CANADIAN FlLlCINEiE. 217 



much uarrowed at the base, i)innate iuto uumerotis, sessile, liuear-lauceolate, acumiuate 

 pinnae (the lowest ones deflexed), which are in turn deeply pinnatifid into crowded, 

 oblong, obtuse, entire segments ; fertile fronds 9 inches to Ih feet long, dark coloured, con- 

 tracted, rigid, pinnate into obtuse, obliquely ascending, almost entire or pinnately lobed 

 pinna?, the margins of which are rolled backward to form necklace-like or almost cylin- 

 drical bodies enclosing the fruit ; veins of both sterile and fertile fronds free. 



This fern occasionally presents a condition analagous to the var. obtusilobata of O. sensi- 

 bilis, in the shape of fronds intermediate between the barren and fertile, bearing a few sori 

 on contracted though still herbaceous pinuœ. 



The Ostrich-Fern in Canada ranges from Nova Scotia to Lake Winnipeg and the Sas- 

 katchewan, being very common as far west as Lake Huron. Only noted about forty miles 

 north of Michipicotin on the Magpie Eiver, and about five miles u.p the Kamiuistiquia 

 River, Lake Superior, Ont. ; along the Assiniboine River, from Winnipeg to the Souris 

 River, Man. — Mucoun. North-west Angle, Lake of the Woods, Man. — Burgess. Canada to 

 the Saskatchewan. — Richardson. 



Genus XVIL— WOODSIA, R. Br., Woodsia. 



§ Stalks obscurely articulated near the base ; fronds chaffy or smooth, never 

 glandular. 



=* Fronds glabrous or nearly so. 



1.— W. GLABELLA, R. Br., (Smooth Woodsia), Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 259. Gray, Man., 

 669. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 289. Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. Hook, and Baker, Syu. Fil., 4*7. 

 Macoun's Cat., No. 2326. Goode, Can. Nat., IX, 298. Fowler's N. B. Cat., No, "766. Eaton, 

 Ferns of N. A., II, 115. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 110. 



W. Alpina, var. glabella, Eaton. 



Pnlypodium fontanum, L. 



This species of Woodsia is extremely delicate and non-evergreen, growing in tufts on 

 moist, shaded rocks, or in their crevices, and only reaching a height of li to 6 inches. 

 Rootstocks short, ascending, clustered ; stalks slender, usually less than an inch in length, 

 smooth or with a little chaff below the articulation ; fronds bright gi-een, narrowly linear- 

 lanceolate, usually 1 to 5 inches long by 3 to 6 lines wide, glabrous both sides, pinnate ; 

 pinnae 1 to 3 lines long, roundish-ovate or somewhat deltoid, obtiise, and creuately lobed 

 into 3 to 1, rounded, nearly entire lobes ; sori very few ; indusia with only a few long 

 cilia on their margins. 



The degree of variation in this fern does not seem to be very great, var. Belli of Law- 

 son having been since referred by him to W. hyperborea, in which W. glabella finds its closest 

 ally. The difierences between the two plants consist only in the latter being shorter, 

 with narrower, more delicate and perfectly smooth fronds, which have but slightly lobed 

 pinnae and very scantily ciliate indusia. Bifurcating fronds are very occasionally seen, 

 and many of the Lake Superior specimens differ from those found in the Eastern Provinces 

 in having their pinnae markedly more distant and more inclined to be triangular. 



Though comi^aratiA^ly rare and quite local, the Smooth Woodsia in Canada has a wide 



Sec. IV., 1S84. 28. 



