PI^ANTS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY. 119 



PTERIDOPHYTA-Ferns and their Allies. 

 Order FILICALES 



Southern New Jersey, with its large areas of flat, dry, sandy 

 ground, and its lack of rocky banks and ledges, is a poor region 

 for ferns. While thirty-two species and sub-species have been 

 found within the limits of this list, twenty of them are really 

 only stragglers from farther north, and occur locally in the 

 richer soil of the Middle District, only two or three extending 

 even sporadically to the Pine Barrens. Four species, Onoclea 

 sensibilis, Lygodium palmatiim, Dryopteris thelypteris and Asple- 

 fiium platyneuron, are characteristic plants of the Middle district 

 and, with the exception of Lygodium, are rather generally dis- 

 tributed. Osmunda cinnamomea, O. regalis, Woodivardia areo- 

 lata, W. virginica and Pteridium aquilinum extend also over the 

 Pine Barrens, where they are the only abundant ferns, while the 

 rare Schincea pusilla and Dryopteris simulata are for the most 

 part confined to this region. 



Fruiting Data. — The time of year noted under each species 

 indicates the season of mature spores — that is, the season during 

 which dehiscing sporangia are present. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Plant climbing, "leaves" (frondlets) palmately divided, fruiting portion 

 terminal. Lygodium palmatum, p. 129 



aa. Plant not climbing. 



b. Sterile fronds linear and grass-like, curled and tangled about the base 

 of the slender fertile frond (.5-1 dm. long), which bears the sporanges 

 on minute pinnae at its tip. Schisaa pusilla, p. 125 



bb. Fronds not linear and grass-like. 



c. Sporanges in a spike or panicle at the summit of the stem, with a 

 leaf branching off horizontally from its side. 



d. Leaf ovate, not cut or lobed; arising near the middle of the 



stem, plant 1-1.5 dm. high. Ophioglossum vulgatum, p. 122 



dd. Leaf ovate or oblong; pinnate, plant .5-1 dm. high, sessile 



just below the spike. Botrychium neglectum, p. 122 



ddd. Leaf more or less ternate, segments pinnately divided. 



e. Leaf sessile about the middle of the stem, segments finely 

 doubly pinnate. B. virginianum, p. 123 



