the result of the accident of environment, and never of cross-fertili- zation." Since a species which varies in some minor particular is likely to revert to the ordinary fo'rm as soon as the normal conditions of soil, moisture, or environment are restored, there is no scientific foundation for the multiplication of varieties to serve as rubbish in works on systematic botany. A true variety is an incipient species in process of formation ; when it becomes sufficiently distinct to be regarded as a distinct thing with a certain constancy of characters it is more logical to regard it as a distinct species. In cases where species have been more recently separated from each other in their evolutionary progress, some intermediate forms may still persist. If the typical form is clearly marked, these intermediate forms need not invalidate its specific rank. 1 18. Genera. — The limits of genera among ferns have given rise to much difference of opinion. The few comprehensive and heterogeneous genera recognized by Linnseuswere soon divided by various authors, and other new genera were based on new dis- coveries resulting from the exploration of newer portions of the world. Adanson, Smith, Roth, Swartz, Bernhardi, Robert Brown, and others added genus after genus, often passing over the work of other post-Linnaean authors and often unwittingly or even purposely renamed genera which had already well- established names. Genera were largely based on the varying arrangement of the sporangia on the veins, as well as the char- acter, shape, and position of the indusia. The English of the Hookerian school who have written on ferns have largely depended on these characters and have tended to recognize fewer genera than others of their countrymen or than are usu- ally recognized by Continental botanists. 1 19. Presl (1836) was one of the first to establish genera based on the vascular systems of the plants, particularly their methods of venation, and laid the foundation of a more logical classification of ferns. John Smith, whose life had largely been 46 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. spent in one of the largest collections of growing ferns, added to Presl's system, characters based on methods of growth. Fee, who gave much attention to the ferns of the West Indies, Mexico, and Brazil, also established numerous genera. To these three writers and to Moore, who followed them, we are indebted for a more liberal and more consistent conception of fern genera. The modern tendency is toward this recognition of a larger number of fern genera, depending on characters drawn from venation and from habit of growth. Such unnatu- ral aggregations of species as have hitherto been grouped to- gether under the name Gymnograme* because of the fact that the species all had elongated naked sori on the back of the leaf, cannot be tolerated in a system that professes to be founded on natural relationships. Natural genera must contain only species that are more closely related to each other than they are to any other species. 1 2O. Families.— Genera are grouped in families according to the characters of the sporangium itself, its method of dehis- cence, and especially its origin from the tissues of the leaf. Eight families of ferns, if we include the eusporangiate Ophio- glossacetz and the heterosporous Saltitniacea and Marsileacece, are found in our flora. Besides these there are the Marat- tiacece, Gleicheniacecz, and Matoniacece among the ferns of trop- ical regions. Families of plants now have the uniform termina- tion -acece. 121. Orders. — Families are grouped into orders based on still wider characters. The plants with fern-like habit make up the order FILICALES, though it is an open question if the eusporangiate types and heterosporous types ought not to be separated as distinct orders. The rush-like species forming the single family Equisetacece constitute the order EQUISETALES, and the club-moss types, isosporous and heterosporous, form the order LYCOPODIALES. 1 22. Principle of Classification. — The true idea of clas- sification is the grouping together of objects according to essen- tial and fundamental resemblances. Every system is more or less artificial, yet there is a continual approach toward the true * Cf. Hooker and Baker, Synopsis Filicium, pp. 376-390. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 47 natural system, which is the ultimatum of scientific classifica- tion. The study of life-histories will continually clear up points of relationship before unknown, and it will not be long before the classification will become fixed and constant. Every real study contributes to this end. 1 23. Changes of Nomenclature.— Exactness of citation is of prime importance, and in later years stability in nomen- clature has been an end constantly sought. Nineteen years ago, when the first edition of this work appeared, the serious study of the higher flora of America was largely confined to a single botanical centre, and that centre followed the practice of Kew, the great royal herbarium of England, in adopting names without particular reference to principles of priority. So long as one centre existed, this system was little questioned. But soon new centres of study of our flora were formed, new workers appeared fresh from fields where the study of plants in life had been added to the study of plants in the herbarium. These workers recognized the fact that in neglecting priority and in following no fixed principles of nomenclature, grave difficulties were con- stantly arising, and confusion followed ; they could not follow a system based on so uncertain and variable a standard as the personal system of nomenclature. European botanists, even Englishmen outside of Kew, recognized the same difficulties. There must be a common starting-point accepted ; there must be some common principles adopted and followed for taking up generic and specific names. During the past ten years the bo- tanical world has quite generally settled down to 1753 as tne starting-point of nomenclature,* and most adopt the principle of priority as fundamental ; t e., each generic group is given its oldest tenable name, and each species bears the original specific name assigned it whether it remains in its original genus or is transferred to some other. Some examples will make this clear if we follow the history of individual species. 1 24. — A simple case that has been involved in a recent change of name is seen in our Eastern lip-fern (Cheilanthes) ; the * This is purely arbitrary and has been selected for convenience merely. Genera and species were clearly denned before this time. 48 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. history of this fern is summed up in the following chronological synonymy : Nephrodium lanosum Michx., 1803. Cheilantli.es -vestita Swz., 1 806. Cheilanthes lanosa Watt, 1874. Watt rightly discarded the specific name given this plant by Swartz, and adopted the earlier specific one given by Michaux. The full name is then written Cheilanthes lanosa (Michx.) Watt, the parenthesis noting the fact that the specific name was given by Michaux with a generic combination different from the one in which it now stands. The practice of a few botanists has been to give a species the first name it bore under a genus. In this case the plant in ques- tion would bear the specific name vestita so long as it remained in Cheilanthes, but if transferred to the genus Nephrodium it would have to bear the specific name tan0sum,a.nd if transferred to some other genus might bear still a third. The absurdity of such a practice is clearly apparent.* 1 25. — A case slightly more complicated is seen in the hart's- tongue — the lingua cervina of the pre-Linnsean botanists. Its chronological synonymy is as follows : Asplenium Scolopendrium L., 1753. Scolopendrium vulgare], E. Smith, 1793. Phyllitis Scolopendrium Newman, 1854. Scolopendrium Scolopendrium Karsten, 1883. The last name is perfectly legitimate although a duplication, and so long as the plant remained in the genus Scolopendrium that was its appropriate name. But the genus Scolopendrium was founded by Adanson in 1763,1 and the generic name Phyl- litis founded in pre-Linnaean times on the same plant was used since Linnaeus at least as early as 1757. This being true, New- man's combination is the correct one to follow, and the full cita- tion would be Phyllitis Scolopendrium (L.) Newm. * For each plant or group there can be only one valid name, and that is always the most ancient if it is tenable. — A. GRAY. t Not by J. E. Smith, 1793, as usually supposed. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 49 I 26.— Still more complicated is the ostrich-fern. Its syno- nymy is as follows : Osmunda struthiopteris L., 1753. Onoclea struthiopteris Hoffm., 1795. Osmunda nodnlosa Michx., 1803. Struthiopteris Germanica Willd.,* 1809. Struthiopteris Pennsylvania Willd., 1810. Matteitccia struthiopteris Todaro, 1866. Struthiopteris Germanica var. Pennsylvanica Lawson, 1889. Now this case involves several independent problems that are not mere " battles with synonyms " : (i) Is the American spe- cies the same as the European ? (2) Are we to take a superficial resemblance like the rolling of the sporophyll into a necklace- shaped structure as a basis for comparison, and unite a species with leaves growing in crowns from an upright rootstock and having free veins, in the same genus (Onoclea) with a plant that has horizontal creeping stems, scattered leaves, and copiously anastomosing veins ? These are problems on which human judgment will disagree as it has disagreed in the past. In regard to the latter question the practice of the Kew botanists followed too implicitly by us Americans was adopted in previous editions not without many misgivings. We believe that the two ferns form two as valid generic groups as exist ; that there is nothing in common between them to indicate community of origin or even anything but the most distant relationship. They are therefore treated in this edition as two genera. In regard to the question of the identity of the European and American plants, we will say that, having been familiar with our American species from childhood, and having studied the European form in its native soil, we are forced to the conviction, that there is but one species on the two continents. If this be the case, whatever the generic name may be, the specific name of our species must be Struthiopteris, the Linnaean specific name for the plant. If we adopt the view that the American plant is distinct from the European, our plant would then bear the specific name * Applied to the American plant by various authors, but limited by Will- denow to the European plant. 50 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. nodulosa, the earliest name; Willdenow in establishing the genus Struthiopteris in 1809 incorrectly stating as a fact that the American plant was " eine noch nicht beschriebene aus Penn- sylvanien," and not assigning it a name until 1810. 127. — Having thus fixed the specific name, what of the generic ? The name Struthiopteris cannot be used for this plant, for when Willdenow assigned it to this use it had been used already twice before. In 1760 Scopoli used it for a genus of which Osmunda spic ant was the type; Bernhardi used it again in 1799* to include the species of the genus we now know as Osmunda to separate them from the ill-assorted aggregate which Linnaeus had brought together under this name. Struthiopteris must then stand for a genus which hitherto has commonly been called Lomaria, and our ostrich-fern must look farther for a name. Matteuccia, proposed by a Sicilian botanist in 1866, appears to be the first tenable generic name, and is here used in that sense. It will thus be seen that the question of the proper use of botanical names is by no means a simple one. The botanical literature of the world must be ransacked before stability can be reached. An obscure local publication in the Italian language on the plants of Sicily in this case furnishes the generic name for a plant which grows in the northeastern United States ! 1 28. After specific stability is settled comes the equally interesting problem of generic stability which is still more diffi- cult. This, however, involves principles that have never been thoroughly discussed, and this subject will not be considered here,t except to give a single illustration. In 1799 Bernhardi established a genus of plants under the name Gymnopteris based on a single West Indian species which Linnaeus first described as Pteris ritjfa, but afterwards referred * Bernhardi's orthography was Strut/iopteris, a fact that has led an over- ardent nomenclaturist to abolish the genus Osmunda. t Those interested in this phase of the nomenclature question will find a paper by the writer on " The Genera of Ferns established prior to 1832," in the Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club, vi, 247-283, 1899. On the general question of botanical nomenclature one of the best discussions of the subject will be found in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, xxii, 308-329, CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 5 I to the genus Acrostic hum. Ten years later Desvaux established the genus Gymnogramma, based on this same West-Indian species, and eleven others with a similar method of forming their sori. Now under any rational system the name Gym- nopteris must stand for that group of species which includes the Pteris ruff a of Linnaeus, and it is equally true that it could not be used legitimately for any other group of plants. To illustrate how wide of the mark certain modern usage is, it is only necessary to cite a recent revision of fern names * in which Gvmnopterts is used for a wholly different group of ferns from that which contains the plant Linnaeus called Pteris ruffa, and for the group to which Pteris ruffa actually belongs a name is selected that was not established until 1844, namely, Lepto- g->-aitii/ie Link, thus passing over two earlier names which had priority ! LITERATURE. The references to original writings would include all the botanists who have named or classified ferns since the time of Linnaeus (1707-1778). Among the more prominent of these we may mention Swartz (1760-1818), Willdenow (1765-1812), Presl (1791-1849), Mettenius (1823-1866), Hooker (1785-1865), Fee (1789-1874), Milde (1824-1871), Al. Braun (1805-1875), and J. G. Baker ( - ). The following work gives a good review of the various systems : SMITH (John). Historia Filicum. London, 1875. (Mac- millan & Co.) The American literature bearing on the subject is as follows : BECK (Lewis C). Synoptical tables of the Ferns and Mosses of the United States. In Sillimari s Journal, iv (1829). DAVENPORT (George E.). Aspidium spinulosum (Swz.) and its varieties. In American Naturalist, XII, 707-717 (1878). New species of Ferns. In Bulletin of the Torrey Bot. Club, vi, 190, 191 (1877) ; vii, 50, 51 (1880); vin, 61, 62 (1881); x, 61,62 (1883). * Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien. (Engler-Prantl.) 52 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. Fern notes. In Bidletin of the Torrey Bot. Club, vil, 85, 86 (1880) ; vin, 88, 89 (1881); ix, 20-23. 68, 69, 99-101 (1882) ; X, 4-7 (1883); XII, 21-24 (1885); xiii, 81, 82, 129-135 (1886); XV, 225-229 (1888). EATON (Daniel C.). Ferns of the Mexican Boundary. In Mexican Boundary Survey (1857). — Ferns of the Southern States. In Chapman : Flora of the Southern States (1860). Ferns of the Northern United States. In Gray : Man- ual of Botany, 6th edition (1890). Notes on some of the plants in the herbaria of Linne and Michaux. In Canadian Naturalist (1870). New and little known Ferns of the United States. In Bulletin of the Torrey Bot. Club, iv, 11, 12, 18, 19 (1873) ; vi, 33 (1875), 71, 72 (1876), 263-265 (-1878), 306, 307, 360, 361 (1879); VII, 62-64 (1880) ; VIII, 4, 5, 99, 100 (1881) ; IX, 49, 50 (1882) ; X, 26-29, 101, 1 02 (1883). Ferns of North America. Illustrated with colored plates by J. H. Emerton and C. E. Faxon. — Ferns of the Southwest. In Wheeler: Report of the U. S. Geog. and Geol. Surveys west of the loo/// meridian, VI (1877). — Vascular Acrogens of California. In Watson : Botany of California, II (1880). GRAY (Asa). On the discovery of two species of Tricho- manes in the State of Alabama. In Sillimans Journal, 2d ser., xv (1853). KUNZE (G.). Notes on some Ferns of the United States. In Sillimans Journal, 2d ser., VI, 80-89 (1848). UNDERWOOD (L. M.). American Ferns, I, II. Bull. Torrey Club, xxv, 521-541 (1898); xxvi, 205-216(1899). The literature relating to exotic species is very extensive. Some of the more important works are the following : BAKER (J. G.). A summary of the new Ferns which have been discovered or described since 1874. (1892.) FEE (F. L. A.). Memoires sur la Famille des Fougeres. 4to. (1844-1873.) 289 plates. CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 53 HOOKER (W. J.). Genera Filicum. 410. (1842.) 120 col- ored plates. Species Filicum. 5 vols. 8vo. (1846-1864). 304 col- ored plates. HOOKER (W. J.) and BAKER (J. G.). Synopsis Filicum. 2d ed., 8vo. (1874.) Contains descriptions of all the ferns of the world recognized at Kew to the date of publication. HOOKER (W. J.) and GREVILLE (R. K.). Icones Filicum. 2 vols. folio. (1831.) 240 colored plates. METTENIUS (G.). Filices Hort Botanici Lipsiensis. 410. (1856.) — Ueber einige Farngattungen. Five parts. 4to. (1857- 1859.) LUERSSEN (C.). Die Farnpflanzen. In Rabenhort : Kryp- togainen-Flora Deutschlands. 8vo. Besides numerous scattered papers by all of the above-men- tioned writers, together with Moore, Kuhn, A. Braun, Prantl, Milde, Christ, Jenman, Fournier, and many others. 54 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. CHAPTER VIII. THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 1 29. THE popular conception as to what constitutes a plant needs to be considerably enlarged and otherwise modified, for as soon as we commence to look about us after our eyes have been really opened, we find a vast array of forms varying in size and complexity of structure from the simple cells of the yeast- plant that we use in bread-making to the highly organized tree of the forest, and including such diverse forms of growth as the green scums that accumulate on ponds in summer, the gray lichens covering rocks and trees, the puff-balls and mushrooms that seemingly develop in a single night, the mosses, ferns and flowers in all their variety and beauty. Where in all this array of plants do our ferns stand, and what relations do they sustain to other plants ? In answering this question we will have to give some account cf the various groups of plants, pointing out their structural peculiarities and noting here and there in their appropriate place in the system such forms as are likely to be popularly recognized. 1 3O. Aside from the plants producing flowers, the ferns and the mosses,* all of which are widely known and generally * It should be noted that even this name is often misapplied. The lichens, which are in no way related to the true mosses, are sometimes popularly called "gray mosses." In " Evangeline" where Longfellow speaks of the trees " bearded with moss " he evidently alludes to the lichen, Usnea barbata ; the " hanging moss" of the Pacific coast is also a lichen, Ramalina reticulata, which has a much more appropriate name in "lace-lichen." The "hang- ing moss " of the Gulf States, on the contrary, is a flowering plant whose near- est allies are in the pineapple family. Another flowering plant, Euphorbia cyparissias, is often called " graveyard moss " in the Northern States. This loose and confusing use of language is to be deplored, and those who know better should assist in relegating these incorrect usages to a merited oblivion. THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 55 recognized, we find two types of plants of lower grade which stand out prominently to even the unpracticed eye. Of these the first are mostly green,* and though variously known and named may be called collectively algae. Like the higher plants, these low forms maintain an independent existence, drawing their nourishment directly from the air and water. Of the second group we may find examples in the mildew that spreads its white cobwebby film over the leaves of the lilac, the willow and other plants ; or in the rust, red or black, that injures our fields of standing grain ; or in the black smut that often re- places the ears of corn and greatly disfigures the plant. Other examples may be seen in the shelving masses that protrude from old stumps or logs, or in the bright scarlet cups that ap- pear on the ground in rich woods in earliest spring. Whatever the color of these forms of plant growth, they may be charac- terized as not green. They represent a group of plants that require nourishment from some source besides air and water; some are parasitic — drawing nourishment from living plants or animals, while others are saprophytic — living on decaying or- ganic matter. Though widely differing in character, we may call them y\\ fungi. In addition to these forms are the lichens which are intimately related to some of the groups of fungi and cannot be considered as forming a definite group by them- selves. 131. Looking over this array of forms we find that with all their diversity they may be arranged somewhat naturally in four groups as follows, commencing with the highest : I. SPERMAPHYTES. (Seed-bearing plants.) II. PTERIDOPHYTES. (Ferns and their allies.) III. BRYOPHYTES. (Mosses and Liverworts.) IV. THALLOPHYTES. (Algae, Lichens and Fungi.) It will be observed that the last three are all spore producers instead of seed producers like the flowering plants of the first * Observant visitors at the seaside are familiar with the brown, purple and bright red " sea-weeds" that belong here but have their fundamental green color masked by other coloring matters. These are sometimes called "sea mosses," which is another unfortunate and confusing use of a terra which ought to be confined to its particular group. 56 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. group; that the second like the first contains plants with a highly organized structure; that the third is like the first two in including plants with a distinct leafy axis, but differs in pos- sessing a less complicated structure ; while the last differs from all the others in having no distinction of stem and leaves. To bring out these and other characters more fully, and at the same time to indicate some hints of the leading subdivisions of these great groups of plants, will necessitate a more technical and tabular arrangement. 1 26. The Thallophytes include the lower forms of vege- tation whose plant-body varies from a unicellular condition, through filamentous forms to a more or less highly differ- entiated thallus. While some forms, especially among the higher algae, assume the habit of a leafy-stemmed plant, none attain to a true differentiation into stem and leaves. The thallophytes, excluding some anomalous groups, may be arranger! in three series : 1. SCHIZOPHYTES, or fission plants, reproducing by simple division and either unicellular or made up of thread-like fila- ments. Two groups are included here : (a) Cyanophycea (blue-green algae, nostocs, etc.). (£) Schizomycetes (bacteria). 2. ALG^E, or seaweeds, with mostly sexual methods of repro- duction and with the plant body varying in structure from a simple cell to a highly differentiated thallus or thalloid shoot.* Three classes are distinguished which may usually be recognized by their color. (a) Chlorophycea (green algae). (£) Phoeophycecz (brown algae). (f) RhodophycecB (red algae). 3. FUNGI, including moulds, mildews, and mushrooms, dif- * The American student is very poorly provided with elementary systematic literature relating to the algae. Farloiv : Marine Algae of New England (Report U. S. Fish Comm. 1879), partially covers a limited area of marine forms. For the fresh-water forms Wolle: Fresh-water Algae of the United States, is the only work that has attempted to cover this ground. THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 57 fering from the algae in possessing no chlorophyll, and in the higher forms in the loss of sexual methods of reproduction.* Three classes are distinguished : (a) Phycomycetes (algal fungi). (b) Ascomycetes (spore-sac-fungi lichens).f (c} Bastdiomycetes (mushrooms, puff-balls, rusts). 1 33. The BRYOPHYTES include forms whose plant-body varies from a thallus to a distinct leafy axis containing only a rudimentary fibro-vascular system, if any; their life-history in- volves two alternating phases: (i) A highly organized sexual phase producing antherids and archegones (Gametophyte); and (2) A spore-producing phase living parasitically on the first and forming spores asexually. Four groups are prominently marked : 1. Hepaticce (liverworts). J 2. Anthocerotes (horned liverworts).}: 3. Sphagna (peat mosses). § 4. Musci (true mosses) .§ 1 34. The PTERIDOPHYTES have a well-developed fibro- vascular system with highly differentiated tissues distributed through a leafy axis. Their life-history involves two phases: (i) A thalloid phase (prothallus) producing antherids and arche- gones ]| (gametophyte) ; and (2) A highly developed asexual * For an elementary work on the systematic study of the fungi the student can use "Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms" by the present writer (Henry Holt & Co.). t The lichens are mostly ascomycetous fungi parasitic on algse. Tucker- man : North American Lichens, is the best systematic work, but difficult for students. I The Hepaticae of the Eastern States have been treated by the present writer in Gray's Manual of Botany, 6th ed. Those of the Pacific coast have been elaborately described and illustrated by Hoiue : The Hepaticas and An- thocerotes of California, Mem. Torrey Club, vol. 7. § The mosses of North America are treated in synoptical form in Barnes : Artificial Keys to the Genera and Species of Mosses (1897). This should be supplemented by the descriptions in Lesquereux and James : Manual of the Mosses of North America (1884). | From this common character the Bryophytes and Pteridophytes are some times classed together as Archegoniates. $8 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. phase producing spores (sporophyte). The subdivisions of this group are systematically treated in the latter half of this volume. 1 35. THE SPERMAPHYTES include the highest forms of the plant world. The plant-body (except in rare cases, like Lemna and Podostemoti) is a well-developed leafy axis containing highly differentiated tissues. The plant is asexual, producing pollen (microspores) in the anthers, and embryo-sacs (macrospores) in the pistils. The sexual or gametophyte stage is greatly reduced, and the process of fertilization of the egg by one of the nuclei of the germinating pollen-grain is too complicated to discuss here. The result of this fertilization is a seed containing an embryo. Three principal groups are recognized : 1. Gymnosperma (conifers, cycads, etc.). 2. Monocotyledons (grasses, palms, lilies). 3. Dicotyfedonae (roses, oaks, maples, asters, etc.). 1 36. To make the relations of the various groups of pteri- dophytes to each other and to the lower forms of plant life more apparent than can be done in a lineal classification, we present on the next page an outline of a tentative genealogical tree. LITERATURE. BOWER (F. O.). The comparative study of the Meristem of Ferns as a phylogenetic study. In Annals of Botany, in, 305- 322, pi. xx-xxiv (1889). Is the Eusporangiate or the Leptosporangiate the more primitive type in the Ferns? In Annals of Botany, v, 109-134, pi. vn (1891). CAMPBELL (Douglas H.). On the affinities of the Filicineae. In Botanical Gazette, XV, 1-7 (1890). A study of the apical growth of the prothallium of Ferns with reference to their relationships. In Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, XVIII, 73-80 (1891). — — On the relationships of the Archegoniata. In Botanical Gazette, xvi, 323-333 (1891). THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. GYMNOSPERM/C SELAGINELLACE/C ISOETACE/t POLYPODIACE/E SPHAGNACE/E PHYCOMYCETES iROTOCOCCOIDE/E PROVISIONAL PBDIGREK OF THE LEADING GROUPS OF PLANTS. 60 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIED CHAPTER IX. DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE. 1 37. Geographic Distribution. — Ferns are found in all parts of the world. The number of described species is not certainly known, and the uncertainty is largely increased for the reason that our best systematists do not agree as to what constitutes a species. Baker places the estimate at about 3000 species. Added to these are 565 fern allies as recognized by the same author. The full number is probably much greater than this very conservative estimate. From what has been said respecting the climatic conditions of fern growth we would naturally expect to find them most abundant in countries where warmth and moisture predomi- nate. These conditions seem most completely met on tropical islands or in tropical continental areas with insular climates. The little island of Mauritius, having an area of 676 square miles, or less than one third the area of Delaware, has 235 na- tive species, while Java, little larger than New York, has 460. Brazil furnishes 387, and the Isthmus of Panama 117. Com- paring these with colder climates, we find 67 in all Europe, and only 26 grow within the borders of the arctic zone. " Our Native Ferns," as described later in this volume, in- cluding those species that are classed in the order FILICES, number 170 species. Adding to these the 22 species of the order OPHIOGLOSSACE^E, which have frequently been enumer- ated with the ferns, we have a total of 192 species. The remain- ing fern allies number 87, making a grand total of 279. 138. Divisions of our Flora.— It has been found con- venient to divide the surface of the earth into faunas and floras, limited by the natural distribution of the various species of DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE. 6 1 animals and plants. These limits are by no means sharply defined, for wherever the limit is made some species will pass beyond it ; yet the majority found on one side are different from the majority of those on the other. North America (ex- cluding Mexico) forms the Nearctic realm or fauna (Regnum Nearcticitm}, and the same boundaries may be used in the limi- tation of our fern flora, although some species from tropical regions invade our borders in Florida, Texas, and Arizona. Leaving out of question the species that are widely distributed over the greater part of our country, many of which are cos- mopolitan species, we may divide the Nearctic realm into five provinces, each of which possesses many species peculiar to itself. 139. The provinces* are as follows : I. BOREAL : inhabiting (with a few exceptions) the northern portion of the United States, extending through Canada and British America, some species even reaching Labrador, Green- land, and Alaska, and nearly all represented also in the north- ern portions of the Old World. II. MEDIAL : extending throughout the mountain and hilly region of the States east of the Mississippi, westward to the mountains, and northward into Canada, and in a few instances also inhabiting the Old World. III. OCCIDENTAL : extending along the western border of the continent from British Columbia to California, in a few cases appearing also in the Rocky Mountain region. IV. SONORAN : inhabiting the central mountain regions of Western Texas, Arizona, and Colorado, many of the species ex- tending thence into Mexico, and some even to South America. V. AUSTRAL : inhabiting the border of the Gulf of Mexico, many of the species extending into the West Indies and Tropi- cal America. 1 4O. Geologic Distribution. — It is well known that the plants and animals now existing on the earth are not the same in kind as those of former ages. Geologists have carefully studied the stony heart of nature, and have drawn therefrom * This division is a slight modification of one proposed by John H. Red- field in 1875. Cf. Bulletin Torrey Botanical Club, VI, 1-7. 62 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. the story of the development of land and sea, and the succes- sive populations that from time to time have held possession of our globe. Plants furnishing the natural food for animals must have preceded animal life, yet in the earliest geologic ages the remains of animals are far more numerous. The abundance of the deposits of graphite and iron-ore in the earli- est or Archaean rocks indicates the existence of extensive plant growth, but the remains are so transformed as to make it im- possible to determine the character of this primeval vegetation. 141. In the succeeding Silurian age the fossil remains in- dicate the existence of algae or sea-weeds in abundance, and a single small species of ground pine attests the existence of some of the higher Cryptogamia ; no ferns, however, have been found in America older than the Devonian. Over fifty species of Devonian ferns have been described from the American rocks chiefly, by Principal J. W. Dawson of Montreal. 142. It is in the coal measures, however, that ferns and other Cryptogamia are found in the greatest abundance and profusion. Their delicate foliage is impressed on the various rock strata above the beds of coal, and so perfectly are they preserved that not only the methods of fructification but even the microscopic spores have been detected ! In the coal meas- ures of the United States and Canada (counting from the base of the Catskill), 381 species of ferns have been described, chiefly by Prof. Leo Lesquereux. The most abundant Ameri- can genera are Neuropteris 45 species, Pecopteris 50 species, Sphenopteris 31 species, Pseudopecopteris 25 species, and Rha- cophyllum 24 species. The frontispiece gives an ideal representation of the vegeta- tion of the Carboniferous age. The luxuriant tree-ferns, the Lfpidodendrids, ancient representatives of the diminutive club- mosses or ground-pines, the Calamites, allies of the modern scouring-rushes, and other forms no less wonderful, are seen in their profusion. 143. In the later geologic ages, Mesozoic and Tertiary, ferns are found preserved in the rocks, with the leaves of many trees and shrubs of existing genera. The indications are that DISTRIBUTION IN TIME AND SPACE. 63 lerns formed a far smaller part of the vegetation of these later ages than in the preceding Carboniferous, and even approxi- mated to that of the present. Six Cretaceous and twenty-four Tertiary species have been catalogued,* including species in the existing genera Lygodium, Pterts, Woodivardia,Dryopteris, Gymnogramme, etc., as well as some related to genera abundant in earlier formations. No living species is found fossil, unless Dr. Newberry's variety of Onoclea sensibilis becomes estab- lished.t In the course of geologic history, however, we can trace a gradual approximation to the modern types from the generalized forms of Devonian and Carboniferous times. 144. Fern Allies. — Ophioglossum dates back to the Ter- tiary period with one species. The order EQUISETACE^E have existed since the coal period and the genus Equisetitm since the Triassic. The order CALAMARIACE/E, which combined charac- ters of modern Equiseta and Conifers, came into existence in the Devonian, but became extinct before the close of the Permian. Illustrations of Calamites can be seen at the left-hand corner of the frontispiece, also under the tree-fern in the centre. The club- mosses proper have been in existence since the Devonian, and the genus Lycopodium since the Carboniferous. Selaginella has never been found fossil, but its near relatives belonging to the extinct orders LEPIDODENDRACE^E and SIGILLARIACE.E were very abundant in the Palaeozoic era, particularly during the Carboniferous, where they formed the largest part of the forest vegetation, reaching in some instances a height of sev- enty to one hundred feet. The former possessed characters connecting modern club-mosses with Conifers, while the latter * Tenth report, Hayden Geological Survey of the Territories. Washing- ton, 1878. t Prof. Lesquereux writes me: "Though analogous by the nervation, I doubt the identity on account of the coriaceous character of that fossil fern, which I have not seen in any variety of O. sensibilis now living. " Principal Da wson, however, writes : "The Onoclea sensibilis of the Laramie is truly that species, and I have found with it in our Manitoba formations another modern fern, Davallia tenuifolia." 64 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. seem to connect the club-mosses with the Cycads. Restora- tions of Lepidodendron may be seen on the left-hand side of the frontispiece, and of Sigtllaria on the right. Isoetes dates back to the Miocene (Tertiary) and Marszlza and Pilularia to the same period. OUR NATIVE PTERIDOPHYTES. PTERIDOPHYTA Cohn. Plants containing vascular tissue and manifesting two distinct phases in their life-history: (i) An asexual phase (sporophyte) differentiated into stem and leaves, producing spores and de- veloping vascular tissue in bundles throughout their stems and leaves ; and (2) A sexual phase (garnet op hyte) developed from the germination of the spore in the form of a cellular thallus (prothalliuni) on which the sexual organs— antheridia and arche- gonia — are produced ; from the egg of the archegonium fertilized by the antherozoids from the antheridia arises the asexual phase from which the characters used in classification are largely drawn. Besides several groups that have become extinct the Pteridophytes are represented by three orders : I. FILICALES, containing the ferns and waterworts ; II. EQUISETALES (see p. 126 ) including the horsetails and scouring rushes; and III. LYCOPODIALES (see p. 130), containing the ground-pines and quillworts. SYNOPSIS OF THE ORDER FILICALES. (FAMILIES.) 1. Spores uniform, of one sort 3 Spores of two sorts (minute microspores and large macrpspores) ... 6 2. Sporangia rising from the tissues beneath the epidermis (eusporangiate), borne in spikes or panicles ; vernation straight or inclined. Family i. OPHlOGLOSSACEjE, p. 66 Sporangia rising from the epidermal cells (leptosporangiate), borne on the back or margin of a leaf (frond) or rarely in panicles ; vernation circi- nate 3 3. Sporangia sessile, with a complete ring borne on a thread-like receptacle from a cup-like involucre ; texture filmy. Family 2. HYMENOPHYLLACE^E, p. 74 Sporangia borne on the back or margin of the leaf or in spikes or panicles. 4 4. Plants terrestrial 5 Plants aquatic ; sporangia sessile, scattered, in a specially folded leaf. Family 5. CERATOPTERIDACE^E, p. 78 5. Sporangia sessile, ovate, with an apical ring, opening longitudinally, mostly in panicles or solitary under a scale. . Family 3. SCHIZ^ACE^:, p. 75 66 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. Sporangia with a rudimentary ring, opening longitudinally, in panicles. Family 4. OSMUNDACK^E, p. 77 Sporangia stalked, with a complete ring, opening transversely. Family 6. POLVPODIACEJE, p. 78, 6. Rooting in mud ; leaves filiform or quadrifoliate. Family 7. MARSILEACE^E, p. 123 Floating ; leaves spongy Family 8. SALVINIACE^E, p. 125 Family I. OPHIOGLOSSACE^ Lindl. Plant-body consisting of stem and leaf, usually from a fleshy sometimes bulbous root, straight or inclined in vernation. Eusporangiate, the sporangia formed of the interior tissues, variously clustered on sporophylls in the form of spikes or pani- cles, destitute of a ring, opening by a transverse slit into two valves and discharging their copious sulphur-yellow spores. Prothallium (so far as known) subterranean, not green, monoe- cious. The family contains about six genera, three of which are represented in America. Our genera may be distinguished as follows : 1. Sporangia in spikes cohering in two ranks 2 Sporangia free, in compound spikes or panicles ; leaf mostly divided III. BOTRYCHIUM.- 2. Spike solitary; leaf simple, entire, attached to the middle of the common stalk or below; terrestrial. I. OPHIOGLOSSUM. Spikes several, pendent from near the base of a palmately divided leaf ; epiphytic II. CHEIROGLOSSA. I. OPHIOGLOSSUM L. ADDSR-TONGUE. Sporangia large, coriaceous, connate, coherent in two ranks on the edges of a simple spike. Leaf simple, attached at the middle of the main stalk or below, entire ; veins anastomosing. Spores copious, sulphur-yellow. Terrestrial. Name from Gr. o#zs, a serpent, and yXoaaa, a tongue. Includes twenty or more species, six in our limits. * With several equal parallel "veins at the base of the leaf, the mid-vein seldom branched hit anastomosing -with lateral -veinlets. \ Leaf ovate to elliptic, large ; basal -veins, 9 — 13 or more. i. O. vulgatum L. Rootstock cylindric, often large and tuberous; leaf ovate to elliptic, often oblanceolate, i' — 4' long; OPHIO G L OSS A CE&. 6? base usually long and narrow; basal veins 9 — ir, the lateral con- nected above by short oblique veinlets which form long narrow areolse in the middle of the leaf, and shorter hexagonal ones near the margin and apex, the longer usually with one short straight free veinlet ; apex obtuse ; spike £' — 2' long. Quebec to Florida ; also in California. 2. O. Engelmanni Prantl. Rootstock cylindric with long brown roots often sheathed at the base ; leaf elliptic or lan- ceolate-elliptic, obtuse but sharply apiculate, i' — 3^' long ; basal veins 1 3 or more, the outer arcuate ; transverse veinlets large, oblique, forming broad oblong-hexagonal areolae enclosing numerous anastomosing or free veinlets; spike f— i' long. Virginia and Indiana to Texas and Arizona. 1 1 Leaf small, lanceolate; basal -veins 3 — 7. 3. O. arenarium E. G. Britton. Plant 3' — 8' high from a slightly thickened rootstock ; leaf i' — 2' long, J' — £' wide, lanceo- late with a long tapering base with an obtuse apex ; basal veins 5 — 7, the median straight, the latter nearly parallel connected with short oblique veinlets forming long narrow areolas with a few faint free or anastomosing veinlets ; marginal areolae shorter and more irregular; spike V — i' long, often twisted, apiculate. Plants gregarious. Holly Beach, New Jersey. 4. O. Californicum Prantl. Plants small, I '-3' high from cylindric tuberous rootstocks; leaf $' — i' long, lanceolate or ovate, acute or obtuse ; basal veins 3, the median stronger, the lateral branched; transverse veinlets oblique, forming long narrow areolse with few or no free veinlets ; spike J' — £' long with 10 — 1 5 sporangia on either side. Southern California. ** IV it h few or several unequal veins at the base of the leaf, the midvein branching and commonly continuous to the apex. f Root stock not thickened; plants 4' — 6' high. 5. O. Alaskanum E. G. Britton. Rootstock unknown; leaf i' — 2^' long, i' wide, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, suddenly dilated above the cuneate clasping base, apex obtuse or acute, never apiculate; basal veins 9 — 1 1, the midvein usually giving off 1—4 branches; lateral veins divergent from the base, forming regular hexagonal areolae including several free or anastomosing veinlets; spike J'— f long, apiculate with 8 — 21 sporangia on either side. Unalaska Island ( Turner)* 68 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. \\ Rootstock tuberous or globose; plants i'— 2^' high. 6. O. pusillum Nutt. Plants i'— 4' high from a short slightly tuberous rootstock; leaf small, cuneate-lanceolate or ovate, \ — f long, rising near the base of the stem ; basal veins 3, the midvein branching by lateral veinlets which form narrow areolae with no free veinlets; spikes i' — i' long with 6 — 14 sporangia on either side. (O. nudicaule of former edition not of L. fil., which is an Af- rican plant; O. tenerum Mett.) Georgia to Florida and Louisiana. 7. O. crotalophoroides Walt. Plants i'— 4' high from a large globose rootstock ; leaf \' — ij' long, concave, broadly ovate and cordate at base, the apex acute ; basal veins 5, the midvein rarely branched, the lateral freely anastomosing, forming short hexagonal areolae with rarely a free veinlet; spike short, broad, £' — i' long with 4—1 1 sporangia on either side. (O. bulbosiun Michx.) South Carolina to Florida and Texas. II. CHEIROCLOSSA Presl. Sporangia large, coriaceous, coherent in two ranks on the edges of simple or rarely forked spikes. Leaf palmately lobed, irregular, bearing several spikes at or below its base. Veins anastomosing. Spores copious. Epiphytic. Name from Gr. Xeip, hand, and yXo'/ Wood! "(After secondary segments from a narrowed base, ovate, DavenP°rt acute, serrate, the upper spreading, quickly decreasing, finally elliptical, acute ; fertile segment bi— tripinnate, panicled. Apex of sterile segment bent over inside of the nearly erect fertile one in vernation ; divisions of the sterile segment arranged on an angle. Unalaska. 1 1 Vernation wholly inclined, recurved in the sporophyll ; leaf triangular, sessile. OPHIOGLOSSA CEJE. 6. B. lanceolatum (S. G. Gmel.) Angs. Plant 3'— 12' high, somewhat fleshy. Leaf closely sessile near the summit of the stem, f— 2' wide, 3-lobed or broadly trian- gular and 2-pinnatifid, the ultimate segments lanceolate, acute, oblique, entire or dentate ; midvein continuous, with forking veinlets ; sporophyll slightly overtopping the leaf, short-stalked, 2— 3-pinnate, recurved its whole length with the shorter leaf reclined upon it in vernation. Nova Scotia to Alaska, south to New Jersey, Ohio, Colorado, and Washington. Also in Europe and Asia. June-July. * * Leaf rising from near the rootstock. f Vernation wholly straight ; bitd smooth ; leaf entire or 2—6-lobed. 7. B. simplex E.Hitchcock. Plant 2'— 5' high, slender, very variable. Leaf ovate, obovate, or oblong, entire, lobed, or pinnately parted, borne near the base of the stem ; sporophyll a simple or slightly compound spike, sometimes reduced to only a few spo- ranges; spores large for the genus, minutely tuberculate ; apex of leaf and sporophyll FiG.34.-Vemation of erect in vernation. Nova Scotia to Maryland, B.sim/>tex Hitchcock. ,,T . , „ .... - (After Davenport.) west to Wyoming and California (?). ft Vernation inclined ; leaf ample, ternately compound. \ Spores maturing in early spring ; leaf sessile or nearly so, 8. B. biternatum (Lam.) Underw.— Plant 3'— 6' high, bear- ing a nearly sessile, broadly triangular ternately compound leaf, 3'— 4' wide, 2' high; middle division slightly larger than the lateral ones and like them nearly bipinnate ; ultimate divisions rather lunate, usually not exceeding 2"— 3" in width, the outer margin crenulate, the lateral margins decurrent into the short branches of the rachis ; sporophyll on a rather stout stalk, bipinnate, with a rather broad rachis ; bud smooth or slightly hairy, the segments nearly erect. (B. lunarioides Swz., B. fumarioides Willd., B. fumarice Spreng., Osmioida biternata Lam.) South Carolina to Louisiana, apparently not common. 72 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 1 1 Spores maturing in autumn ; leaf long-stalked. \ Ultimate leaf-segments laciniate, narrow, £" or less wide. 9. B. dissectum Sprang. — Plant 6' — 15' high, with slender fleshy stems. Leaf long-stalked from near the base of the stem, with broadly deltoid basal divisions, decompound ; sec- ondary pinnae lanceolate from a broader base, pinnate with laciniate and deeply cut pinnules, the ultimate divisions diver- gent, often 2-toothed at their apices, usually less than i mm. wide ; sporophyll long-stalked, 2 — 3-pinnate ; bud pilose, en- closed in the base of the stem, both portions bent in vernation. New England (where a more compact variety is more common) to Virginia and inland to Kentucky and Indiana. || || Leaf-segments small, rounded, or obliquely ovate, i|" — 3'' wide ; plant small (leaf i' — 2' wide). 10. B. matricarise (Schrank) Spreng. Plant 4'— 6' high, with slender fleshy stems ; leaf moderately short-stalked, ternate, small, i'— 2' wide and high, the three divisions similar, bipin- natifid or bipinnate ; ultimate segments small, i^'' — 3" wide, rounded or somewhat obliquely ovate, the margins undulate or crenate ; sporophylls rather long-stalked for the size of the plant, 2 — 3-pinnate with large sporanges ; bud pilose. Northern New England and New York and northward. I Hi Leaf-segments obliquely ovate, large, 5"-lo" long. (Eastern^ n. B. obllquum Muhl. Plant robust, 7'— 20' high; leaf rising from near the base on a stalk 3' — 4' long or more, ternate with the three divisions nearly equal, bipinnate or somewhat tripin- natifid in larger forms, the ultimate segments obliquely ovate or oblong-lanceolate, the terminal one of each division elongate, all 5" — 10" long, 2^" — 4" wide, the margins cre- nate or serrate; sporophyll long-stalked tri- quadripinnate ; bud densely pilose, both por- tions bent in vernation. (B. ternatian in part, of former editions, not of Swz., which was Thun berg's Osmunda ternata from Japan.) New Brunswick to Florida and Mexico and westward to Minnesota. Var. intermedium (D. C. Eaton) Underw. Plant larger, the leaf on a shorter stalk i' — 2' •TIG. 35. — vernation of B. obliquum Muh!. (After Davenport.) OPHIOGLOSSACE^E. 73 long, the leaf sometimes reaching 6' each way; lateral divisions smaller than the terminal ; ultimate segments similar to the type, but mostly shorter. Northern New York and New England. The limits of this variety are not fully understood. 1 1 1 I Leaf-segments ovate or roundish ; plant large and stout. (Western). A. Leaf -stalk short (i' or less) ; segments crowded. 12. B. Coulter! Underw. A stout fleshy plant growing in geyser formations. Roots numerous, fleshy, stout; stem very short, i' or less long, very stout, 7" — 10" in diameter, swollen with the contained bud of the succeeding season, soon dividing to form the sporophyll and leaf; petiole very short, i' or less long, stout, sulcate in drying ; sterile lamina about 6' wide, the central portion nearly 4' long, this and the lateral ones tripin- nate, or quadripinnatifid ; segments obliquely ovate, 5" or more long, 2' or more wide, thick, fleshy, th« margin entire or slightly repand ; veins few, scarcely perceptible ; sporophyll about 7' long ; panicle quadripinnate below, the pinnae crowded, gradu- ally simpler above; sporangia very numerous, bright yellow; spores copious, pale yellow. In geyser basins, Yellowstone National Park ; Montana. B. Leaf -stalk longer (4' — 6') or more ; segments more scattered. 13. B. occidentale Underw. Roots fibrous, fleshy; stem short, i' — 2' long, 2" or more in diameter; leaf-stalk 4' — 5' long, rather slender; leaf very large, 7' — 8' broad, 5' — 6' high, the lateral divisions bipinnate with about five pairs of mostly oppo- site pinnse ; terminal division tripinnatifid, gradually simpler above ; ultimate segments nearly oval, mostly narrow (under 3" wide), the margins finely and irregularly crenulate; texture fleshy, the veins indistinct; sporophylls 16' long, including the panicle, which ranges from 4' — 6', tripinnate almost throughout its entire length ; bud densely covered with white silky hairs. Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia. 14. B. silaifolium Presl. Plant robust, 15' — 2° high; com- mon stem rather short, i' — 2' long ; leaf-stalk ; stout 3' — 6' long ; leaf very large, 8' — 10' or more wide, 5' — 8' high; formed of a larger central division and two lateral ones ; divisions nearly tripinnate ; ultimate segments ovate, the lowest outer series 74 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. often trilobed ; sporophyll long-stalked, much overtopping the leaf, the panicle ample, 5' — 8' long. California to British Columbia. § 2. OSMUNDOPTERIS Milde. Bud pilose, enclosed in a smooth upright cavity at one side of the lower part of the stalk. ^ 15. B. Virginianum (L.) Swz. (RATTLESNAKE-FERN.) Plant from a few inches to two feet high ; sterile segment ses- sile above the middle of the stalk, broadly triangular, thinly herbaceous, ternate; the short-stalked primary divisions once to twice pinnate, then once or twice pinnatifid ; lobes oblong, cut-toothed toward the apex ; fertile segment long-stalked, bi — tripinnate. Bud pilose, enclosed in a smooth upright cavity at one side of the lower part of the stalk ; fertile segment recurved its whole length, the longer sterile segment reclined upon it. Reduced forms are B. gracile Pursh. {Botrypus Virginicus Michx., Osmunda Virginiana L.) New Brunswick to Florida, and westward to Arizona and the Pacific Coast. Family 2. HYMENOPHYLLACE^E Endl. Plant body consisting of a creeping stem bearing scattered leaves of a filmy consistency, usually translucent. _ Sporangia provided with a ring, sessile on a thread-like receptacle which is surrounded at base by a cup-shaped or two-valved involucre. The family contains several genera, mostly of tropical regions, only one of which is represented in our flora. L TRICHOMANES Sm. FILMY-FERN. Sori marginal, terminating a vein, more or less sunken in the frond. Sporangia sessile on the lower part of a cylindrical, filiform, often elongated receptacle. Indusia tubular or funnel- shaped, entire or two-lipped at the mouth. Fronds delicate, pellucid. Name from Gr. rpixofitaveS, the name of some fern, from rpi'x, hair, and /taivojuai, producing frenzy, alluding to some supposed property. A tropical and temperate genus con- taining nearly 100 species. § EUTRICHOMANES. i. T. Petersii Gray. Stipes i" — 2" long; fronds 3" — 10" long, i" — 2" broad, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, entire or vari- SCHIZ^A CEsE. 7 5 ously pinnatifid, the younger ones with a few black hairs along the margins; indusjum solitary, terminal, funnel-shaped, the mouth expanded and slightly two-lipped, the receptacle in- cluded. Winston County, Alabama (Peters).^ 2. T. radicans Swz. Rootstock wiry, tomentose ; stipes ascending, i' — 3' long, naked or nearly so, usually broadly winged ; fronds 2' — 8' long, i' — ij' wide, lanceolate or ovate- lanceolate, bipinnatifid ; pinnae ovate, obtuse, the upper side of the base parallel and appressed to the winged rachis, the lower side cuneate ; divisions toothed or divided into linear lobes ; indusia terminal on short lobes, tubular or funnel-shaped, the mouth slightly two-lipped ; receptacle exserted little or very much. (T. spectosum Willd.) Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky. Family 3. SCHIZ/EACE/E Presl. Plant-body consisting of a short or creeping stem (rootstock) bearing clustered or scattered leaves. Sporangia ovate or pyri- form, provided with an apical ring, bursting longitudinally at maturity. The family contains about ten genera, three of which are represented in our region. Our genera may be distinguished as follows : 1. Leaves twining; leaflets in pairs, palmate . . I. LYGODIUM. Leaves erect or merely curled 2 2. Sporophylls distinct from the grass-like leaves. III. SCHIZiEA. Sporophylls borne on the elongate lower pinnae of an ordi- nary leaf II. ORNITHOPTERIS. I. LYCODIUM Swz. CLIMBING-FERN. Sporangia ovoid, solitary or occasionally in pairs, in -the axils of large imbricated scale-like indusia, which are fixed by their broad bases to short oblique veinlets. Fronds scandent, twining, bearing stalked and variously lobed divisions in pairs. Veins mostly free. Name from Gr. hvyoadrjS, flexible, alluding to the scandent stems. Includes 25 species. § EULYGODIUM. I. L. palmatum (Bernh.) Swz. Stipes slender, twin- ing; fronds i° — 3° long, the short alternate branches or peti- /6 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. oles 2-forked, each fork bearing a round-cordate palmately 4 — 7- lobed pinnule ; fertile pinnules above, contracted, several times forked, forming a terminal panicle ; surfaces naked ; texture thinly herbaceous. (Hydroglossum palmatum Willd.) Mas- sachusetts and New York to Kentucky and Florida. II. ORNITHOPTERIS Bernh. Sporangia ovate, sessile, placed in two rows on the back of the very narrow branchlets of the two long-stalked, panicled, lower branches of a pinnately divided frond, the fertile branches in a few species entirely distinct from the sterile frond. Veins free. Name from Gr. opvis, bird, and nrepi?, fern. A genus mostly of tropical America containing about 35 species. I. O. adiantifolia (L.) Bernh. Rootstock creeping ; stipes i£° long, firm, naked ; fronds sparingly pubescent, the two lower branches elongate, pinnately decompound, fertile; sterile por- tion deltoid-ovate, bi — tripinnate ; ultimate segments obovate or cuneate, entire or lobed, striate above with numerous flabellate veins. (Anemia adiantifolia Swz.) Florida. -• O. Mexicana (Kl.) Underw. Rootstock creeping, cov- ered with narrow blackish chaff; stipes slender, scattered, 6'— 12' long; the two lower branches of the frond fertile, long-stalked, glandular, bipinnate with densely clustered fructification ; the rest of the frond like the sterile ones, deltoid-ovate, simply pin- nate ; pim.ae about six pairs and a rather large terminal one, short-stalked, ovate-lanceolate, subcoriaceous, smooth and some- what glossy ; midrib distinct, veins free, oblique, parallel, closely placed. (Anemia Mexicana Klotzsch.) Western Texas. III. SCHIZ^EA Sm. CURLY-GRASS. Sporangia large, ovoid, striate rayed at the apex, naked, ver- tically sessile in a double row along the single vein of the nar- row divisions of the fertile appendages to the slender and sim- ply linear, fan-shaped, or dichotomously many-cleft fronds. Name from Gr. (rxi^eiv, to split, alluding to the forked sterile fronds of foreign species. Includes 16 species. § EUSCHIZ/EA. i. S. pusilla Pursh. Sterile fronds linear, very slender, flattened and tortuous ; fertile ones equally slender, 3' — 4' high, OSMUND A CEM. 77 and bearing at top the fertile appendage consisting of about five pairs of crowded pinnae, forming a distichous spike. New Jer- sey ; Grand Lake, Nova Scotia (E. G. Kntghf) ; Newfoundland (De la Pyl'aie, Wag home). Family 4. OSMUNDACE^E R. Br. Plant body a stout suberect stem (rootstock) with clustered leaves. Sporangia with a rudimentary ring, opening longitudi- ally, borne in panicles on altered portion of the leaf. The family contains three genera, only one of which is represented with us. I. OSMUND A L. FLOWERING-FERN. Fertile fronds or fertile portions very much contracted, bearing short-pedicelled, naked sporangia on the margin of the rachis-like divisions. Sporangia large, globular, opening by a longitudinal cleft into two halves, bearing near the apex a few parallel striae, the rudiment of a transverse ring. Spores green. Named for Dsmunder, a Saxon name for the divinity Thor. A genus containing six species mostly north temperate. * Fronds bipinnate, fertile at the apex. 1. O. regalis L. Stipes tufted, i° — \\° long, erect, naked ; fronds 2°— 4° long, i° or more broad ; sterile pinnae 6' — 12' long, 2 — 4' broad ; pinnules oblong-ovate to lance-oblong, sessile or slightly stalked ; the fertile pinnules cylindrical, panicled ; tex- ture subcoriaceous ; rachis and both sides naked. (O. specta- bilis Willd., O. glaucescens Link.) Canada to Florida and Mis- sissippi. ** Sterile fronds bipitinatifid. 2. O. Claytoniana L. Stipes tufted, i° or more long, clothed with loose woolly tomentum when young, naked when mature; fronds i° — 2° long, 8' — 12' broad; pinnae oblong-lan- ceolate with oblong, obtuse divisions; 2 — 5 pairs of central pinnae fertile fertile pinnules dense, cylindrical ; texture her- baceous. (O. interrupta Michx.) Canada to Kentucky, and northward. 3. O. cinnamomea L. (ClNNAMON-FERN.) Stipes dense- ly tufted, i° or more long, the sterile and fertile fronds dis- 78 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. tinct, clothed when young with ferruginous tomentum ; sterile fronds smooth when mature, the pinnae bearing a tuft of tomen- tum at the base beneath, lanceolate, cut into broadly oblong, obtuse divisions ; fertile fronds contracted, bipinnate, with cin- namon-colored sporangia. In var.frondosa Gray, some of the fronds are sterile below, and sparsely fertile at the summit. (O. Claytoniana Conrad.) New England and Wisconsin to. Florida. Family 5. CERATOPTERIDACE/E Underw. Plant body a short succulent stem with copious aquatic roots bearing a rosette of succulent leaves of two sorts. Spo- rangia irregularly scattered, sessile, with a broad ring or often devoid of one altogether. The family is represented by a single genus and species. I. CERATOPTERIS Brong. FLOATING-FERN. Sori placed on two or three veins which run down the frond longitudinally, nearly parallel with both the edge and midrib. Sporangia scattered on the receptacles, sessile, subglobose, with a complete, partial, or obsolete ring. Indusia formed of the reflexed margins of the frond, those of opposite sides meet- ing at the midrib. Name from Gr. Kepa^, horn, and TcrepiS, a fern. Contains a single tropical species. i. C. thalictroides (L.) Bnyig. Stipes tufted, inflated, filled with large air-cells; fronds succulent in texture, the sterile ones floating in quiet water, simple or slightly divided when young, bi — tripinnate when mature ; fertile ones bi — tri- pinnate ; ultimate segments pod-like. Southern Florida. Family 6. POLYPODIACE/E Presl. Plant body consisting of a creeping or erect stem (root- stock) bearing scattered or clustered leaves (fronds). Spo- rangia borne on the back or margin of the leaf in lines or rounded masses (sori), stalked, provided with a vertical elastic ring, breaking open transversely at maturity. Sori either naked POL YPODIA CE&. 79 or covered when young with a membranous indusium which is either a special outgrowth of the leaf or is formed from the more or less altered leaf margin. Prothallium green, monoe- cious or rarely dioecious. The family contains four-fifths of all the ferns, comprising a hundred or more genera, of which twenty-nine are represented within our limits. They may be distinguished by the following ARTIFICIAL SYNOPSIS OF GENERA. i. Sporophyll closely rolled together, entirely unlike the sterile leaf, its seg- ments berry-like or necklace-like 20 ' Sori covered with indusia 2 Sori naked 3 » 2. Sori marginal, covered with a reflexed portion of the leaf margin . . 10 Sori dorsal or submarginal, provided with special indusia .... ^4 3. Sori spread in a stratum on the under surface of the leaf. I. ACROSTICHUM, p. 81 Sori roundish, or not more than twice as long as broad 4 Sori usually linear, always. more than t \vicg_as long as broad ... 7 V 4. Stipes articulated to the rootstock ; leaves (in our species) entire or simply pinnate 5 Stipes not articulated to the rootstock ; leaves (in our species) bi — tripin- natifid or ternate XXII. PHEGOPTERIS, p. 108 5. Veins free or uniting irregularly (often indistinct). II. POLYPODIUM, p. 81 Veins copiously uniting (species sub-tropical) 6 6. Primary veins distinct to the edge, connected by parallel transverse veinlets IV. CAHPYLONEURON, p. 83 Areolz regular, each with two or more free veinlets bearing sori on their apices III. PHLEBODIUM, p. 83 Areola? copious, irregular with free veinlets spreading variously. V. PHYMATODES, p. 84 7. Leaves simple 8 Leaves pinnate to quadripinnate 9 8. Leaves very narrow, grass-like ; veins indistinct, free. IX. VlTTARIA, p. 89 Leaves broader ; reins anastomosing . . VIII. CHEILOGRAMMA, p. 88 9. Sori marginal, more or less confluent in a marginal band. VII. NOTHOL^ENA, p. 85 Sori dorsal, following the veinlets, simple, forked, or pinnate. VI. GYMNOPTERIS, p. 84 80 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 10. Sporangia at the ends of the veins, borne on a reflexed portion of the margin of the leaf X. ADIANTUM, p. 89 • Sporangia borne on a continuous, marginal, vein-like receptacle con- necting the apices of the veins ii Sporangia at or near the ends of unconnected veins, borne on the under surface of the leaf 12 11. With an inner indusium inside the receptacle . XII. PTERIDIUM, p. 91 . With no inner indusium ; our species pinnate . . XI. PTERIS, p. 90 12. Fronds conspicuously dimorphous ; stipes light-colored. XIV. CRYPTOGRAMMA, p. 97 Fronds nearly uniform ; stipes usually dark-colored 13 13. Sori on the upper part of the veins, mostly forming a continuous mar- ginal band ; indusium membranous, continuous round the segment. XV. PELL.-EA, p. 97 Sori minute, at the ends of the veins ; indnsium interrupted, or if con- tinuous, the ultimate segments usually small and bead-like ; leaves mostly chaffy, woolly, or farinose, . . . XIII. CHEILANTHES, p. 91 /•*4. Sori roundish ; indusia not more than twice as long as broad . . . 15 . Sori linear or oblong ; indusia more than twice as long as broad . . 21 •^15. Indusium superior, attached by the centre or sinus i& Indusium convex, fixed by a broad base partly under the sorus, XXVIII. FILIX, p. 119 Indusium inferior 19 "16. Sori mostly on the back of the veins 17 Sori at the end of a free vein ; indusium reniform, opening toward the margin of the leaf, which is simply pinnate, the pinna; articulated to the rachis XXVII. NEPHROLEPIS, p. 118 >J7. Indusia centrally peltate 18 Indusia cordate or reniform, attached by the sinus. XXIII. DRYOPTERIS, p. no 18. Veins free, i — 2-forked XXIV. POLYSTICHUM, p. 115 Veins 3 — s-forked, often uniting in irregular areolas ; leaf pinnate. XXV. PHANEROPHLEBIA, p. 117 Veins copiously anastomosing ; leaf trifoliate. XXVI. TECTARIA, p. 118 19. Indusium roundish or stellate, delicate . . . XXXI. WOODSIA, p. 120 Indusium cup-shaped, somewhat two-valved. XXXII. DENNSTVEDTIA, p. 122 20. Leaves growing in crowns ; veins free . . XXX. MATTEUCCIA, p, 120 Leaves scattered ; veins copiously anastomosing. XXIX. ONOCLEA, p. 120 - 21. Sori all parallel to the midribs or rachises 22 Son all oblique to the midribs 24 POL YPODIA CEJE. 8 1 Sori partly oblique and partly parallel to the midrib ; leaf simple, tapering to a point XXI. CAMPTOSORUS, p. 108 22. Veins free 23 Veins reticulate XVIII. WOODWARDIA, p. 102 23. Indusium near the margin ; sporophyll much contracted. XVI. STRUTHIOPTERIS, p. 101 Indusium remote from the margin ; leaves nearly uniform. XVII. BLECHNUM, p. 102 24. Sori on the upper side of a veinlet, rarely on both sides. XIX. ASPLENIUM, p. 103 Sori confluent in pairs, with an apparently double indusium opening in the middle XX. PHYLLITIS, p. 107 I. ACROSTICHUM L. Sporangia spread over the whole surface of the frond or upper pinnae, or occasionally over both surfaces. Venation anasto- mosing (our species simply pinnate). Name from Gr. aKpos, the summit, and crrz^o?, a row. A tropical genus containing about five species as here limited. 1. A. aureum L. Rootstocks erect, solitary or in masses; stipes cespitose, erect ligneous, ii° — 2$° long, flattish-channelled, with two or three alternate pairs of black indurated spurs, fronds erect, stiff, coriaceous, glossy, light green; 3° — 4° long; i° — 1^° wide; pinnae 12 or more pairs, rather distant; sporangia confined to the upper half or third of the frond ; venation fine, oblique to the margin. Southern Florida. 2. A. lomarioides Jenman. Rootstocks erect massive; stipes cespitose, erect, subfleshy, i£° — 2^° long, longitudinally ribbed, subangular; fronds erect-spreading, 3° — 4° high, i° — 2° wide, slightly reduced at base, suddenly reduced at the apex ; pinnae patent, close or crowded, 25 — 30 pairs, the face turned upward and transverse with the rachis ; sporangia covering all the pinnae of fertile fronds ; areolae very fine, directed toward the margin. South Florida. II. POLYPODIUM L. Sori round, naked, dorsal, in one or more rows each side of midrib, or irregularly scattered. Stipes articulated to root- 82 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. stock. Name from Gr. 7to\vS, many, and novs, jroSo'?, foot, alluding to the branching rootstock. The largest, most cosmo- politan genus of ferns, containing 1 50 or more species. § I. EUPOLYPODIUM. Veins free ; fronds (in our species) pinnate. * Son' large. 1. P. vulg-are L. Stipes 2' — 4' long, firm, erect; fronds4' — 10' long, i' — 3' broad, cut nearly or quite to the rachis into entire or slightly toothed, usually blunt pinnae ; veins once or twice forked. Larger fronds with their pinnae sharply serrated and long-pointed form the var. occidental Hook. New England westward to Oregon and southward to Alabama. 2. P. falcatum Kellogg. Stipes 5' — 8' long, stramineous; fronds 12' — 15' long, 4' — 8' broad ; pinnae numerous, tapering to a slender point, sharply serrate ; sori nearest the midrib; veins with 2 — 4 veinlets. (P. glycyrrhiza D. C. Eaton.) California to British Columbia. ** Sori smaller, often minute. 3. P. plumula H. B. K. Stipes i' — 4' long, black, slender; fronds narrowly lanceolate, 9' — 1 8' long, i' — 2' broad ; pinnae nu- merous, narrow, entire, blunt, lower gradually reduced ; surfaces naked except the black wiry rachis; veinlets forked, obscure. Florida. 4. P. pectinatum L. Stipes rigid 2' — 6' long; fronds el- liptical-lanceolate, i" — 2^° long, 2' — 6' broad, cut to the rachis into horizontal, entire or toothed pinnae, the lower ones much reduced ; rachis naked or finely villose ; veinlets pellucid, once or twice forked ; sori in long rows, of medium size. Florida. §2. GONIOPHLEBIUM Blume. VTeins forming ample regular areolce (almost imperceptible in No. 5), each "with a single distinct free included veinlet, bearing a sorus at its terminus. * Under surface squamous. 5. P. polypodioides (L.) Hitch. Rootstock creeping, cov- ered with small brown scales; stipes i'— 4' long, erect, densely scaly; fronds 2' — 6' long, i' — 1|' broad, cut to the rachis into entire pinnae; texture coriaceous; sori small; veins indistinct. (P. incanum Swz.) Virginia to Illinois, and southward. POLYPODIACEJE. . 83 6. P. thysanolepis A. Br. Rootstock slender, firm, densely covered with minute lanceolate scales ; stipes 3' — 12' long, erect, scaly ; fronds ovate, 3' — 9' long, 2' — 3' broad ; pinnae distant, as- cending, blunt, dilated at base (except the lowest), thick, sub- coriaceous, covered below with ciliate scales with brown centre and broad scarious border ; areolae and sori in a single series. Huachuca Mountains, Arizona (Lemmon), Mexico. ** Under surface mostly smooth. 7. P. Californicum Kaulf. Rootstock creeping, chaffy; stipes 2' — 6' long, stramineous when dry, naked ; fronds ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 4' — 9' long, i' — 5' broad, cut nearly or quite to midrib into finely-toothed pinnae; texture papyraceo-herba- ceous; sori large; veinlets 4 — 6 to each vein. (Including P. in- termedium H. & A.) California. 8. P. Scouleri H. & G. Rootstock stout, creeping, scaly ; stipes 2' — 4' long, erect, naked ; fronds thick, 3' — 12' long, 2'— 6' broad, cut down to rachis into from 5 — 29 close, blunt pinnae; texture coriaceous, fleshy when recent; sori very large ; veinlets regularly anastomosing forming a single series of large areolae. (P. carnosum Kellogg, P. pachyphyllum D. C. Eaton.) Cali- fornia and northward. III. PHLEBODIUM R. Br. Sori round, naked, dorsal, borne on the united ends of two or more free veinlets which are included in the ample areolse formed by the regularly anastomosing veins. Name from Gr. 0/le/Jj?, a vein. A small genus of tropical ferns mostly epi- phytic. i. P. aureum (L.) R. Br. Rootstock stout, densely scaly ; stipes i° — 2° long, castaneous, naked ; fronds 3° — 5° long, 9' — 18' broad, cut nearly to the rachis into broad entire or slightly undulate pinnae ; areolae copious. Florida. IV. CAMPYLONEURON Presl. Sori round, naked, dorsal, borne in one or more rows either side of the midrib. Primary veins distinct from midrib to margin, connected by parallel transverse veinlets forming regu- 84 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. lar arches. Areolse similar, containing two or more sori. Name from Gr. Ka/.ntv^oZ, curved, and vevpov,^ a nerve. A tropical genus of about 50 species. i. C. phyllitidis (L.) Presl. Rootstock stout, scaly ; stipes short or none; fronds simple, i° — 3° long, i'— 4' broad, the point acute, lower part gradually narrowed ; texture rigid, cori- aceous ; areolae in rows of 6 — 12 from midrib to edge. Florida. V. PHYMATODES Presl. Sori round, naked, dorsal, various in position. Veins forming fine, copious, irregular areolae with free veinlets spreading in various directions. Name from Gr. ENA R. Br. CLOAK-FERN. Sori marginal, at first roundish or oblong, soon confluent into a narrow band, without indusium, but sometimes covered at first by the inflexed edge of the frond. Veins free. Name from Lat. nothus, spurious, and Icena, a cloak, alluding to the rudimentary indusia. Includes 37 species. § i. EUXOTHOL.«NA. Fronds not farinose beneath, scaly, hairy, or tomentose. * Fronds simply pinnate. 1. N. sinuata (Swz.) Kaulf. Rootstock short, very chaffy; stipes 2' — 4' long, erect; fronds 6' — 2° long, i' — 2' broad; pinnae numerous, short-stalked, roundish or ovate, entire to pinnately lobed, lower surface densely scaly. Texas to Arizona. 2. N. ferruginea (Desv.) Hook. Rootstock creeping, with dark rigid scales ; stipes tufted, 2' — 4' long, wiry, blackish, woolly at first; fronds 8' — 12' long, i' — i' broad, narrowly lanceolate; pinnae numerous, ovate, pinnatifid, hairy above, densely tomen- tose beneath, the wool at first whitish, but becoming ferruginous. (N. rufa Presl.) Texas to Arizona. ** Fronds bi — quadripinnate. t Fronds silky-hairy above. 3. N. Parryi D. C. Eaton. Rootstock short, scaly; stipes 2' — 4 long, dark brown, pubescent with whitish jointed hairs; fronds 2' — 4' long, oblong-lanceolate, tripinnate, lower pinnae distinct ; segments crowded, roundish-obovate, one line broad, densely covered above with entangled white hairs, beneath with a heavier pale-brown tomentum. Utah, California, Arizona. 4. N. Newberryi D.C.Eaton. (CoTTON-FERN.) Rootstock with very narrow dark bristly scales ; stipes tufted, 3' — 5' long, blackish-brown, woolly when young, with pale-ferruginous to- mentum ; fronds 3 — 5' long, lanceolate-oblong, covered most densely beneath with fine whitish hairs, tri — quadripinnate ; ultimate segments roundish-obovate, \" — \" broad. California. "H" Fronds slightly hispid above. 86 OUR NATIVE FERXS AXD THEIR ALLIES. 5. N. Aschenborniana Klotzsch. Rootstock short, creeping; stipes tufted, 2' — 3' long, wiry, ebeneous, densely scaly; fronds 4' — 10' long, 2' — 3' broad, oblong-lanceolate, tri- pinnatifid ; pinnae lanceolate, cut into linear-oblong, crenate or pinnatifid pinnules ; upper surface pale-green, the lower densely matted with linear, ciliate, bright ferruginous scales, beneath which it is subfarinose ; sori black. Huachuca Mts., Arizona (Lemmori), Texas (Drumtnond), Mexico. § 2. CINCINALIS Desv. Fronds farinose, with -white or yel- low powder (in one species naked). * Fronds farinose below. t Fronds deltoid or pentagonal, barely bipinnate. 6. N. Candida (M. et G.) Hook. Rootstock creeping, with rigid, nearly black scales; stipes tufted 3' — 6' long, wiry, black and shining; fronds rather shorter than stipe, deltoid-ovate, pinnate; lowest pinnae with the lowest inferior pinnules elon- gate and again pinnatifid, the three or four succeeding pairs lan- ceolate, pinnatifid into oblong segments, the uppermost pinnae like the segments of the lower ; upper surface green ; lower sur- face whitish farinose; margin slightly re volute. (N. sulp/iurea J. Sm., N.pitlveracea Kunze.) Southwestern Texas (Rei.>erchori); New Mexico ( Wright). 7. N. cretacea Liebm. Rootstock short, oblique, the scales rigid, lanceolate, with a narrow membranous margin ; stipes 2' — 7' long, brownish, wiry, scaly when young; fronds i' — 2' long, broadly deltoid-ovate to pentagonal, tri — quadripinnati- fid at base, gradually simpler above ; ultimate segments oblong or triangular-oblong, numerous, crowded ; upper surface more or less covered with deciduous glands ; lower surface copiously farinose with yellow or whitish powder except on the promi- nent dark-brown rachises; margins more or less recurved, not covering the sporangia; spores globose, black. (TV*. Californica D.C.Eaton.) San Diego County, California (Cleveland, Parish); Arizona (Parry, Lemmori). B. N. Hookeri D. C. Eaton. Rootstock short, densely covered with rigid lanceolate dark-brown scales ; stipes tufted, 4' — 8' long, reddish-brown, wiry, shining ; fronds 2' — 3' each way, nearly pentagonal, composed of three divisions ; the mid- POL YPODIA CE^-E. 87 die one slightly stalked, pinnatifid into a few toothed segments, the second pair larger than the first; side divisions bearing a single large pinnatifid basal segment on the lower side, and above it smaller ones like those of the upper side ; lower surface covered with pale, yellow powder. Texas to Arizona. ft Fronds lanceolate or linear -oblong, bipinnate or tripinnatifid. 9. N. Gray! Dav. Stipes tufted, i ' — 4' long, chestnut-brown, with nearly black, rigid scales below, paler deciduous scales above; fronds 2' — 6' long, f — ij' wide, the upper surface spar- ingly, the lower thickly, covered with white powder; pinnae short-stalked, unequally triangular-ovate, deeply pinnatifid or divided into one or two pairs of oblong pinnatifid, obtuse pin- nules, the remaining portion obliquely pinnatifid with alternate segments; sori brown. Southeastern Arizona to Texas. 10. N. Schaffneri (Fourn.) Unde. Rootstock short, stout, with black pectinale scales; stipes i' — 2' long, brownish-black, with narrow, rigid scales ; fronds lanceolate, 5' — 8' long, bi — tripinnatifid, the pinnules numerous, narrow, with narrow dark scales underneath ; sori continuous, brown or black. (N,Neal- leyi Seaton, Aleuritopteris Schaffneri Fourn.) Western Texas (Xealley). 1 1. N. Lemmoni D. C. Eaton. Rootstock short, scaly, with narrow, rigid, dark-brown chaff; stalks reddish-brown, 4' — 6' long, chaffy only at base with wider scarious-margined scales; fronds 6' — 9' long, i' — \\' wide, with numerous deltoid or ovate pinnae, the lowest a little shorter than the middle ones; upper surface smooth, the lower with white or yellowish powder; sori in a narrow submarginal line. Arizona. ttt Fronds deltoid-ovate, tri — quadripinnate at base. 12. N. nivea Desv. Rootstock short, chaffy, with narrow scales; stipes tufted, 4' — 6' long, wiry, black and polished; 88 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. fronds 3' — 6' long, i^' — 2' broad, ovate, lanceolate, triangular- ovate or deltoid, tripinnate ; primary pinnae mostly opposite, the rachises nearly straight ; pinnules long-stalked ; segments roundish, nearly as broad as long, terminal ones larger, entire or 3-lobed ; upper surfaces green, smooth, lower densely coated with pure white powder; sori brown, often descending the free veins half-way to the midvein. Arizona, New Mexico. 13. N. dealbata (Purshj Kunze. Segments more numerous, longer than broad, terminal ones rarely lobed ; pinnae commonly opposite; frond deltoid. (Cheilanthes dealbata Pursh.) Upper Missouri to New Mexico and Arizona. 14. N. Fendleri Kunze. Stipes densely tufted, dark- brown, 3' — 5' long; rachis and all its branches zigzag and flexuous ; fronds broadly deltoid-ovate, 3' — 5' each way, quad- ripinnate below, gradually simpler above; pinnae alternate; ultimate pinnules oval or elliptical, simple or 3-lobed. Colo- rado, New Mexico, Arizona. ** Fronds naked below. 15. N. tenera Gillies. Stipes tufted, brownish, smooth and shining ; fronds 3' — 4' long, ovate-pyramidal, bi — tripinnate ; pinnae mostly opposite, distant, the lower ones somewhat tri- angular; ultimate pinnules ovate, often sub-cordate, obtuse, smooth, and naked on both surfaces ; possibly only a form of N. nivea. Southern Utah, California. VIII. CHEILOGRAMMA Blume. Sori linear, but the line sometimes interrupted, central or submarginal. Veins reticulate. Name from Gr. ^eiAo?, lip, and ypa/iiua, a line. Contains a single species. I. C. lanceolata (L.) Blume. Rootstock creeping; stipes i' — 2' long; fronds simple, 6' — 13' long, \' — f broad, tapering both ways, the edge entire or sometimes crisped, midrib promi- nent ; veins immersed, the exterior free and clubbed at their apices ; sori ante-marginal, in a continuous line near the apex. (Pteris lanceolata L., T&nitis lanceolata R. Br., Neitrodiuin lan- ceolatTun Fee.) Old Rhodes Key, Florida (Curtiss), POLYPOD1ACEM. 89 IX. VITTARIA Sm. GRASS FERN. Sori linear, continuous, in two-lipped marginal grooves or in slightly intramarginal lines, with the unaltered edge of the frond produced beyond and often rolled over them, but without spe- cial indusia. Fronds narrow, grass-like. Veins free. Name from Lat. vitta, a fillet or head-band. A tropical genus con- taining 13 species. § T.ENIOPSIS J. Sm. i. V. Iineata(L.) Sm. Fronds 6' — i8'long, i" — 5"broad, nar- rowed gradually downward to a stout compressed stem, the edge often reflexed ; sori in a broad intramarginal line in a slight furrow, the edge of the frond at first wrapped over it. (V. an- gustifrons Michx.) Florida. X. ADIANTUM L. MAIDENHAIR. Sori marginal, short, covered by a reflexed portion of :he more or less altered margin of the frond, which bears the spo- rangia on its under side from the approximated tips of free, forking veins. Name from Gr. a, without, and Siaivoa, to wet, alluding to the smooth foliage. Includes over 80 species, mostly from Tropical America. § EUADIANTUM. * Fronds at least bipinnate, pinnules flabellate or cuneate. t Fronds smooth. 1. A. capillus-veneris L. (VENUS' HAIR.) Stipes nearly black, polished, very slender; fronds ovate-lanceolate, delicate, bipinnate, the upper half or third simply pinnate ; pinnules and upper pinnae wedge-obovate or rhomboid, rather long-stalked, the upper margin rounded and more or less incised, crenate, or acutely dentato-serrate, except where the margin is recurved to form the lunulate separated indusia. Virginia, Kentucky, and Florida to Utah and California. 2. A. tenerum Swz. Stipes i° high, erect, glossy; fronds i° — 3° long, 9' — 1 8' broad, deltoid, tri — quadripinnate ; pinnules articulated to their petioles, falling off at maturity, cuneate, the upper edge rounded or somewhat angular, broadly, often rather deeply lobed ; sori numerous, roundish, or transversely oblong. Florida. go OUR NATIVE FERNS AXD THEIR ALLIES. 3. A. Jordan! C. Muell. Stipes rather stout, nearly black, polished; fronds ovate or deltoid-pyramidal, bi — tripinnate; pinnules and upper pinnae ample, smooth, or nearly so, rounded or even reniform, upper margin rounded, slightly incised ; sori 2 — 5; transversely linear-oblong, subcontinuous. (A. emargina- tum of former edition not Hook.) ft Fronds pilose, with whitish hairs. 4. A. tricholepis Fee. Stipes smooth, polished, deep black ; fronds oval ; pinnules roundish, moderately long-stalked ; sori few (3 — 7), of unequal size; indusia very velvety. (A. dilatatum Nutt.) Western Texas. ** Fronds dichotomously forked,with numerous pinniz spring- ing from the upper side of the two branches. 5. A. pedatum L. Stipes 9' — 15' long, dark chestnut- brown, glabrous; fronds nearly circular in outline; central pin- nee 6'— 9' long, i' — 2' broad; pinnules triangular-oblong, short- stalked ; sori roundish or transversely oblong. North Carolina to California and northward. Vctr. rangiferinum Burgess. Pinnules longer-stalked and deeply cleft into narrow-toothed lobes on the upper side. Mount Findlayson, British Columbia. XI. PTERIS L. BRAKE. Sori marginal, linear, continuous, occupying a slender fili- form receptacle which connects the tips of the free veins. In- dusium membranous, formed of the reflexed margin of the frond. Name from Gr. itTspiS, a fern, from Ttrepov, a wing, al- luding to the prevalence of pinnate fronds. A cosmopolitan genus containing sixty or mo're species as now limited. * Lower pinna linear, undivided. i. P. longifolia L. Stipes 6'— 12' long, clothed more or less below with pale-brown scales; fronds i° — 2° long, 4' — 9' broad, oblong-lanceolate; pinnae sessile, 2" — 5" broad, linear, entire; veins close and fine, usually once branched ; indusium yellowish brown. Florida. * * Louver pinnce forked or slightly pinnate below. 2. p. Cretica L. Stipes 6' — 12' long, erect, stramineous or pale-brown ; fronds 6' — 12' long, 4' — 8' broad, lateral pinnae POLYPODIACE^E. . 9! usually in 2 — 6 opposite sessile pairs, the sterile ones considera- bly the broadest and spinulose-serrate, the lower pairs often cleft nearly to the base, into two or three linear pinnules ; veins fine, parallel, simple or once forked ; indusium pale. Florida. 3. P. serrulata Linn. f. Stipes 6' — 9' long, naked, pale or brownish ; fronds 9' — 18' long, 6' — 9' broad, ovate, bipinna- tifid, the main rachis margined with a wing which is i" — 2" broad at the top and grows narrower downwards ; pinnae in six or more distinct opposite pairs, upper ones simple, the lower ones with several long linear pinnules on each side, the edge of the barren ones spinulose-serrate ; veins simple or once forked. Alabama (Mohr], Macon, Georgia, (Farnell). An escape from cultivation. XII. PTERtDIUM Scopoli. Sori marginal, linear, continuous, occupying a slender fili- form receptacle which connects the tips of the free veins. In- dusium double ; the outer formed of the incurved membranous margin of the frond, as in Pteris, and the inner attached within the receptacle and extending beneath the young sporangia. Veins free. Name from Gr. rcre'pzS, a fern. Two or more species. i. P. aquilinum (L.) Kuhn. Rootstock stout, wide-creeping, subterranean ; stipes i° — 2° high, erect, stramineous or brownish; fronds 2° — 4° long, i° — 3° wide, ternate, the three branches each bipinnate ; upper pinnules undivided, the lower more or less pinnatifid. North America everywhere. Var. caudatum (L. ) Kuhn. Pinnules sometimes linear and entire, or with less crowded segments than the type and the terminal lobe linear and entire. (P. caudata L.) Florida and Texas. Probably a distinct species. Var. pubescens Underw. Fronds silky-pubescent, to- mentose, especially on the under surface; otherwise as in the typical form. (P. aquiltna, var. lanuginosa of former editions, not P. lanuginosa Bory.) Utah, California, and northward. XIII. CHEILANTHES Swz. LIP-FERN. Sori terminal or nearly so on the veins, at first small and roundish, afterwards more or less confluent. Indusium formed of the reflexed margin of the frond, roundish and distinct, or more or less confluent. Veins free. Name from Gr. ^eiAoS, a 92 OUR NATIVE PERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. lip, and aj'Oo?, flower, alluding to the lip-like indusia. A genus of 65 species of tropical and temperate zones. § I. ADIANTOPSIS Fee. Indusia distinct, roundish, confined to the apex of a single veinlet. i. C. Californica (Nutt.) Mett. Rootstock short, creeping, chaffy; stipes densely tufted, dark-brown, glossy, 4' — 8' long; fronds 4' or less each way, broadly deltoid-ovate, smooth on both surfaces, quadripinnatifid ; lower pinnae largest, triangular; upper ones gradually smaller and simpler; ultimate segments lanceolate, acute, incised or serrate ; indusia membranous. (Aspidotis Californica Nutt., Hypolepis Californica Hook.) Ca- lifornia. C. Amcena A. A. Eaton is scarcely distinct. 2. C. Pringlei Dav. Rootstock slender, creeping, clothed with linear-lanceolate scales; stipes i£' — 4^' long, reddish or chestnut brown, scaly at base and sparingly above; fronds i' — 2^' long, nearly as broad, triangular or ovate-deltoid, bi — tripin- nately divided into 5 — 7 pairs of pinnae, opposite and spreading in the smaller sterile fronds, alternate and erecto-patent in the larger fertile fronds, naked, dark-green ; pinnae f — i-J-' long, the lower unequally deltoid or ovate, bipinnate, the uppermost ob- long, pinnate or deeply pinnatifid; pinnules ovate or oblong, pinnately divided or cleft into oblique segments, which are again deeply cleft into cuneate, strap-shaped divisions, those of the largest segments again deeply cut into narrow, obtuse, cuneate lobes, the recurved tips in fertile fronds forming distinct her- baceous involucres with entire or slightly crenulate margins ; sori one to each ultimate lobe on the apex of a free veinlet. South-eastern Arizona (Pringle). § 2. EUCHEILANTHES. Indusia more or less confluent, itsu- ally extending over the apices of several veinlet s, but not continu- ous all round the segments ; segments mostly flat, not bead-like. * Segments of the frond smooth. \ Pinnce few, not more than 5 — 6 pairs. 3. C. Wrightii Hook. Stipes castaneous, slightly chaffy at base, i' — 2' long; fronds 2' — 3' long, ovate-oblong, tripinnat- ifid, segments more or less incised ; indusium sub-continuous or interrupted, similar to frond in texture. Western Texas to Arizona. tt Pinna numerous. POLYPODIACE.E. 93 4. C. microphylla Swz. Rootstock short, creeping; stipes dark-brown, glossy, rusty pubescent on the upper side, 4' — 6' long ; fronds 4' — 10' long, ovate-lanceolate, bi — tripinnate ; pinnae lanceolate, the lowest ones usually largest and more del- toid ; pinnules oblong or deltoid-ovate, deeply incised or pin- nate; indusium similar in texture to frond, interrupted or sub- continuous. Florida, New Mexico. 5. C. Alabamensis (Buckl.) Kunze. Rootstock creeping, with slender brown scales; stipes black with scanty ferruginous wool ; fronds 2' — 10' long, narrowly lanceolate, bipinnate ; pinnae close, ovate-lanceolate, the lowest ones not enlarged, usually smaller than those above ; pinnules mostly acute, often auricu- late on the upper side at the base; indusia pale, membra- nous, interrupted only by the incising of the pinnules. (Pellcea Alabamensis Baker, Pteris Alabamensis Buckley.) Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee to Texas and Arizona (Lcmmon). ** Segments of the frond glandular viscid. 6. C. viscida Dav. Stipes 3'— 5' long, wiry, blackish, chaffy at the base with narrow ferruginous scales ; fronds 3' — 5' long, J' — i' broad, narrowly oblong, pinnate, with 4 — 6 distant pairs of nearly sessile, deltoid, bipinnatifid pinnae; segments toothed, minutely glandular and everywhere viscid; teeth of segment recurved, forming indusia. California. *** pronds somewhat hairy and glandular, not tomentose. \ Fronds deltoid-ovate; stipes stramineous. 7. C. leucopoda Link. Stipes 3' — 10' long, stout, chaffy at base ; fronds 2' — 7' long, deltoid-ovate, quadripinnate at base, gradually simpler above, everywhere glandular-puberulent ; lowest pair of pinnae unequally deltoid-ovate, upper ones ob- long; pinnules short-stalked; ultimate pinnules divided into minute rounded lobules, strongly revolute when fertile. Texas. tt Fronds ovate-lanceolate ; stipes brownish. 8. C. lanosa (Michx.) Watt. Stipes tufted, 2' — 4' long, chestnut-brown; fronds 4'— 9' long, l' — 2' broad, tripinnatifid ; pinnae somewhat distant, lanceolate-deltoid ; segments more or less thickly covered with acute hairs ; sori copious ; indusia formed of the ends of roundish or oblong lobes. {Nephrodium lanosum Michx. C. -vest it a Swz.) New York to Kansas and Georgia. 9. C. Cooperae D. C. Eaton. Stipes densely tufted, fragile, 94 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. hairy with straightish nearly white articulated hairs, which are usually tipped with a glandular and viscid enlargement ; fronds 3' — 8' long, bipinnate, the pinnae rather distant, oblong-ovate ; pinnules roundish-ovate, crenate and incised, the ends of the 'obules forming herbaceous indusia. California. § 3. PHYSAPTERIS Presl. Ultimate segments minute, bead- like ; indusium usually continuous all round the margin ; fronds (in our species) bi — quadripinnate, the lower surface scaly or tomen- tose or both. * Fronds hairy or tomentose beneath, not scaly. ^•t Upper surface naked or nearly so. 10. C. gracillima D. C. Eaton. (LACE-FERN.) Stipes densely tufted, 2' — 6' long, dark-brown ; fronds i' — 4' long, nar- rowly ovate-lanceolate, bipinnate; pinnae numerous, crowded, pinnately divided into about nine oblong-oval pinnules, at first slightly webby above, soon smooth, heavily covered beneath with pale-ferruginous matted wool ; indusia yellowish-brown, formed of the continuously curved margin. (C. vestita Brack.) California, Oregon, British Columbia, Idaho. 11. C. lendigera (Cav.) Swz. Rootstock creeping, covered with narrow scales ; stipes rather distant, 4' — 8' long, at first loosely tomentose, at length nearly smooth ; fronds 4' — 8' long, ovate-oblong, tri — quadripinnate ; ultimate pinnules small, cuneate-obovate, pouch-like from the recurved margins, green above, hairy below. Huachuca Mts., Arizona (Letnnwri). H Upper surface decidedly pitbescent. | Stipes tomentose or smooth. 12. C. Feel Moore. Stipes densely tufted, slender, at first clothed with woolly hairs, at length nearly smooth ; fronds 2' — 4' long, ovate-lanceolate, tripinnate or tripinnatifid, rarely bipinnate ; pinnae deltoid below, oblong-ovate above, the lowest distant; ultimate pinnules minute, the terminal one slightly largest, crowded ; upper surface scantily tomentose, the lower densely matted with whitish-brown, woolly hairs; indu- sia narrow, formed of the unchanged margin. (C. lanosa Eaton, C. gracilis Mett., C. lanuginosa Nutt, Myriopteris gracilis Fee.) Illinois to Texas, Arizona, and British America. 13. C. tomentosa Link. Stipes tufted, 4' — 6' long, rather POL Y PODIA CE&. 9 5 stout, covered with pale-brown tomentum ; fronds 8' — 15' long, oblong-lanceolate, everywhere but especially beneath tomentose with slender, brownish-white, obscurely articulated hairs, tri- pinnate; pinnae and pinnules ovate-oblong; ultimate pinnules .V" — |" long, the terminal ones twice as large; indusium pale, membranous, continuous. (C. Bradburii Hook.) Virginia to Missouri, Texas, and Arizona. \\ Stipe and rachises covered with very narrow scales. 14. C. Eatoni Baker. Differs from the last in having the stipes and rachises covered with very narrow scales and by the matted tomentum of the upper surface. Arizona. 15. C. f ibrillosa Dav. Plant 3' — 6' high; rootstock forming dense, entangled clumps of short rhizomes, clothed with dark linear-lanceolate scales, passing gradually into lighter-brown scales, mixed with coarse fibres and tomentum at the base of the stipes ; stipes 2' — 3' long, chestnut-brown, terete, at first tomentose with fibrous scales and wool, becoming smooth with age ; fronds 2' — 3' long, £' — r-J-' wide, tripinnate, loosely covered with deciduous tomentum, that along the rachises beneath per- sistent, tawny, mixed with coarse fibres. (C. lanuginosa, var. fibrillosa Dav.) San Jacinto Mountains, California (Parish). 16. C. Parishii Dav. Rootstock creeping, short, clothed with deep-brown linear-lanceolate scales, with darker nearly black mid-nerves; stipes 2' — 3' long, approximate, light to dark- brown, clothed at base with scales similar to those on the root- stock, passing gradually into broader pale-brown or nearly white nerveless scales, with more or less deciduous, slender, pale scales and chaff above; fronds 3' — 4' long, i' — i^' broad, oblong- lanceolate, tri— quadripinnate, with both surfaces scantily clothed with a coarse tomentum ; pinnae alternate, oblong-ovate, obtuse, the lowermost somewhat distant; segments roundish, the terminal ones largest and three-lobed ; indusia very narrow, only partially enclosing the sori. San Diego Co., California (Parish). ** Fronds covered beneath with imbricated scales, not tomentose. I?. C. Fendleri Hook. Stipes 2' — 5' long, chaffy with minute slender scales ; fronds 3 — 4' long, ovate-lanceolate, tripinnate ; scales of primary rachis like those of stipe, those of 96 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. secondary and ultimate rachises larger, broadly-ovate, entire or nearly so, usually edged with white, imbricate and overlapping the (i" — J-" broad) sub-globose ultimate segments; these are naked above, and commonly bear at their centre a single broad scale; indusium formed of the much incurved margin. Texas and Colorado to California. 18. C. Cleveland!! D. C. Eaton. Stipes scattered, 2' — 6' long, dark-brown, scaly when young, but at length nearly smooth ; fronds 4' — 6' long, ovate-lanceolate, tripinnate, smooth above, deep fulvous-brown below from the dense covering of closely imbricate, ciliate scales growing on the ultimate segments as well as on the rachises ; segments nearly round, ^" — J" broad, the terminal ones larger, margin narrowly incurved. Califor- nia. *** Under surface both toinentose and scaly. 19. C. myriophylla Desv. Rootstock very short, scaly; stipes tufted, 2' — 6' high, castaneous, covered with pale-brown scales and woolly hairs intermixed ; fronds 3' — 8' long, oblong- lanceolate, tri— quadripinnatifid, smooth or pilose above, be- neath matted-tomentose and densely clothed with pale-brown, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, ciliate scales, those of the ultimate segments with long, tortuous cilia ; pinnae deltoid-ovate, nar- rower upwards; ultimate segments minute, $" broad, crowded, innumerable, the margin unchanged, much incurved. Very variable. (C. elegans Desv., C. villosa Dav.) Texas to Arizona. ^C. 20. C. Lindheimeri Hook. Rootstock long, slender, chaf- fy ; stipes scattered, 4' — 7' high, blackish-brown, at first cov- . ered xvith scales and woolly hairs ; fronds 3' — 8' long, ovate- lanceolate, tri — quadripinnate ; ultimate segments J-" long, crowded ; upper surface white tomentose, lower surface very chaffy, those of the midribs ciliate at base, those of the segments more and more ciliate, passing into entangled tomentum. West- ern Texas to Arizona. § 4. ALEURITOPTERIS Fee. Indusia more or less confluent ; fronds farinose below. 21. C. argentea (Gmel.) Kunze. Stipes tufted, 3'— 6' long, castaneous; fronds 3' — 4' long, 2' broad, deltoid, bi — tripinnati- fid; lower pinnae much the largest, cut nearly to the rachis; rachis polished like the stipe ; upper surface naked, lower thick- POLYTODIACE^.. 97 ly covered with white powder; sori numerous, very small. Alaska. XIV. CRYPTOGRAMMA R. Br. ROCK BRAKE. Sporangia on the back or near the ends of the free veins, forming oblong or roundish sori, which are at length confluent, and cover the back of the pinnules. Indusium continuous, formed of the membranous, somewhat altered margin of the pinnule, at first reflexed along the two sides and meeting at the midrib, at length opening out flat. Name from Gr. KpvTtroS, concealed, and ypdn^a, line, alluding to the concealed fructifi- cation. A boreal genus of three species. 1. C. acrostichoides R. Br. Stipes densely tufted, stra- mineous; fronds dimorphous, sterile ones on shorter stalks, tri — quadripinnatifid, with toothed or incised segments; fertile ones long-stalked, less compound, with narrowly elliptical or oblong-linear pod-like segments. (C. crispa, forma Americana Hook., Allosorus acrostichoides Spreng.) Lake Superior, Colo- rado to California and northward. 2. C. Stelleri (Gin.) Prantl. Stipes scattered, 2'— 3' long, stramineous or pale-brown; fronds 2' — 4' long, i' — 2' broad, ovate, bi — tripinnatifid ; pinnae lanceolate-deltoid, cut to the rachis into a few broad, blunt, slightly lobed pinnules ; texture thinly herbaceous, flaccid ; indusium broad, continuous, mem- branous; veins of the fertile fronds mostly only once forked. (Pellal or cordate. 5. P. andromedsefolia (Kaulf.) Fee. Stipes scattered, pale- brown, 2' — 12' long; fronds 6'— 12' long, 3' — 6' broad, ovate, bi — quadripinnate, usually tripinnate ; pinnae rather distant, spreading ; ultimate pinnules 2" — 5" long, oval, slightly cordate, POLYPODIACEJ5. 99 coriaceous, the margin of the fertile ones sometimes revolute to the midrib; veins numerous, parallel. (Allosortts andromedce- folius Kaulf., Pteris andromedafolia Kaulf.) California. 6. P. pulchella (M. et G.) Fee. Stipes tufted, 3'— 8' kmg, chaffy at base, nearly black; fronds 3'— 9' long, i'— 5' broad, _^ triangular-ovate, quadripinnate below, gradually simpler above ; lower pinnae deltoid, narrowly triangular above; ultimate pin- nules numerous, i" — 3" long, oval or often cordate-ovate, stalked, coriaceous, smooth, the edges often much reflexed. (Allosorus pulchellus Mart, and Gale.) Western Texas and New Mexico. ttt Fronds tri — quadripinnatifid ; segments linear-oblong ; secondary rachises margined. 7. P. marginata (Hook.) Baker. Stipes, 3' — 9' long, casta- neous, shining, slightly fibrillose at the base ; fronds 4' — 6' long, nearly as broad, deltoid; the lower pinnae much the largest; indusium broad, continuous, the margins slightly erose ; texture chartaceous. (Cheilanthes marginata Hook.) Huachuca Mts., Arizona (Lemmon). ** Pinnules mucronulate or decidedly acute. t Fronds narrowly linear in outline, usually bipinnate. 8. P. ternifolia (Cav.) Link. Stipes tufted, nearly black, 2' — 6' long, fronds 4' — 10' long, narrowly linear; pinnae usually 9 — 15 pairs, all but the uppermost trifoliate; segments com- monly linear, slightly mucronate, coriaceous, sessile or the middle one indistinctly stalked, the edges much inflexed in fer- tile fronds ; indusium broad. {Pteris ternifolia Cav.) Western Texas. 9. P. brachyptera (Moore) Baker. Stipes 2' — 8' long, pur- plish-brown ; fronds 3' — 8' long, narrow in outline from the as- cending secondary rachises, bipinnate; pinnules crowded, 2" — 5" long, oblong-linear, simple or trifoliate, acute or mucronulate ; margins inflexed to the midrib in fertile fronds. (P. ornithopus, var. brachyptera D. C. Eaton, Platyloma belhtm et P. brachypte- rum Moore.) California. ft Fronds broader, lanceolate to ovate, bi — tripinnate. 100 OUR NATIVE FERXS AXD THEIR ALLIES. 10. P. ornithopus Hook. Stipes tufted, 3'— 8' long, rather stout, dark-brown; fronds very rigid, 3' — 12' long, 2 — 3' broad, broadly deltoid-lanceolate, bi — tripinnate ; primary pin- nae spreading or obliquely ascending, linear, bearing 4 — 16 pairs of trifoliate (varying from simple to 5 — 7 foliate) mucronulate pinnules, li" — 2" long ; margins inflexed to midrib in fertile fronds. (Allosorus mucronatus D. C. Eaton.) California. 11. P. Wrightiana Hook. Rootstock short, thick, densely chaffy; stipes crowded, purplish-brown, 4' — 6' long; fronds 3' — 10' long, i' — 3' broad, lanceolate to deltoid, trifoliate at apex, bipinnate below ; pinnae short with i — 2 pairs of long narrow pinnules besides the terminal one; mucro short, with margin broad and cartilaginous ; margins of fertile fronds inflexed to the midrib. Very variable; forms with fronds decreasing to simply pinnate at the apex, and longer but less broadly winged mucro form var. longimucronata Dav. (P. longimucronata Hook.); forms with pinnules densely crowded are var. compacta Dav. Colorado and Texas to California. 12. P. densa (Brack.) Hook. Rootstock slender, chaffy with blackish scales ; stipes densely tufted, wiry, very slender, castaneous, 3 — 9' long; fronds ovate or triangular-oblong, i' — 3' long, densely tripinnate; segments 3" — 6" long, linear, nearly sessile, sharp pointed or mucronate, in the fertile fronds entire, with the margin narrowly recurved ; in the rare sterile fronds sharply serrate, especially toward the apices, (pnych- ium densuin Brack.) Utah (Jones), and Wyoming to California, Oregon, and northward ; Mt. Albert, Gaspe, Quebec (Allen). § 3. PLATYLOMA J. Sm., Baker. Texture coriaceous, the veins usually hidden, the ultimate segments broad and flat, the indusium so narrow as to be soon hidden by the fruit. 13. P. Bridgesii Hook. Stipes 2' — 6' long, tufted, castane- ous ; fronds 4' — 6' long, i' or more broad, simply pinnate ; pinnae 5 — 18 pairs, mainly opposite, nearly sessile, glaucous green, coriaceous, rounded or cordate at the base*; indusium narrow, formed of the whitish margin of the pinna, soon flattened out exposing the broad sorus. California. 14. P. f lexuosa (Kaulf.) Link. Rootstock creeping, slender ; stipes reddish, passing into a more or less flexuous or zigzag POL Y PODIA CE&. I O I rachis ; fronds 6' — 30' long, ovate-oblong, bi — tripinnate ; second- ary and tertiary rachises usually deflected and zigzag, rusty puberulent or nearly smooth ; pinnae mostly alternate ; ultimate pinnules 5" — 10" long, roundish-ovate, or sub-cordate, smooth ; margins at first reflexed, soon flattened out. (Allosorus flexu- osus Kaulf.) Western Texas to California. 15. P. intermedia Mett. Rootstock long, wide creeping, slender, chaffy ; stipes scattered, 4' — 6' long, pinkish-stramine- ous, smooth; fronds 5' — 10' long, 3' — 8' wide, ovate-bipinnate; pinnae nearly opposite, remote ; pinnules 2 — 6 pairs, petiolate, sub-coriaceous, oval or cordate-ovate ; veins obscure ; ra- chises often pubescent. Huachuca Mountains, South Arizona (Lemmoti), Texas (Xealley). XVI. STRUTHIOPTERIS Scopoli. Sori in a continuous band next the midrib of the contracted pinnae of the fertile frond, covered till mature by an elongate indusium, either formed of the recurved and altered margin of the pinna or submarginal and parallel to the margin. Veins of sterile frond oblique to the midrib, simple or forked and free. Fronds mostly elongate, of two kinds, the sterile foliaceous, the fertile commonly much contracted. Name from Gr. arpovQiaoi', an ostrich, and nrepi?, fern. Genus principally of south temperate zone. I. S. spicant (L.) Scop. (DEER-FERN.) Rootstock short, very chaffy ; fronds tufted, erect, sterile ones nearly sessile, narrowly linear-lanceolate, 8' — 24' long, i' — 3' wide, tapering to both ends, cut to the rachis into oblong or oblong-linear closely set segments, the lower ones gradually diminishing to minute auricles ; fertile fronds sometimes three feet high, long-stalked, pinnate ; pinnae somewhat fewer and more distant, longer and much narrower than in the sterile frond; indusia distinctly in- tramarginal. (Osmunda spicant L., Blechnum boreale Swz., Loniaria spicanl Desv.) California, Oregon, and northward. Some of the specimens from California and Oregon have leaves three or four times as long as those found in Europe, and it is possible that we have two species instead of one. 102 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. XVII. BLECHNUM L. Sori linear, continuous or nearly so, parallel with the midrib and usually contiguous to it. Indusium membranous, distinct from the edge of the frond. Veins usually free. Name from Gr. fihexvov, an old name for some kind of fern. A tropical and south temperate genus, containing 19 species. § EUBLECHNUM. i. B. serrulatum Richard. Stipes 6' — 12' long, stout, erect, nearly naked; fronds oblong-lanceolate, i° — 1£° long, 3' — 6' broad, with 12 — 24 pairs of distinct linear-oblong pinna;, the margins finely incised ; texture coriaceous ; veins very fine and close; fertile pinnae nai rower. (Blechnum angustifolium Willd.) Florida. y£ XVIII. WOODWARDIA Sm. CHAIN-FERN. Sori oblong or linear, sunk in cavities in the frond, arranged in a chain-like row parallel to the midribs of the pinnae and pinnules and near them. Indusium sub-coriaceous, fixed by its outer margin to the fruitful veinlet and covering the cavity like a lid. Veins more or less reticulate. Named for Thomas J. Woodward, an English botanist. Contains six species, mostly north temperate. §i. EUWOODWARDIA. Fronds uniform, the veins forming at least one series of areolcz between the sort and margins. 1. W. radicans (L.) Sm. Caudex stout, erect, rising a little above the ground; stipes stout, 8' — 12' long; fronds 3° — 5° long, sub-coriaceous, pinnate; the pinnae 8' — 15' long, 2' — 4' broad, oblique to the rachis, pinnatifid nearly to the midrib ; segments spinulose-serrate ; veinlets forming a single row of oblong sorus-bearing areolae next the midvein, besides a few oblique empty areolae outside the fruiting ones, thence free to the margin. California, Arizona. § 2. ANCHISTEA Presl. Fronds uniform, the veins free be- tween the sori and the margins. 2. W. Virginica (L.) Sm. Stipes stout, 12' — 18' long ; fronds oblong-lanceolate, 12' — 18' long, 6' — 9' broad; pinnae linear- lanceolate, 4' — 6' long, f — i' broad, cut nearly to the rachis into linear-oblong lobes. {W. Banisteriana Michx., Blechnioti POLYPODIACEJE. IO3 ., B. Virginicum L., Doodia Virginica Presl.) Canada and Florida westward to Michigan and Arkansas. § 3. LORINSERIA Presl. Fronds dimorphous, 'veins every- where forming areolce. 3. W. areolata (L.) Moore. Sterile frond with slender stipes, 9' — 12' long, 6' — 8' broad, deltoid-ovate, with numerous oblong-lanceolate sinuate pinnae ; rachis broadly winged ; fertile frond with an elongate, castaneous stem ; pinnae 3' — 4' long, nar- rowly linear. ( IV. onocleoides Willd., W. angustifolia Sm. , Acro- stichum areolatum L.) Maine to Florida, Michigan, Arkansas. XIX. ASPLENIUM L. SPLEENWORT. Sori oblong or linear, oblique, separate; indusium straight or rarely curved, opening toward the midrib when single, some- times double. Veins free in all our species. Name from Gr. a, without, and a-itXr/y, spleen. A cosmopolitan genus contain- ing nearly 350 species. § i. EUASPLENIUM. Veins free, simple or branched ; indu- sium straight or slightly curved, attached to the upper side of a vein, * Fronds simple. 1. A. serratum L. Fronds growing in a crown from a short, stout, erect rootstock, i^° — 2-|° long, 2' — 4' broad, simple, spatulate or linear-oblanceolate, the margin crenulate or irreg- ularly but finely serrate, sub-coriaceous ; midrib prominent, keeled and often blackish purple beneath ; veins closely placed, free, once forked ; sori elongate, following the veins of the upper half of the frond from near the midrib half-way to the margin ; indusia single, the free edge entire. Florida. ** Fronds pinnatifid or pinnate belcnv, tapering to a point. 2. A. pinnatifidum Nutt. Stipes tufted, 2'— 4' long ; fronds 3' — 6' long, i' — i-J-' broad, lanceolate, pinnatifid, or pin- nate below, tapering to a slender prolongation above; lobes roundish-ovate, or the lowest pair acuminate ; sori numerous. Pennsylvania to Illinois, Kentucky, and Alabama. 3. A. ebenoides R. R. Scott. Fronds 4'— 9' long, broadly lanceolate, pinnatifid, pinnate below ; apex prolonged and slender; divisions lanceolate from a broad base, the lower ones 104 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. shorter ; stipes black and polished, as is the lower part of the midrib, especially beneath. Schuylkill River, above Manayunk, Pennsylvania (Scoff) ; Havana, Alabama (Miss Tutwiler) ; Canaan, Connecticut (Adam) ; near Poughkeepsie, New York (Lowri), Jackson County, Illinois (Patterson). *** Fronds once pinnate. t Pznnce \' — £' long, mostly blunt. \ Rachis chestnut-brown or blackish. 4. A. platyneuron (L.) Oakes. Stipes 3' — 6' long, chest- nut-brown, nearly naked ; fronds 8' — 16' long, linear-lanceolate; pinnae 20—40, lanceolate, subfalcate, or the lower oblong, \' — i long, the dilated base auricled on the upper or both sides ; sori often 10—12 on each side. (A. ebeneum Ait., Polypodium platyneuron L.) Florida and Kentucky northward to Canada. 5. A. parvulum Mart. & Gale. Fronds tufted, erect, rigid, 4' — 10' long, narrowly linear-lanceolate ; stipe and rachis black and shining; pinnae numerous, oblong, obtuse, entire or crenulate, auricled on the upper side, nearly sessile ; middle pinnae longest, the lower gradually shorter and deflexed ; sori short. Virginia and Florida to Arkansas and New Mexico. 6. A. trichomanes L. Stipes densely tufted, purple-brown, shining ; fronds 3' — 8' long, £' or more broad, linear ; pinnae 15 — 30 pairs, nearly opposite, roundish-oblong or oval, the two sides unequal, obliquely wedge-truncate at the base, attached by a narrow point, the edge slightly crenate. Eastern United States to the Pacific coast. 7. A. vespertinum Maxon. Rhizome short; stipes pur- plish-brown, tufted. £' — 1 1' long; fronds 3'— 9' long; pinnae 20 — 30 pairs, subopposite or alternate, subsessile, oblong-linear or oblong, slightly reduced below, more or less auricled at base, the basal vein once or twice forked ; margins regularly and coarsely crenate-serrate, each lobe containing a simple vein ; sori short, 8 — 12 to each pinna ; indusium crenate ; spores ovoid with closely reticulated winged ridges. Southern California. 8. A. monanthemum L. Stipes densely tufted, 3' — 6' long, chestnut-brown; fronds 6' — 12 long, narrow, with 20 — 40 pinnae on each side ; pinnae crenate above, abruptly narrowed POLYPODIA CEM. I O 5 at base, often auricled, the lower much reduced ; texture sub- coriaceous; veins flabellate ; sori i — 2, linear-oblong, parallel with lower edge of pinnae. Huachuca Mountains, Arizona. 1 1 Rachis green, 9. A. viride Huds. Stipes densely tufted, 2' — 4' long, naked, the lower part chestnut-brown ; fronds 2' — 6' long, £' broad, with 12 — 20 pinnae on each side, which are ovate or rhomboidal in outline, the upper edge narrowed suddenly at the base, the lower obliquely truncate, the outer part deeply crenate ; rachis naked ; sori copious. Vermont, Canada, and New Brunswick. 10. A. dentatum L. Stipes tufted, 2' — 6' long, naked, ebeneous below; fertile fronds 2' — 3' long, i' broad, with 6 — 8 pairs of stalked, oblong-rhomboidal pinnae, the lower side trun- cate with a curve, the outer edge irregularly crenate ; sterile fronds smaller on shorter stipes ; rachis naked ; sori copious in parallel rows. Florida, South Carolina. tt Pinnce only 2 — 5, linear -cuneate. 11. A. septentrionale (L.) Hoffm. Stipes dense, tufted, 3' — 6' long, slender, naked, ebeneous toward the base; fronds irregularly forking, consisting of two to five narrowly linear rather rigid segments, which are entire or more frequently cleft at the end into a few long narrow teeth ; sori elongate, placed near the margin, usually facing each other in pairs, commonly only two or three to each segment. Ben Moore, New Mexico (Bigelow) ; Middle Mountains, Colorado, Arizona. ttt Pinna numerous, linear or linear-oblong, acute or acuminate. 12. A. angustifolium Michx. Stipes i° or more long, brownish, slightly scaly below; fronds \\°— 2° long, 4'— 6' broad, lanceolate-oblong, flaccid ; pinnae 20—30 pairs, linear* lanceolate, acuminate, entire or crenulate, those of the fertile frond narrower ; texture thinly herbaceous ; sori linear, 20—40 each side of the midvein. New England to Kentucky and Wis- consin. 13. A. firmum Kunze. Stipes 4'— 8' long, erect, grayish, naked; fronds 6—12' long, 3—4' broad; pinnae 12—20 pairs, oblong-lanceolate, the point bluntish, the margin inciso-cre- nate, the upper one narrowed suddenly at the base, the lower IC6 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. one obliquely truncate ; sori short, falling short of both mid- vein and margin. Florida, Arizona. **** Fronds bi—tripinnatifid. t Texture somewhat coriaceous. 14. A. ruta-muraria L. Stipes tufted, 2' — 4' long, naked ; fronds ovate-deltoid, i' — 2' long, bi — tripinnate below, simply pinnate above ; the divisions rhombic-wedge-shaped, toothed or incised at the apex ; veins flabellate ; sori few, elongate, soon confluent. -Vermont to Michigan and Kentucky. 15. A. montanum Willd. Stipes tufted, 2' — 3' long, naked; fronds 2' — 5' long, ovate-lanceolate, pinnate; pinnae 3 — 7 parted below, incised or toothed above; veins obscure; sori short, the basal ones sometimes double. Lantern Hill, Connecticut, and Ulster County, New York, to Georgia, Ken- tucky, and Arkansas ; Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio (Kirby). 16. A. Glenniei Baker. Stipes densely tufted, \' — i' long, castaneous; fronds 3' — 4' long, bipinnate; pinnae 20 — 25 pairs, lanceolate, the lower gradually reduced ; pinnules 5 — 6 pairs, toothed or externally sub-entire. Huachuca Mountains, Arizona (Lemmon). 17. A. fontanum (L.) Bernh. Stipes i' — 3' long, slightly scaly at base ; fronds 3' — -6' long, V — i' wide, tapering both ways from above the middle; pinnae 10 — 15 pairs, their segments deeply dentate with spinulose teeth ; sori one or two to each segment. Lycoming County, Pa. (McMinri), Springfield, Ohio Spence). ft Texture thinly herbaceous or membranous. 18. A. Bradley! D. C. Eaton. Stipes tufted, 2' — 3' long, ebeneous, as is also the lower half of rachis; fronds 3' — 7' long, pinnatifid ; pinnae 8 — 12 pairs, the lowest not reduced, the largest pinnatifid with oblong lobes toothed at the tip; seri short. Ulster County, N. Y., Lancaster, Pa., Kentucky, Ten- nessee, and Arkansas. 19. A. myriophyllum Mett. Rootstock short; stipes tufted, 2'— 6' long; fronds 3' — 10' long, lanceolate, bi- — tripin- nate ; segments entire or 2— 3-lobed, bearing a single vein and sorus. Forms with fronds narrowly linear, f — i' wide, and POL Y PODIA CE^E. I O/ widely ascending, 7 — 8-lobed pinnae, are var. Btscaynianum D. C. Eaton. Florida. 20. A. cicutarium S\vz. Stipes tufted, 4' — 8' long, green- ish, naked; fronds 6' — 15' long, 4' — 6' broad, with 10 — 15 hori- zontal pinnae on each side, the lower ones 2' — 3' long, i' broad, cut down to the rachis into linear or oblong segments, which are once or twice cleft at the apex; rachis compressed and often winged ; sori principally in two rows. Florida. § 2. ATHYRIUM Roth. Veins free ; sori more or less curved, sometimes horseshoe-shaped, often crossing to the outer or lower side of the fruiting vein lei. 21. A. thelypteroides Michx. Stipes long, erect, stra- mineous; fronds i° — 2° long, 6' — 12' broad, bipinnatifid ; pinnae linear-lanceolate ; segments crowded, oblong, minutely toothed ; sori 5 — 6 pairs to each segment, slightly curved, the lower ones often double. New England to Kentucky and Illinois. 22. A. filix-foemina (L.) Bernh. (LADY-FERN.) Stipes tufted, 6' — 12' long, stramineous or brownish; fronds delicate, i^° — 3° long, broadly oblong-ovate, bipinnate ; pinnae 4' — 8' long, lanceolate; pinnules oblong-lanceolate, pointed, more or less pinnately incised or serrate, distinct or confluent on the second- ary rachises by a very narrow and inconspicuous margin ; sori short ; indusium straight or variously curved. Widely distrib- uted from the Eastern States to the Gulf of Mexico, Arizona, and California. 23. A. cyclosorum Rupr. Larger, often 12' — 16' wide; sori mostly curved so as to appear circular, with a narrow sinus. Idaho to Washington. XX. PHYLLITIS Ludwig. HART'S-TONGUE. Sori linear, elongate, almost at right angles to the midvein, contiguous by twos, one on the upper side of one veinlet, and the next on the lower side of the next superior veinlet, thus appearing to have a double indusium opening along the middle. Name from Gr. 0uAAov, a leaf, alluding to its simple form. Includes five species. I. P. scolopendrium (L.) Newm. Stipes 2' — 6' long, fibril- lose below; fronds oblong-lanceolate from an auricled heart- IO8 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. shaped base, entire or undulate, 7' — 18' long, i' — 2' wide, bright green. (Scolopendrium Smith, Asplenium scolopendrhim L.) Chittenango Falls and Jamesville, New York ; Woodstock, New Brunswick (Suitoti), Owen Sound, Canada (Mrs. Roy}, Ten- nessee. XXI. CAMPTOSORUS Link. WALKING-LEAF. Sori oblong or linear, irregularly scattered on either side of the reticulate veins of the simple frond, those next the midrib single, the outer ones inclined to approximate in pairs, or to become confluent at their ends, thus forming cropked lines. Name from Gr. KanitroS, curved, and (rcapo?, a heap. Includes only two species. I. C. rhizophyllus (L.) Link. Fronds evergreen, tufted, spreading or procumbent, 4'— 9' long, lanceolate from an auricled, heart-shaped or often hastate base, tapering above into a slender prolongation which often roots at the apex. Var. intermedius Arthur is an interesting form, differing mainly fsom the typical forms in having the base acute, without proper auricles and with a single fibro-vascular bundle in the stipe. (Antigramma rhizophylla J. Sm., Scofopendrtum rhizophyllum Hook., Asple- nium rhtzophyllum L.) New England to Wisconsin and south- ward ; the variety in Iowa. XXII. PHEGOPTERIS Fee- BEECH-FERN. Sori small, round, naked, borne on the back of the veins below the apex. Stipe continuous with the rootstock. Veins free or reticulate. Name from Gr. sharply quadrangular, the bracts broader at base, lanceolate- ovate to ovate, with shorter and stouter awns. High mountains of Utah, Nevada, and California. SELAGINELLACEM. 139 6. S. mutica D. C. Eaton. Stems creeping, rather rigid, 3' — 6' long, divided and pinnately branched ; leaves glau- cescent, six-ranked, closely imbricated, half a line long, oblong- ovate, convex, and slightly grooved on the back, obtuse, and without a terminal seta, the margins ciliated with 10 — 15 spreading cilia on each side, which are 0.12 mm. long or longer; spikes scarcely thicker than the branches, quadrangular, the bracts broader than the leaves and pointed or even obscurely mucronate. Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. T t Stems spreading, 8' — 12' long, rooting only at the base. 7. S. tortipila A. Br. Stems 8' — 12' long, more or less flexuous, with the elongate primary branches compound, root- ing only near the base ; leaves loosely imbricate, about six- ranked, narrowly lanceolate, scarcely channeled dorsally, ending in a contorted or irregularly coiled elongate hair-point ; margins with 6 — 12 very short cilia on either side; spikes very short (2" — 2^"), borne at the ends of ordinary branches, subquad- rangular, but with loosely spreading broadly ovate-lanceolate bracts, which are dorsally channeled and bear marginal cilia and terminal hairs similar to those of the stem-leaves. Broad River, North Carolina (Kugel), Caesar's Head, South Carolina (/. D. Smith). * * Stems pendent, flaccid. 8. S. struthloloides (Presl.) Underw. i° — 6° long, pin- nately much branched; leaves loosely imbricate, scarcely i" long, linear-lanceolate, convex and grooved on the back, acute, sparsely spinulose-denticulate, not bristle-tipped ; spikes quad- rangular, very slender ; macrosporangia scarce. (S. Oregana D. C. Eaton, Lycopodium Presl.) Port Orford, Oregon (Kautz) ; Tilamook Valley, Oregon (Howell) ; probably in Northern Cali- fornia. * * Stems erect or ascending. t Spikes £' — -i^' long ; plant rooting in sand. 9. S. arenicola Underw. Deeply rooting in sand with fine copious roots, often 6' — 8' long; stems slender, branching, erect or ascending, densely caespitose, 2' — 3' high, emitting copious brown wiry roots a little distance above the base ; leaves closely appressed, narrowly lanceolate, 0.25 mm. wide, 14° OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. deeply channeled dorsally, terminated by a spinulose white awn 0.35 — 0.50 mm. long; margins with numerous short cilia; spikes 2 — 3 cm. long, slender, sharply quadrangular, the bracts broadly lanceolate, spreading at maturity with copious mar- ginal cilia (15 — 20 on either side) ; microspores very abundant throughout the length of the spike, globose-tetrahedral, 0.036 — 0.039 mrn. in diameter, bright yellow or pale orange. (S. are- naria Underw., not Baker.) In sand, Florida, Texas ? f f Spikes ^' or less long ; plants grooving on rocks. 10. S. rupincola Underw. Stems suberect, somewhat flexuous, 3' — 5' high, rooting only from near the base, pinnately branching, the secondary branches mostly very short ; leaves channeled dorsally, closely imbricate, spreading only near the growing tips of the stem, glaucous or cinereous green, tapering toward the apex and ending in a long white denticulate spine I mm. or more long; margins strikingly long-ciliate, 15 — 20 on either side ; spikes % or* less long, borne laterally on the branches, scarcely quadrangular, the bracts closely resembling the ordinary stem-leaves, so as to render the spikes scarcely distinguishable except for the axillary sporangia; macrospores dark -yellow, 0.24—0.27 mm. in diameter, strongly and deeply pitted reticulate. New Mexico and Arizona. 11. S. Bigelovii Underw. Stems slender, 4' — 8' long, mostly ascending, flexuous, usually with short ascending pri- mary branches ; secondary branches infrequent and mostly very short ; stems rooting only near the base ; leaves about six- ranked, appressed-imbricate, usually with a distinct dorsal channel, narrowly lanceolate, tapering gradually into a densely spinulose white awn often 0.7 mm. long; margins with 12 — 15 cilia on either side, which are directed forward and usually less than 0.050 mm. long; spikes obtusely quadrangular, mostly on short lateral branches 5 mm. or less long, the bracts short, broadly ovate but otherwise like the leaves. Southern Cali- fornia. I 2. STACHYGYNANDRUM Baker. Stem /eaves of two kinds, spreading in two planes, those of the upper plane smaller and more ascending ; bracts uniform. * Main stems dectimbent ; root fibres extending to upper nodes. t Stems persistent ; leaves rigid, firm in texture. SELA GIN ELL A CEJE. 1 4 1 12. S. Douglasii (H. & G.) Spring. Stems 3' — 12' long, branches 2' — 6' long, bi — tripinnately divided ; leaves of lower plane i" long, obliquely oval, obtuse, faintly nerved; leaves of upper plane half as long, oval, incurved, ending in a short point, both sparingly ciliate at base; spikes 6" — 12" long, quad- rangular, terminal ; bracts deltoid-cuspidate, strongly imbri- cate. (Lycopodtum Douglasii H. & G., L. ovalifolium H. & G.) Northern California to British Columbia. ft Stems mostly annual, fugacious ; leaves mostly membranous, flaccid. 13. S. apus(L.) Spring. Stems i' — 4' long, slender, angled on the face, prostrate, creeping, much-branched, flaccid ; leaves of the lower plane spreading above, the lower reflexed, ovate, acute, serrulate, not distinctly ciliate ; leaves of the upper plane ovate, shortly cuspidate; spikes 3" — 6" long; bracts ovate, acute, membranous, strongly serrulate, acutely keeled in the upper half. Canada and New England to Rocky Mountains, and southward to Florida and Texas. 14. S., Ludoviciana A. Br. Stems slender, copiously pin- nate, flat both sides, 4' — 6' long, lower branches slightly com- pound ; leaves of lower plane rather distant except at tips of branches, spreading, ovate-oblong, sub-acute, firmer in texture than in preceding, serrulate, not distinctly ciliate ; leaves of upper plane half as long, obliquely oblong, cuspidate ; spikes 3'' — 6" long ; bracts ovate-lanceolate, strongly keeled. (S. apus, var. denticulata Spring, where it may belong, the differ- ences possibly due to climatic conditions.) Covington, Louisi- ana (Drummottd)\ Aspalaga, Florida (Curtiss, No. 3799 in part). ** Stems densely tufted, rolling into a nest-like ball when dry ; roots confined to base of stems. 15. S. lepidophylla Spring. Stems 2' — 4' long, densely tufted, pinnately branched to the base, the pinnae ascending, sub-flabellately compound ; leaves of the lower plane closely imbricate, ascending, obliquely ovate, obtuse,*thick, rigid, mi- nutely ciliate, green above, paler below, becoming reddish-brown in age ; leaves of upper plane nearly as long, obliquely ovate, obtuse; spikes 3" — 6'' long, quadrangular; bracts deltoid, acutely keeled. Texas to Arizona. 142 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 16. S. Pringlei Baker. Outer stems 3' — 4' long, the- inner gradually shorter, flabellately branched, light green above, pale below ; branchlets close, i" — 2" wide ; leaves of the lower plane crowded, oblong, about i' long, including the conspicuous horny white awn ; leaves of upper plane slightly smaller, somewhat oblique; spikes short with uniform bracts. Chenate Moun- tains, Texas (Nealley). S. pi 1 if era A. Br. is reported by Mr. Baker from Texas, but it has not been found there recently. Family 3. ISOETACE/E. Plant-body consisting of a bilobed or trilobed trunk emitting dense tufts of roots, and sending up a compact rosette of rush- like leaves, submerged, amphibious or sometimes growing in moist soil. Sporangia sessile in the axils of the leaves, some containing macrospores and others microspores. Contains a single genus widely distributed. I. ISOETES L. QUILLWORT. Stem or trunk a more or less depressed, fleshy corm, rooting just above its bilobed or trilobed base, covered above with the dilated and imbricated bases of the awl-shaped or linear leaves. Sporangia large, orbicular or ovoid, plano-convex, very thin, sessile in the axils of the leaves and united at the back with their excavated bases ; those of the outer leaves filled with spherical macrospores ; those of the inner leaves filled with minute and powdery, grayish, obliquely oblong and triangular microspores. Name from Gr. zero?, equal, and eroS, year. Con- tains about 50 species, of which sixteen are found within our limits. NOTE. — The measurements of the spores are given in millimetres; mm. = .03937 inch. § I . Submerged, rarely above water in driest seasons ; leaves quadrangular wit 'hout peripheral bast-bundles ; velum incom- plete. * Stomata absent. i. I. lacustris L. Leaves 10 — 25, stout, rather rigid, ob- tusely quadrangular, acute but scarcely tapering, dark or olive- ISOETACE&. 143 green, 2' — 6' long; sporangia orbicular — broadly-elliptic, with a narrow velum ; ligula triangular, short or somewhat elongate ; macrospores 0.50 — 0.80 mm. in diameter, marked all over with distinct or somewhat confluent crests; microspores smooth, 0.035 — 0.046 mm. long. Var. paupercula Engelm. has fewer, thinner and shorter leaves and smaller spores, the microspores somewhat granulate, 0.026 — 0.036 mm. long. (/. macrospora Durieu.) Catskill Mountains, New York (Schweinitz), Echo Lake, New Hampshire ( Tuckermaii) , Fresh Pond, near Cam- bridge, Massachusetts (W. Boott), Uxbridge, Massachusetts (Robbins), Brattleborough, Vermont (Frost}, Lake Superior (Porter). The variety from Grand Lake, Middle Park, Colo- rado (Engelmantt) and Castle Lake near Mt. Shasta, California (Pr ingle). 2. I. pygmsea Engelm. Leaves 5 — 10, stout, rigid, bright- green, £' — i' long, abruptly tapering to a fine point, with very short often almost square epidermal cells; sporangia orbicular with a narrow velum; macrospores 0.36 — 0.50 mm. thick, marked with minute, rather regular, distinct or rarely confluent warts; microspores brown, almost smooth, 0.024 — 0.029 mm. long. Mono Pass, California (Bolander). 3. 1. Tuckermani A. Br. Leaves 10—30, very slender, tapering, olive-green, 2' — 3' long, the outer recurved ; sporangia mostly oblong, white or rarely brown-spotted, the upper third covered by the velum; macrospores 0.44 — 0.56 mm. thick, the upper segments marked with prominent, somewhat parallel and branching ridges, the lower half reticulate ; microspores smooth or nearly so, 0.026 — 0.032 mm. long. Mystic River, Mystic, Spy, and Horn Ponds, near Boston, Massachusetts. * * Stoinala present. 4. I. Macounii A. A. Eaton. Leaves 5 — 12, i' — 2' long, stout, acuminate, with occasional stomata near the apices, reddish green; basal wings wide; ligula triangular-lanceolate; sporangia orbicular, i"— if" in diameter, one-fourth to three- fourths covered by the velum, thickly pale-spotted ; macro- spores 0.3 — 0.57 mm., sparsely covered with very stout, short, blunt, or confluent spinules, which become small papillae near the equator and on the upper half appear on the commissures ; microspores elliptical, 0.035 by 0.027 mm., or sometimes slightly 144 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. larger, finely and densely papillose, or rarely blunt tuberculate. Pools on an extinct volcano, Atka Island, lat. 52° N., long. 175° W. (Macouri). 5. I. echinospora Durieu, var. Braunii (Dur.) Engelm. Leaves 13 — 15, erect or spreading, tapering, green or reddish- green, 3'— 6' long, generally with few stomata toward the tip only; sporangia orbicular — broadly-elliptic, spotted, i to f covered by the broad velum ; macrospores 0.40— 0.50 mm. thick, covered with broad, retuse spinules, sometimes somewhat con- fluent and then dentate and incised at the tip ; microspores 0.026 — 0.030 mm. long, smooth. (I. Braunii Durieu.) Nova Scotia, New England, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Michigan (Gillman), Head of Bear River, Utah (Wat- son), Greenland (VaJtl). Var. robusta Engelm. Stouter; leaves 25 — 70,5' — 8' long, with abundant stomata all over their surface ; velum covering one half of the large, spotted sporangia; macrospores 0.36 — 0.55 mm. thick. Lake Cham plain, north end of Isle La Motte (Prin- gle\ Var. Boottii (A. Br.) Engelm. Leaves 12 — 20, erect, bright - green, 4' — 5' long, with few stomata mostly near the tip; spo- rangia nearly orbicular, pale-spotted, f or more covered by the broad velum ; macrospores 0.39 — 0.50 mm. thick, with longer, more slender and delicate, generally simple spinules; micro- spores 0.026 — 0.030 mm. long. (/. Boottii A. Br.) Round Pond, Woburn, and in brook in Tofit Swamp, Lexington, Massachusetts (Bootf). Var. muricata (Dur.) Engelm. Leaves 15 — 20, flaccid, green, 6' — 12' long, with very few stomata; sporangia broadly oval, pale-spotted, about half covered by the velum ; macro- spores 0.40 — 0.58 mm. thick, with shorter and more confluent, sometimes almost crest-like spinules; microspores 0.028 — 0.032 mm. long, slightly rough on the edges. (/. muricata Durieu.) Woburn Creek and Abajona river near Boston, Massachusetts (Boott). 6. I. Bolanderi Engelm. Leaves 5 — 25, erect, soft, bright- green, tapering to a fine point, 2'— 4^' long, with thin walls and generally few stomata ; sporangia broadly oblong, mostly un- spotted, with a narrow velum ; ligula triangular ; macrospores ISOETACE&. !45 0.30—0.45 mm. thick, marked with minute low tubercles, rarely confluent into wrinkles ; microspores deep-brown, 0.026 — 0.031 mm. long, spinulose, rarely smooth. (/. Californica Engelm.) Western Colorado (Brandegee), Utah, California, to Washing- ton. § 2. Amphibious, partially emerged ; stomata always present. * Peripheral bast-bundles absent. t Velutn partial. 7. I. saccharata Engelm. Trunk usually flat, depressed ; leaves 10 — 20, awl-shaped, spreading, olive-green, 2' — 3' long; sporangia oblong, spotted, with a narrow velum ; ligula trian- gular ; macrospores 0.40 — 0.47 mm. thick, covered with very minute, distinct warts, which are sometimes a little confluent ; microspores papillose, 0.024 — 0028 mm. long. Banks of Wicomico river, below Salisbury, and of Nanticoke river, East- ern Maryland (Candy). 8. I. riparia Engelm. Leaves 15 — 30, slender, rather rigid, deep-green, 4' — 8' long, with numerous stomata ; sporangia mostly oblong, distinctly brown-spotted, \ or £ covered by the velum ; macrospores o.45--o.65 mm. thick, marked with isolated .or anastomosing, jagged crests; microspores more or less tuber- culate, 0.028 — 0.032 mm. long. Banks of Delaware River from Burlington to Wilmington, Delaware ; Uxbridge, Massachusetts (Robbins); Brattleborough, Vermont (Frosf) ; Maine (CfoV&?r/«£-) ; Crow River, Hastings County, Ontario (Macouii). ft Velum complete. 9- I. melanospora Engelm. Trunk flat, only slightly bilobed ; leaves 5 — 10, distichous, slender, tapering, light-green, 2' — 1\' long; sporangia orbicular or almost obcordate, $" — -T' long, entirely covered by the velum; ligula short triangular, obtuse ; macrospores 0.35 — 0.45 mm. long, roughened with distinct or rarely somewhat confluent warts, dark-colored ; microspores smoothish or slightly papillose, 0.028 — 0.031 mm. long. In shallow excavations in granite rock, Stone Mountain, Georgia (Canty). ** Peripheral bast-bundles present. t Vehim partial or entirely wanting. 10. I. foveolata A. A. Eaton. Amphibious from a bilobed 146 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. or rarely trilobed base ; leaves 1 5—70, stout, 2' — 6' long, pinkish even when dry or rarely dark green ; stomata scattered found only near the tips ; no peripheral bast-bundles ; monoecious or becoming dioecious; velum covering one-fourth or one-third of the sporange ; ligule round-ovate ; sporanges thickly sprinkled with dark cells which are often collected in groups; macro- spores 0.380 — 0.560 mm. in diameter, covered beneath with very thick-walled reticulations, the openings appearing like little pits ; reticulations elongate on the upper surface of the spore ; microspores dark brown, 0.022 — 0.035 mm. long, densely reticu- late and usually slightly papillose. In muddy banks of the Pautuckaway River, Epping, and East Kingston, New Hamp- shire. 11. I. Eatoni Dodge. Amphibious from a large trunk i' — 4' in diameter. Leaves of the submerged plant 20 — 200, varying in length up to 28', marked with an elevated ridge on the ventral side ; leaves of the emersed plant shorter, 3' — 6' long, stomata abundant; peripheral bast-bundles irregular in occurrence or often wanting; velum covering one-fourth of the sporange ; polygamous ; sporanges large, 10 by 4 mm., pale, spotted ; macrospores small, 0.3 — 0.4 mm. in diameter, marked with convolute labyrinthine ridges and cristate on the angles of the inner face; microspores 0.025 — 0030 mm. in diameter, smooth or slightly papillose. In mud flats, East Kingston and Epping, New Hampshire. 12. I. Dodgel A. A. Eaton. Plant amphibious from a 2-lobed trunk. Leaves 10 — 75, 8' — 18' long, when submersed, erect or spirally ascending when scattered ; emersed leaves 4'— 6' long, tortuous and often interlaced, with numerous stomata and usually four bast-bundles ; velum narrow, covering from one-fifth to one-fourth of the sporange ; sporanges thickly sprinkled with dark brown cells ; macrospores more numerous on submersed plants, globose 0.5—0.675 mm. in diameter, sparsely covered with irregular crests which at maturity sepa- rate into irregular groups leaving bare spaces, serrate or spinu- lose at the top ; microspores more numerous on emersed plants, 0.022 — 0.040 mm. in diameter, ashy, papillose. In mud flats, East Kingston, New Hampshire; Pennsylvania. 13. I. Engelmannl A. Br. Leaves 25—100, light-green, ISOETACE^S. 147 9' — 20' or more long, with abundant stomata ; sporangia ob- long— linear-oblong, unspotted, with a narrow velum ; ligula elongate from a triangular base; macrospores 0.40 — 0.52 mm. thick, delicately honeycomb-reticulated; microspores usually smooth, 0.024 — 0.028 mm. long. Var. Georgiana Engelm. has fewer leaves and larger (0.48 — 0.56 mm. thick) macrospores. New England and New York, Missouri and Illinois ; the vari- ety in Horseleg Creek, Floyd County, Georgia (Canby). Var. gracilis Engelm. Leaves 8 — 12, often submerged, 9' — 12' long, the bast bundles often quite small or only two present. New England ; Passaic River, New Jersey (Ennis). Var. valida Engelm. Leaves 50 — 200, keeled on the upper side, 18'— 25' long; sporangia often linear-oblong 4" — 9" long, % to f covered by the broad velum ; macrospores 0.32 — 0.48 mm. thick ; microspores spinulose, 0.024—0.027 mm. long. Warrior's Mark and Smithville, Pennsylvania (Porter); Wilmington, Delaware (Canby). 14. I. Howellii Engelm. Leaves 6—30 or even 50, 2'— 8' long, with numerous stomata and four bast bundles ; velum variable, usually narrow in outer leaves, narrowly oblong on inner leaves, usually densely spotted, and shining dark brown or black ; sheath fuscous brown, deeply grooved ; ligula vary from short triangular to 2" long; macrospores 0.48 mm. in diam- eter, covered rather sparingly with low blunt isolated or conflu- ent crests; microspores 0.02 — 0.03 mm. in diameter, light-brown, covered with low blunt tubercles or spines. (/. nuda Engelm., /. Und£rii., to open into), forming a network; said of veins which unite with each other. Anemia. Vide Ornithopte- ris. Annulus (Lat. a ring), the ring partly or completely surrounding the sporangium. Antheridium (plu. antheridiii) (Lat. anthera, an anther, and Gr. vr6v, plant). 57. Buds, borne on ferns, 27. Bulblets, borne on ferns, 27. C Calamariaceae, 63. Camptosorus, 108; also 3,6, 9, 16, Campyloneuron, 83; also 13, 79. Carboniferous Age, Pterido- phytes of, 62. Carinate (Lat. carina, a keel), keeled. CaStaneOUS (Lat. castnnea, a chestnut), chestnut-colored. Caudate (Lat. cauda, a tail), fur- nished with a slender appendage re- sembling a tail. Caudex (Lat. a stem), the upright rootstock forming the trunk of a tree- fern, 8. Cellulose (Lat. celluia, a little cell), the substance composing the wall of cells, containing the elements car- bon, hydrogen, and oxygen. CeraceOUS (Lat. cera, wax), hav- ing the nature of wax. Ceratopteridaceae, 78. Ceratopteris, 78; also 6, 14. Characeae, 51. — Literature of, 56. Chartaceous (Lat. cAaria, a leaf of paper), having the texture of paper or parchment. Cheilanthes, 91; also 3, 6, 8, 13, 26. 43, 80. Cheiroglossa, 68; also 66. Chlorophyll (Gr. XA»/">«, Rreen, and <(>v\\ov, leaf), the green grains forming the coloring matter of plants. Christmas-fern. Vide Poly- stichum. Ciliate (Lat. cilium, an eyelash), having on the margin a fringe of hairs resembling the fringing eye- lashes. Cinnamon-fern. Vide Os- munda. Circinate (Lat. drdnus, a pair of compasses), rolled inward from the apex, 8. Classification of the Vegetable Kingdom, 55. — Principle of, 46. Cliff-brake. Vide Pelliea. Climbing-fern. Vide Lygo- dium. Cloak-fern. Vide Notho- laena. Club-moss. Vide Lycopo- dium. Confluent (Lat. con, together, and Jluere, to flow), blended together. Connate (Lat. con, together, and nasci, to be born), united together from the first. Cordate (Lat. cor, the heart), heart- shaped. Coriaceous (Lat. cerium, a hide), leathery. Cotton-fern. Vide Notho- laena. Crenate (Lat. crena, a notch), hav- ing the margin scalloped with rounded teeth. Crenulate (Lat. crenu/a, a little notch), scalloped with small rounded teeth. Cryptogamia (Gr. /epuirrds, hid- den, ydfios, marriage). flovverless plants; an obsolete term. Cryptogramma, 97; also 2, 14, 80. Cultivation, Literature of, 7. Cuneate (Lat. cuaeus. a wedge), wedge-shaped. Cystopteris. Vide Filix. Decurrent (Lat. de, down, and turrere, to run), prolonged on the rachis. Deer-fern. Vide Struthiop- teris. Deltoid (Gr. iAra, the letter D, and eiSos. form), triangular, like the Greek delta. Dennstaedtia, 122; also 3, 5, 7, 17, So. GLOSSARY AND IXDEX. Dentate (Lat. dens, a tooth), toothed. Denticulate (Lat. denticulus, di- minutive of dens, tooth), finely toothed. Devonian Age, Pteridophytes of, 66. Dichotomous (Gr. £i\a, asunder, and re'/LLi'eir, to cut), two-forked. Dicksonia. Vide Dennstaed- tia. Dimorphism, 3.— Literature of, 7. Dimorphous (Gr. Sis, twice, and /uo>p4>7J, shape, form), of two forms; said of ferns whose fertile fronds are unlike the sterile. Dioecious (Gr. Sis, twice, and vTov, a plant), growing upon an- other plant, but not nourished by it. Equisetaceae, 126; also 31.— Lit- erature of, 34. Equisetum, 126; also 3i, 33. Exospore (Gr. efw, outside, and o-iropds, a seed), the external covering of the spore. Falcate (\*a\..falx, a sickle), scythe- shaped; slightly curved upward. Farinose (Lat. farina, ground corn), covered with a white or yel- lowish powder. Fern Allies, 28. Fern Structure, Literature of, 28. Ferns, Artificial Synopsis of genera of, 79.— Mode of growth, 2. — Time of fruiting, 4. — Variation in, 2. Ferruginous (Lat./«, iron), resembling iron rust. Fertilization, 21. Fibrill ose (Lat. fibra, a thread), formed of small fibres. Filiform (Lat. filum, a thread, forma, form), thread-like. Filix, 119; also, 4, 5, 6, 1 6, 27, 80. Flabellate (Lat. Jlabellum, a fan), fan-shaped; broad and rounded at the summit and narrow at the base. Flaccid (Lat. flaccus, flabby), soft and weak. Floating-fern. Vide Cera- topteris. Flowering-fern. Vide Os- munda. FoliaceOUS (Lat. folium, a leaf), having the nature of a leaf. Fovea (Lat. a small pit), the depres- sion in the leaf of Isoetes containing the sporangium. Frond (Lat. frons, a leafy bough), that which answers to the leaf in ferns, 8, 26. Fructification of Ferns, 10; of OPHIOGLOSSACE.B, 30; of Equisetum, 33; of Club-mosses, 35; of Isoetes, 38; of Marsilia, 39; of Pilularia, 39; of Asolla, 39; of Salvinia, 40. Fulvous (Lat. fulvus, reddish-yel- low), tawny. Fungi, 56- Genera, 45- Generic Names, 47- Geographic Distribution, 60. Geologic Distribution, 61. 154 GLOSSARY AND INDEX. Germination of Ferns, 19; of OPHIOGLOSSACEJE, 30; of Equisetum, 33; of Club-mosses, 36; of Isoetes, 38; of Marsilea, 40. — Literature of, 23. Glabrous (Lat. glaber, smooth), smooth. Glanduliferous (Lat. glandula, a little kernel, znAferre, to bear), fur- nished with giands. Glaucous (Gr. y\avKos, sea-green), covered with a bloom like a plum. Globose, spherical in form or nearly so. Goethe on species, 44. Gold-fern. Vide Gymno- pteris. Grape -fern. Vide Eotry- chium. Ground-pine, Ground-fir, etc. Vide Lycopodium. Gymnogramme. ride Gym- nopteris. Gymnopterls, 84; also 3, 9, 13, 41, 79- H Hartford-fern. Vide Lygo- dium. Hart's-tongue. Vide Phyl- litis. Hastate (Lat. hasta, a spear), fur- nished with spreading lobes on each side at the base. Hepaticae, 57. Herbaceous (Lat. herba, an herb), having the texture of common herb- age. Heterosporous (Gr. «-epS, long), (as a pre- fix) large or long. Maidenhair, ride Adiantum. Male-fern. Vide Dryopteris. Marattiaceae, 45. Marsilea, 123; also 39, 40. Marsileaceae, 123 ; also 39.— Liter- ature of, 40. Matteuccia, 120; also 17, 50, 80. Mesozoic Age, Pteridophytes of, 63. Micro- (Gr. /iiKpos, small), (as a pre- fix), small. Midvein, the middle or main vein of a frond, pinna, pinnule, or segment. Mimicry, 3. Monoecious (Gr. novas, single, and female organs on different parts of the same plant. Moonwort. Vide Botrychi- um. Mucronate (Lat. macro, a sharp point), having the midvein prolonged beyond the pinnule, forming a sharp point. Musci (mosses), 57. N r-'ephrodium. V. Dryopteris. Nephrolepis, 118; also 6, 16, 80. Nomenclature, 4. Notholaena, 85; also 6, 9, 13, 79. Oak-fern. Fz^Phegopteris. Oblong, from two to four times as long as broad. Obovate (Lat. at, reversed, and ovum, an egg), inverted ovate. Onoclea, 120 ; also 2, 3, 5, 10, 17, 80. Oosphere (Gr. vr6v, a plant, 65. Pteris, 90 ; also 5, 13, 68, 80. Quadri- (Lat. guattuor, four), (as a prefix) four, fourfold. Rachis (Gr. 'paxi?, the spine), the continuation of the stipe through a compound frond. Raphe (Gr. 'pdn, a seam or suture), the ridge which connects the sporo- carp with its stem in Marsilia. Rattlesnake-fern. Vide Bo- trychium. Receptacle (Lat. recipere, to re- ceive), the part to which the sporan- gia are attached, especially in the HvMENOPHVI.LACEjE. Reniform (Lat. rents, the kidneys), kidney-shaped. Resurrection - plant. ViJe Selaginella. Revolute (Lat. rerolvere, to roll back), rolled backward ; said of the margin of fronds. Rhizocarps. Vide Marsilea. Rhomboidal (Gr. 'po^/Sos, a rhomb, and eifios, form), approaching a rhomb in shape. Rock-brake. Vide Crypto- gramma. Rock-moss. Vide Selagi- nella. Roots, 25 Rootstock, an underground stem, 8. S Salvinia, 125 ; also 39, 40. Salviniaceae, 125 ; also 3y.— Litera- ture of, 40. Scandent (Lat. scandere, to climb), climbing. Schizaea, 76 ; also n, 18. Schizaeaceae, n, 75- Scolopendrium. Vide Phyl- litis. Scouring-rush. Vide EquI- setum. Segment, one of the divisions of a pinnatifid frond. Selaginella, 137; 315034,35,36. Selaginellaceae, 137 ; also 34-— Literature of, 37. Sensitive-fern, ride Ono- clea. Serrate (Lat. serra. a saw), having the margin cut into teeth pointing forward. GLOSSARY AND INDEX. 157 Sessile (Lat. set/ere, to sit), without a stalk or petiole. Setif orm (Lat. seta, a bristle, and for mil. form), bristle-like. Shield-fern. V. Dryopteris. Sigillariaceae, 63. Sinuate (Lat. sinus, a bending), having the margin alternately bend- ing inward and outward. Sinus (Lat. a bending), a recess or bay ; the re-entering space between two lobes. Sorus (plu. tori) (Gr. o-upds, a heap or cluster), the clusters of fruit in the POLYPODIACK^. Spatulate (Lat. spatula, a little spoon), shaped like a spatula. Species, 44- Specific Names, 41. Spermaphytes (Gr. o^'pnia, a seed, and 4>\nov, a plant), 10, 20, 50. — Literature of, 59. Spinulose (Lat. spinti, a thorn), thorny. , Spleenwort. Vide Aspleni- um. Sporangium (plu. sporangia) (Gr. o-jropos, a seed, and ayyos, a vessel), the case or capsule enclosing the spores, 10. Spore (Gr. an-opos, seed), the fruit of the higher cryptogams, produced asexually, 10, 18. Sporocarp (Gr. vrov, a plant), a group of plants including the lichens, fungi, and algae, 50. Thalloid (Gr. flaAAos, a young shoot, and eZSos, form), having the form of a thallus, i. e., no leafy axis. Thalloid Phase, 19. Tissues, 24. Tissue Systems, 25. TomentOSe (Lat. tomentum, a stuffing of wool), covered with mat- ted woolly hairs. Tomentum (Lat. a stuffing of wool), the dense matted woolly hair found on some ferns as many species of Cheilanthes. Tri- (Lat. iris, three), (as a prefix) three, thrice. Trichomanes, 74; also 6, n, 17. Trichomes (Gr. flpi'f, hair), hairs, variously modified as scales, indusia, sporangia, etc., produced from the epidermal cells, 26. Triquetrous (Lat. triyuetrus), three-angled. Truncate (Lat. truncare, to cut short), cut off abruptly. Tufted, growing in clusters. U Undulate (Lat. undula,\a. little wave), wavy-margined. 158 GLOSSARY AND INDEX. Vallecuia (plu. vallecula\ the grooves on the stems of Equisetum. Variation among species, 2. Varilties, 45. Vascular (Lat. vascvlum, diminu- tive of vas, a vessel), containing ves- sels, as ducts, etc. Velum (Lat. a curtain), the membra- nous margin of the fovea in Isoetes. Venation (Lat. vena, a vein), the veining of the frond, 10. 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