14 



POLYPODIACEAE 



2. Dryopteris phegopteris (L.) C. Chr. 

 Beech-fern. Fig. 26. 



Potypodiiim phegopteris L. Sp. PI. 1089. 1753. 

 Phegopteris polypodioides Fee, Gen. Fil. 243. 1852. 

 Phegopteris phegopteris Underw.; Small, Bull. Torrey Club 



20: 462. 1893. 

 Dryopteris phegopteris C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 284. 1905. 



Rhizome very slender, wide-creeping ; scales few, 

 thin, appressed, pale, ovate. Fronds few, distant, 

 20-55 cm. long; stipes mostly much longer than the 

 blades, stramineous from a dark base, scantily 

 paleaceous; blades deltoid, 12-25 cm. long, 9-18 cm. 

 broad, long-acuminate, pinnate at the base, the rachis 

 and midribs scantily clothed with small lax rusty 

 lanceolate scales ; pinnae mostly close, adnate, hori- 

 zontal, linear or oblong-lanceolate, attenuate, oh ■ 

 .liquely pinnatifid, the lower ones distant, subsessile, 

 deflexed and advanced, inequilateral, narrowly ovate; 

 segments thin-herbaceous, close, oblong, rounded- 

 obtuse, entire* or crenate, freely whitish-ciliate, white- 

 hairy on both surfaces, chiefly along the veins ; sori 

 rather large, submarginal, naked. 



Moist, often rocky forests, in the Canadian and Transition Zones; Alaska to Newfoundland, south to 

 Washington (Skamania County), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, and the mountains of Virginia; Greenland; 

 Eurasia. Type locality, European. 



3. Dryopteris feci C. Chr. 

 Downy \\'ood-fern. Fig. 27. 



Aspidium pubenilum Fee, Mem. Foug. 10: 40. 1865, not Gaud. 

 1827. 



Nephrodium pubcrulum Baker in Hook. & Baker, Syn. Fil. ed. 2, 

 495. 1874. 



Dryopteris feei C. Chr. Ind. Fil. 89, 264. 1905. 



Rhizome woody, slender, extensively creeping; scales 

 apical, few, appressed, rusty, linear-attenuate, short- 

 hirsute. Fronds few, distichous, ascending, 50-120 cm. 

 long ; stipes stout, stramineous, naked, equaling the 

 blade or not ; blades broadly oblong to ovate-oblong, 

 abruptly acuminate-caudate, 30-70 cm. long, 14-40 cm. 

 broad, pinnate-pinnatifid ; pinnae spreading, linear- 

 attenuate, cut to within 2 or 3 mm. of the stout, yellow- 

 ish, elevated, puberulous midrib ; segments oblique, nar- 

 rowly oblong, close, subfalcate, acuminate, the subentire 

 margins closely revolute, short-ciliate ; veins 8-11 pairs, 

 simple, oblique, the 2 lower pairs running to the hyaline 

 sinus, together with the leaf-tissue freely puberulous 

 beneath, sparingly so above ; sori small, close', supra- 

 medial : indusia small, firm, pilose. 



Mountains of southern Arizona and the coastal canons of southern California (Santa Barbara and Los 

 Angeles Counties) ; Lower California and Mexico generally, chiefly in the Lower Austral Zone. Type 

 locality: Huatusco, Mexico. 



