ih 
1915] Fernald,— Dryopteris spinulosa, var. dilatata 47 
That the common plant of eastern America has the scales paler- 
colored than in most European plants is not a new observation, though 
current descriptions and treatments of the plant might so indicate. 
The late D. C. Eaton explicitly said: “In European examples of 
[Aspidium spinulosum,| var. dilatatum the scales have a very conspicu- 
ous dark central spot or stripe. This is sometimes lacking in Euro- 
pean specimens,! and generally so in North American. I notice a 
little of it in Oregon plants [typical var. dilatatum as above pointed 
out"? Still earlier, the learned Gustav Kunze, recognizing in the 
common plant of our northern latitudes and mountains its true 
affinity, as a variety or species closely related to typical D. spinulosa, 
with its thin and pale quickly deciduous scales and glabrous indusia, 
rather than to true var. dilatata, published the following luminous 
note, which has received less attention than it deserves from students 
of American ferns: 
“The identity of A[spidium] spinulosum, Sw., A. dilatatum, Sw., 
_ A. dumetorum, W., and A. intermedium, W., as different forms of one 
species, cannot be doubted any longer. A peculiar variety of A. 
spinulosum occurs in the northern latitudes and on the mountains 
of the Southern States, which must be studied more closely in its 
native localities, as it may prove to be a distinct species. I have 
specimens of this form from Newfoundland (La Pylaie), Greenland, 
and Labrador (Breutel and Kurr), New England mountains, sterile 
(Tuckerman), and from the highest tops of the Black Mountains, 
North Carolina (Rugel). Cultivated specimens have been communi- 
cated to me from the botanical garden of St. Petersburg, (Dr. Fischer 
. as A. spinulosum americanum,) and from that of Berlin. The lowest 
pair of the mostly opposite pinnae is ascending and curved upwards, 
and has a different direction from the other pinnae. The pinnulae are 
more deeply pinnatified, with more and sharper teeth than in the 
common form; those of the lowest pinnae, especially near the base, are 
much elongated downwards, by which these pinnae assume a very 
irregularly triangular shape. "The sori are nearer the middle nerve. 
The stipe is thickly covered with brown or redish paleae. If this form 
1 Eaton here referred to extreme variations in Europe, such as Lastrea dilatata, var. 
glandulosa Moore, with ‘‘fronds densely covered with stalked glands beneath... ME 
scales....pale whole-coloured, or faintly two-coloured, broadly lanceolate-ovate'' — 
See Moore, 1. c. 226. 
? Eaton, Ferns N. A. ii. 167 (1880). 
45^ 
