270 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Aug. 



near Kingston, with tlie normal form. This variety resembles P, 

 Rohertianum in general aspect, hut is not at all glandulose. 



P. Rohertianum, Hoffman. — A stouter plant than P. Dryopterh ; 

 fronds more rigid and erect ; rachis, &c., closely beset with minute- 

 stalked glands. P. Rohertianum, Hoffman, Moore. &c. P. caJca- 

 reum, Sm., P. Dri/ojyteris, var. caJcareiim,A. Gray. Canada, Moore 

 and other authors; United States, G-ray and others. This species 

 is commonly spoken and written of as a Canadian fern. Not 

 having had an opportunity of seeing Canadians specimens, I cannot 

 cite special habitats. The minutely glandulose rachis serves at once 

 to distinguish it. 



Adiantum. 



m 



A.pedatiim, Linn. — Stipe black and shining, erect, forked at top, 

 the forks secundly branched, the branches being oblique triangular 

 oblong pinnules. A. pedatiim, Linn., A. Gray, &c., Low's Ferns, 

 vol. iii, pi. 14. Abundant in vegetable soil in the woods around 

 Kingston; woods around the iron-mines at Newboro-on-the-Rideau ; 

 Farmersville ; Toronto; Montreal, Chippawa, Wolfe Island, and 

 Maiden, P. W. Maclagan, M.D. ; Belleville, in rich woods, abun- 

 dant, J. Macoun ; Ramsay, Rev. J. K. McMorine, M.A. ; Ke-we- 

 naw Point, R. Bell, jun ; at the Sulphur Spring, and common every- 

 where about Hamilton, Judge Logic ; Lake Huron, Hook. Fl. B. 

 A.; De Salaberry, west line, W. S. M. D'Urban ; on the Gatineau 

 near Gilmour's rafting-ground, D. M Gillivray, M.D, ; London, 

 W. ■ Saunders ; St. Joachim and Isle St. Paul, Montreal, 

 Abbe Provancher ; West Hawkesbury and Grenville, C. E., J. 

 Bell, B. A. Apparently common everywhere in Upper Canada. 

 I cannot speak so definitely of the Lower Province. This is one 

 of our finest Canadian ferns ; " the most graceful and delicate of 

 North American ferns," says Torrey. It is easily cultivated. Fine 

 as it is in the Canadian woods, I have specimens even more hand- 

 some from Schooley's Mountains (A. 0. Brodie, Ceylon Civil Ser- 

 vice) ; their fan-like fronds spread out in ^ semicircle, with a radius 

 of 2J feet. It is not a variable species in Canada. T. Moore, in 

 " Index Filicum," gives its distribution as N. and N. W. America 

 California to Sitka, North India, Sikkim, Neapal, Gurwhal, Simla 

 Kumaon, Japan. There is a var. ^. Aleaticmn, Rupr., in the 

 Aleutian Islands. 



Pteris. 



P. aquilina^ Linn. — Stipe stout, 1 to 3 feet high, frond ter- 

 nate, branches bipinnate, pinnules oblong lanceolate, sori continu- 



