FERN FAMILY 37 



usually in shady places where a brook or spring keeps the 

 rich, black soil continuously damp. It is luxuriant at the Iron 

 Spring in Tenaya Canon, also in Bridal Veil Meadows, and 

 where Grouse Creek crosses the Wawona Road. Sometimes 

 the indusia are so strongly curved in the spleenworts that 



1 2 3 



1. Asplenium Ulix-femina. 2. Var. latifolium. 3. Var. cyclosorutn. 

 4. Var. angustum. 5. Enlarged segment. 



they are mistaken for the wood-ferns, especially when the sori 

 are mature. The great variation in size, shape of frond and 

 cutting of pinnae and segments has given rise to a number 

 of named varieties, some of which are found in our region. 



Var. latifolium Hook., has fronds 2 to 3 ft. high, oblong-lanceolate, 2-pin- 

 nate or nearly so; pinnae 1 to 4 in. long, oblong-linear, with narrow-winged 

 secondary rachises; segments ovate, broad, obtuse, once or twice serrate; 

 sori nearer the midvein than the margin. Var. cyclosorutn Rupr., has fronds 

 very large (sometimes 5 ft. high and 18 to 20 in. broad) ; segments often 

 \Yi in. long, pinnately incised or nearly again pinnate; indusium usually 

 strongly curved. Var. angustum Eat., has narrow rigid fronds, 2 to 3 ft. 

 high, nearly 2-pinnate; pinnae curved upward or oblique; sori abundant. 



11. POLYSTICHUM. 

 1. P. munitum Presl. Sword-fern. Stalks an inch or two 

 to a foot long, chaffy with large scales at least toward the 

 base. Fronds 1 to 4 ft. long, evergreen, lanceolate in outline, 

 simply pinnate; segments many, 1 to 4 in. long, linear and 

 tapering, enlarged on the upper (and sometimes lower) side 

 of the nearly sessile base, toothed, the teeth bristle-tipped. 

 Sori round, borne on the veinlets, abundant, forming dense 

 rows at maturity; indusium orbicular, without a sinus, fixed 

 by the depressed center to the middle of the sorus above the 

 sporangia. Veins free. (Aspidium munitum Kaulf.) 



