290 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Aug. 



occurrence in Canada. Large forms of W. Ilvensis have in some 

 cases passed for it. (I introduce this notice of the plant with a 

 view to promote further inquiry.) 



OSMUNDA. 



0. regalis /3. spectabilis, — Fronds erect, pale green, glabrous, bi- 

 pinnate ; pinnules oblong-lanceolate, oblique, shortly stalked, very 

 slightly dilated at the base, nearly entire ; fertile pinnules forming 

 a racemose panicle at the summit of the frond. Osmunda specta- 

 hilis, Willd., J. Smith. Farmersville; Hardwood Creek^ Hinch- 

 inbrook, and other places in rear of Kingston, usually in thickety 

 swamps, by corduroy roads, &c. ; Millgrove Mcirsh, Hamilton, 

 Judge Logie : Ramsay, Rev. J. K. M'Morine, M.A. ; woods near 

 the Hop Grarden, Belleville, not common, J. Macoun ; Prescott, 

 common, B. Billings, juu. ; around Metis Lake, &c. ; opposite Gros 

 Cap ; also Sou-soa-wa-ga-mi Creek and Schibwah River, R. Bell, 

 jun. ; near Montreal, Rev. E. M. Epstein and W. S. M. D'Urban ; 

 mountain, Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, on rocks 1000 feet above 

 the sea, James Richardson (a small form) ; Welland, J. A. Kemp, 

 M.D. ; Osnabruck and Prescott Junction, Rev. E. M. Epstein, 

 Nicolet, Wolfe Island and Navy Island, P. W. Maclagan, M.D. ; 

 Lake St. Charles, Abb^ Provancher ; Caledonia Springs and 

 L'Orignal, J. Bell; Portland. Thos. R. Dupuis, M.D. ; Bedford; 

 London, W. Saunders. The fronds of our plant are a little more 

 drawn out than those erf the European one ; the pinnules are often 

 •distinctly stalked, and the overlapping auricles either altogether 

 absent or only slightly developed. This is 0. spectahilis, Willd. ; 

 0. regalis, 3. Linn. Sp. PI. Some botanists distinguish two Amer- 

 ican forms, one agreeing with the typical 0. regalis of Europe ; but 

 it is difficult to do so. The typical 0. regalis is a larger, more 

 robust, and more leafy plant, with more widely spreading or diver- 

 gent pinme, and more leafy auricled sessile pinnules, more or less 

 pinnatifid at the base ; in our Canadian plant they are quite en- 

 tire. The divisions of the fertile portion of the pinnae are also 

 more widely divergent in a regalis. The frond, moreover, is of a 

 darker color. 



0. cinnamomea, Linn. — Sterile and fertile fronds distinct, the 

 former ample, broadly lanceolate, pinnate ; the pinnae rather deeply 

 pinnatifid ; lobes regular, entire ; fertile frond contracted, erect, 

 in the centre of the tuft of sterile fronds, and not at all foliaceous. 

 Sporangia ferruginous. Fertile frond decaying early in the sum- 



