CANADIAN FILICINEiB. 179 



(lissecliim is recorded ouly from Mt. Uniackc, N. S. — Rev. J.B. Uniackc; and New Germany, 

 Lnueuburg Co,, N. S. — Rev. E. H. Ball. 



§ § Base of stalk which encloses the bud open along one side. Sterile divi- 

 sion membranaceous. 



6. — B. ViRGiNlANTJM, Sivz., (Virginian Grape-Fern, Rattlesnake-Fern), Hook, and Baker, 

 Syn. Fil., 448. Watt, Can. Nat,, IV, 364. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 253. Underwood, Our 

 Nat. Ferns, etc., "TS. 



B. Virginicum, "Willd., Gray, Man., 6*71. Pursh, II. 656. Provancher, Flor. Can., 721. 

 Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 292. Macoun's Cat., No. 2337. Fowler's N. B Cat., No. 772. Ball., 

 Trans. N. S. Inst.' Nat. Sci., IV, 156. 



Osmunda Virginiana, L. 



Botnjpm Virginicus, Mx., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 274. 



This is a beautiful fern, Avith the leafy portion, when well developed, resembling in 

 general appearance the foliage of some of the umbelliferous plants. It is non-evergreen, 

 smooth or sparsely hairy, usually from 8 inches to 2 feet high, and grows in rich woods, 

 or sometimes in bush clearings. Sterile segment sessile about the middle of the plaut or 

 a little above it, broadly triangular, and ternate ; primary di^àsions short-stalked, lateral 

 ones ovate, the terminal triangular, all once or twice pinnate, then once or twice piuuatifid ; 

 secondary divisions ovate-lanceolate; ultimate segments oblong, toothed at the apex; fer- 

 tile segment long stalked, bi-quadripinnate : buds pilose, with the fertile segment recurved 

 its Avhole length, the larger sterile segment reclined upon it. 



The fertile spike of this species occasionally forks, and specimens have been reported 

 with the fertile panicle partly transformed into a sterile one. The plant known as var, 

 gracile. Hook, and Grev., [B. gracile, Pursh), is a very small and delicate form, 4 to 5 inches 

 high, with the fruiting panicle of few capsules and the bud smooth or nearly so. Mr. 

 Davenport, in Torr. Bull., Vol. X, p. 5, states that this form is probably rather the young 

 state of B. Virginianmi than a true variety, and that its bud being smooth or very nearly 

 so, the vernation of this species will probably prove to be, " bud smooth at first (in the 

 youngest state), finally pirbesceut, the hairy covering of the mature bud having only gra- 

 dvially been taken on with age." A form of B. Virginianum, the common one in places on 

 the north shore of Lake Superior, where it grows in old clearings, is distinguished from 

 the typical plaut by its having a much less delicately membranaceous sterile segment, 

 which at the same time is small in proportion to the size of the plaut and comparatively 

 little decompound. With this form the Rocky Mountain and British Columbian speci- 

 mens agree in the rigidity and thickness of their sterile segments. In a specimen from the 

 Island of Anticosti, Que., the sterile segment is placed at the upper part of the plant, the 

 common stalk forming fully three-fourths of the height. 



In Canada this fern is very abundant, stretching northward to near the Arctic Circle, 

 and from the Maritime Provinces westward as far as the wooded country extends in the 

 prairie region, and through the mountains to British Columbia. Not very plentiful in 

 Eastern Quebec, it becomes much more so in the western part of that province, and find 

 its true home in the rich woods of Ontario, where it is one of the commonest of ferns. It 

 is less abundant in the wooded parts of Manitoba and the Northwest but extends far 

 north and again becomes fairly plentiful in British Columbia. Not common in Nova 



