the Rio Grande Plains, with a few stations in the Blackland Prairies and n.-cen. 

 Plains Country, westw. through N.M. (throughout most of the state) to Ariz.; 

 from Va., s. to Fla., w. to Ky., Tenn., Mo., Ariz, and Mex. to n. S. A.; also 

 Euras. 



2. Adiantum tricholepis Fee. Hairy maidenhair fern. Fig. 14. 



Rhizome short, stout, erect or ascending, scaly; rhizome scales deep reddish- 

 brown, narrowly lanceolate, attenuate and usually terminated by an early fugacious 

 contorted seta at the apex, ciliolate; fronds several, cespitose, erect-recurved to 

 pendulous, to 7 dm. tall or more; stipes smooth, vernicose, deep reddish-brown 

 to blackish, to 3 dm. long or more; blades oval to ovate in outline, bipinnate to 

 quadripinnate, pilose throughout with whitish hairs (especially on the veins be- 

 neath), 2-4 dm. long, 1.5-3.5 dm. wide; pinnae alternate, suberect to horizontal, 

 petiolate, to 2 dm. long; ultimate segments small, numerous, petioled, membra- 

 nous to rigidly herbaceous, orbicular-rhombic, subentire to obscurely tricrenate at 

 the broadly rounded apex, truncate to broadly cuneate at the base; sori 3 to 10, 

 marginal; modified indusial margin of the ultimate segments inconspicuous, 

 pubescent, scarious, with undulate margins. 



On moist limestone cliffs along wooded streams on the Edwards Plateau in Tex.; 

 uncommon in Tex., Mex. and Guat. 



This species is not as dependent upon a continuous, permanent source of water 

 as is /i. Capillus-Veneris. It is, however, occasionally found in seepage areas. Our 

 only other species, A. pedatum L., is definitely a terrestrial with erect fronds. 

 It is usually found in rich, moist, loamy soil. 



2. Onoclea L. Sensitive Fern 

 A monotypic genus, native in the Northern Hemisphere. 



1. Onoclea sensibilis L. Fig. 15. 



Coarse herbaceous plant with slender branching rhizome to about 7 mm. thick 

 and copiously rooting and with few light-brown elliptic fugacious scales; fronds 

 conspicuously dimorphic, erect-ascending, scattered along the rhizome; stipes 

 slender, greenish or tinged with brown; sterile frond to 13 dm. high, glabrous, 

 thin-herbaceous, withering with frost; blades broadly triangular, deeply pinnati- 

 fid, the rachis winged; pinnae few, subopposite (especially the lowermost pinnae), 

 oblong-lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse to acute, entire to undulate or the 

 lower and sometimes the middle pinnae sinuately lobed; veins freely anastomos- 

 ing; fertile frond to 8 dm. high, rigidly erect, persistent over winter; blades bipin- 

 nate, with the pinnae much-contracted; pinnules rolled into close berrylike bodies 

 (sporangia) and forming a narrow close panicle. 



In swamps, open flooded woodlands, meadows, sandy bogs, thickets along 

 streams and about lakes, and on seepage slopes, in e. Okla. and in Tex. widespread 

 and rather frequent in the Timber Belt s. to Jefferson Co. in the Coastal Prairies, 

 w. to apparently disjunct stations in Burnet Co. on the Edwards Plateau and 

 Wilson Co. in the Rio Grande Plains; from Nfld. to Ont., Minn, and S.D., s. to 

 n. Fla. and Tex. 



3. Woodwardia Sm. Virginia Chain Fern 

 About 12 species found mainly in the temperate regions of both hemispheres. 



1. Woodwardia virginica (L.) Sm. Fig. 16. 



Rather large coarse terrestrial plants; rhizome woody, ropelike, creeping- 

 elongate and branching, black, to about 2 cm. thick, naked to densely chaffy 

 (especially at apex) with brownish broadly lanceolate scales; fronds erect- 

 ascending, uniform, borne at intervals along the rhizome, 4-15 dm. high; stipes 



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