Section IV., 1884. t ^^^ ] Trans. Boy. Soc. Canada. 



IX. — Canadian Filicinece. 



£^ John.Macoun.M.A., F.L.S., and T. J. W. Burgess, M.B 



(Read in abstract May .23, 1884.) 



Probably no form of growth throughout the vegetable kingdom attracts more general 

 attention than ferns, which, while appealing strongly to the scientific tastes, have an 

 equally powerful claim upon the artistic. Their distribiition over the whole surface of 

 the globe, with the exception of the sterile portions of the polar regions, places at least some 

 forms within the reach of everyone, while, grow in what locality they may, there is none 

 to which they do not lend an added charm. Of the home of these beautiful produc- 

 tions of Nature, nowhere can we find a more charming description than that of Mr. 

 F. Gr. Heath, who, in his introduction to "The Fern World," speaks of it as " A world — 

 apart — of dreamy beauty, of soft vapoiirs and chequered sunbeams. A world — below 

 the glare of noonday — filled with the most delicate and graceful of the forms which 

 Nature's God has made to clothe the earth with a mantle of green. A world where 

 Nature's own sweet music — the silvery music of the streamlet's ripple — falls, gently 

 cadenced, on the ear : or where the stillness of repose is unbroken, even by the hum of 

 insect life. A world sometimes of darkness relieved but by the faintest gleam of light ; 

 sometimes of open rocks and streams, where the roar of the torrent echoes over the 

 moxiutain side, and rushing water reflects the golden colouring of the sun-rays. A fairy 

 world hidden away under the covering of rugged rocks on the sea-shore, beneath moss- 

 covered stones in the river's bed, or in the depths of the primeval forest." 



The purpose of the present paper is to place before you a full though succinct account 

 of such of these most interesting plants as are found within the confines of the Dominion. 



Twenty years ago there was published " A Synopsis of Canadian Ferns and Filicoid 

 Plants," containing brief descrii:>tions, with the distribution, of all our then known species, 

 since which time, so far as I am aware, no similar work has been undertaken. This valu- 

 able paper, by George Lawsou, Ph. D., LL.D., which appeared first in the Edinburgh 

 "New Philosophical Journal" (January and April numbers, 1864, Vol. XIX, N. S.), and in 

 the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, (Vol. VIII, pp. 20-50), was reprint- 

 ed the same year at Montreal, in the " Canadian Naturalist," (N. S., Vol. I, No. 4, August, 

 pp. 262-.300.) The number of ferns, including Ophioglossaceœ, recorded in it was fifty, of 

 which eight were considered of doubtful occurrence. Of these eight, three, Asplenium 

 marinum, Asplenium montanum and Asplenium Ruta-muraria do not, as far as yet known, 

 favour us ; two, Schizœa pusilla and Woodsia ohliisa, are confined to Nova Scotia, each 

 having been discovered in a single locality only, and within the past few years ; while 

 the remaining three, Aspidium Filix-mas, Aspidium fragrans and Ophioglossum vulgatum, 

 are now known in numerous districts. The forty-seven species to which Professor Law- 



