FERN FAMILY 



17 



W: 









8. Dryopteris dilatata (Hoffm.) A. Gray. 

 Spreading Wood- fern. Fig. 32. 



Polypodium dilatation Hoffm. Deutschl. Fl. 2: 7. 1795. 



Dryopteris dilatata A. Gray, Man. 631. 1848. 



Dryopteris spiinilosa dilatata Underw. Nat. Ferns ed. 4, 116. 



1S93. 



Rhizome stout, woody, creeping or ascending, chaffy. 

 Fronds 30-100 cm. long or more., spreading, borne in a 

 complete crown ; stipes stout, 15^5 cm. long, clothed 

 with brownish, often darker-centered scales; blades _tri- 

 angular to ovate or broadly oblong, acuminate, 15-90 

 cm. long, 10-40 cm. broad, nearly or quite 3-pinnate ; 

 basal pinnae broadly ovate or triangular, inequilateral, 

 the upper ones lanceolate to oblong ; pinnules lanceolate 

 to oblong, acute, the larger ones not decurrent, pinnate 

 or at least pinnately divided ; segments herbaceous, ob- 

 liquely pinnatihd or toothed, the teeth mucronate, 

 straight or falcate, usually not appressed; sori mostly 

 subterminal; indusia glabrous or sparsely glandular. 



Rocky woods, Canadian and Humid Transition Zones; Alaska 

 to Newfoundland, south to California (Mendocino, Sonoma, and 

 San Mateo Counties), IMontana and New England, and in the 

 mountains to North Carolina and Tennessee; Greenland; Eurasia. 

 Type locality: Germany. \'ariable in scale and indusium char- 

 acters and including several very critical forms. 



6. WOODWARDIA J. E. Smith, Mem. Acad. Sci. Turin 5: 411. 1793. 



Coarse, mostly large ferns of low shady situations, the stout woody rhizomes short- 

 creeping to erect. Fronds several or many, in a crown, rigidly ascending or laxly recurved; 

 blades uniform, leafy, once pinnate, the pinnae lobed or coarsely pinnatifid. Sori oblong to 

 linear, straight or slightly curved, borne singly on the outer horizontal veins of a continuous 

 series of elongate areoles lying next to the costa of the segments, sunken, facing inward 

 and occupying the areole, tumid, the ample, elongate, arched indusia at first completely 

 enveloping the sporangia, firm, persistent, at length reflexed; veins arising from the costal 

 areoles branched, either wholly free and excurrent to the margin of the segment or partly 

 joined basally to form 1 or 2 more or less incomplete rows of oblique sterile areoles. [Name 

 in honor of Thomas J. Woodward, an English botanist.] 



Four or five species, of North America and Eurasia, only one occurring in the United States. Type 

 species, Blechnum radicans L. 



1. Woodwardia chamissoi Brack. 

 Gi,ant Chain-fern. Fig. ZZ. 



Woodwardia chamissoi Brack, in Wilkes, U. S. Explor. Exped. 



16: 138. 1854. 

 Wood'juardia radicans amcricana Hook. Sp. Fil. 3: 67. 1860. 

 Wooduardia paradoxa Wright, Gard. Chron. III. 41: 98. 1907. 



Rhizome stout, woody, oblique ; scales lance-atten- 

 uate, 1-3 cm. long, bright castaneous, thin, glossy, en- 

 tire. Fronds suberect, 1-3 meters long; stipes short, 

 stout, stramineous from a brown base; blades linear- 

 oblong to oblong-ovate or oblanceolate, short-acumi- 

 nate. 20-50 cm. broad, pinnate, narrow at the base; 

 pinnae very deeply and obliquely pinnatifid, the middle 

 ones up to 30 cm. long, close or imbricate, linear-oblong 

 to ovate, long-acuminate ; segments narrowly triangular 

 to linear-attenuate, subfalcate, decurrent, undulate- 

 crenate or shallowly lobed, serrate-spinulose ; excurrent 

 veins oblique, 1-2-forked, free, or partly joined basally; 

 - leaf tissue herbaceous, paler beneath, the veins resinous- 

 glandular. 



Moist shady banks from near sea level to above 1500 meters 

 ahitude. Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones; western British 

 Columbia to southern California and .Arizona; also in northeast- 

 srn Nevada. Type locality: California. 



7. ASPLENIUM L. Sp. PI. 1078. 1753. 



Small to large ferns of forests or rocky ledges, the fronds rosulate to erect-spreading, 

 with creeping to erect rhizomes, the scales rigid, with thick, dark-colored partition cell-walls. 

 Fronds usually uniform, the blades simple to 1-4-pinnate or several times pinnatifid. 

 glabrous, variously pubescent, or slightly palaceous. the rachises dark and lustrous to green 



