I I.KN FAMILY. .'171 



23. ALSOPHILA. (From Greek words meaning yi-orr-loi-i'ti'/, the species 

 growing in tropical forests. 



A. aspera. Unruly cult, from \Y r . Indies: trunk 6 - 8 lii^li ; stalks 

 prickly, clothed at th.- base with pale, narrow scales ; fronds C,'-' - s 

 wide, bipinnutc ; rhachis hairy above ; pinna 1 oblong-lanceolate; pinnule'- vrrv 

 many, lanceolate, pinnatitid almost to the midrib; lubes oblong, curved, ser- 

 rate, obtuse ; frnit-dots 8-10 to a lube; indusium u thin scale Oil on.- side oi 

 the fruit-dot, often disappearing with age. 



A. pruinata, from S. America, is sometimes seen : a much smaller plant. 

 rootstock short, clothed with bright-brown wool ; fronds smootli, J_TC<_-H above, 

 pale and glaucous often almost white beneath, bipinnate; pinnules deeply 

 toothed ; fruit-dots solitary at the base of each tooth; spore-cases mixed with 

 woolly hairs. 



24. TRICHOMANES. (An ancient Greek name of sonic Fern, referring 



to the hair-like stalks.) A large genus ; most of the species tropical. 



T. radicans. On dripping rocks, Alabama and Tennessee, very rare : frond- 

 pellucid, 4'-8' high, the stalk and rhachis narrowly winded, lanceolate, pinnate 

 with I - 2-pinnatirid ovate pinna;; involucres on short lobes, fnnnel->liaped, 

 with long exserted receptacles. A broader and more compound form from 

 Killarney, Ireland, is grown in Wardian eases. 



25. LYGOpIUM, CLIMBING-FERN. (Name from a Creek word 

 meaning flexible, alluding to the twining and climbing fronds.) Not many 

 species ; all but ours tropical. 



L. palmatum. Low shady woods, rather rare: smooth, slender, and deli- 

 cate, 2-4 high, entangled among herbs; pinnae roundish, 12"- 18" wide, 

 deeply heart-shaped at the base, pahaately 5-7-lobed, upper ones decompound 

 and fertile. 



L. Japonicum. Conservatory plant from Japan : climbing 10- 12 hi-h. 

 smooth; pinna; ovate, 5' -9' long, bipinnate, divisions ovate-lanceolate, often 

 halberd-shaped ; divisions of the upper pin HIE bordered with narrow fertile lobes. 



26. ANEIMIA. (Name from the Greek, meaning without covering, allud- 

 ing to the naked spore-cases.) Mainly tropical. 



A. Phyllitidis. Cult, from S. America: 12'- 18' hi-h, has the two lower 

 pinna? lon'4-stalked, narrowly-elongated, y-4-pinnate, fertile: middle portion 

 of i lie frond sterile, simply pinnate ; pinna; lanceolate, linely serrate; veins re- 

 ticulated. 



A. adiantoides. Native in Key West, Florida ; \vith lower pinnae as in 

 the last; middle portion sterile, 2-3-pinnate ; pinna 1 lony-pmntcd : divisions 

 obovate-wedge-shaped, entire or toothed at the end, with free veins forking from 

 the base. 



27. SCHIZJEA. (Name from the Greek verb which means to split, ret- r- 

 ring to the many-forked fronds of certain tropical species.) 



S. pusilla. Wet sand, in pine woods of New Jersey : sfrik- fronds very 

 slender, flattened, Minpk and linear, curled up; fertile on.'- Miuilar, but straight, 

 2' -3' high, bearing at the top the fertile portion, 2" -3" Ion-, composed ( 

 about 5 pairs of minute pinna;. (Lessons, p. 158, fig. 505-507.) 



28. OSMUNDA, FLO'.VEUING FF.KX. ,N:une of doubtful uri-in. 



anciently " Osin und the Wutrniifin," who was perhap- St. (Kimtnd. 11 -h 



Salisbury, or possibly St. Christopher, patnm of \va-ermen. 



British Ferns.) Spcc'ics very few, fruiting in spring or early summer. 

 * Fruiting fronds distinct from t/,, /,-;///.'.(..<. 



O. Cinnam6mea, CISNAMON-FI:I;N. Swamp-, abundant evcrynhcTc 

 sterile fronds 2 - 5 high, broadly lanceolate, pinnate with many lam- 

 deeply pinnatifid pinn:v : fertile ones much shorter, at first woolly, >oon with- 

 ering"; fructification bright cinnamon color. 



