224 MACOUN AND BUEGISS ON 



they may be broadly-oval or obloug-lauceolate. Their apices may be sub-acute and their 

 bases very unequal, rounded, sub-cordate or atiricled on the lower side, vi'hile the margins 

 may be entire or lobed in their lower half. The American plant has been described as a 

 distinct species, under the names O. glaucescens and O. spectahilis, also as a distinct variety 

 O. regal is var. sjiecfabi/h, bi\t it corresponds too closely to the European to admit of such 

 separation. The distinctions of the European O. regulis have been found in its darker 

 colour, greater size, more spreading pinnte, and auricled pinnules, but American specimens 

 identical in all these respects are not at all uncommon. As regards the fertile fronds, 

 sometimes some of the fruiting piunte are but partly contracted and continue leaf-life 

 with sporangia along their margins, a state analagous to var. ohtusilobala of Onoclea sensibilis, 

 or, again, the fruiting may imitate that of O. Clai/toniana, the frond being fertile in the 

 middle and barren above and below, var. inleiriipta, Milde. 



This plant was formerly esteemed as possessing astringent and emmenagogue proper- 

 ties, but is now considered of little value. In the northern parts of England an infusion 

 of the rliizome, which is very starchy, is a popular remedy for rickets, and an application 

 to sprains and bruises, while in the north of Europe a similar infusion has been used as 

 a starch. 



The Eoyal-Fern is very common in most parts of the eastern half of oiir territory, but 

 becomes rare toward its w^estern limit, which, according to Richardson and Eaton, is the 

 Saskatchewan. Observed north of Lake Superior at Round Lake, on the line of the Cana- 

 dian Pacific Railway, twehe miles east of the Pic River, and at Current River, Thunder 

 Bay. — Macoim. Muskeg Island, Lake Winnipeg. — J. 31. Macoitn. 



* * Sterile fronds pinnate, with deeply pinnatifid pinna-. 



2. — O. CLAYTOistiANA, L., (Clayton's Flowering-Fern, Interrupted Fern), Swartz, Syn. 

 Fil., 160. Pursh, II, 65*7. Gray, Man., 670. Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 426. Lawson, 

 Can. Nat., I, 291. Macoun's Cat., No. 2333. Fowler's N. B. Cat., No. 768. Ball, Trans. 

 N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 155. Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 364. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 219. 

 Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 113. 



O. interrupta, Mx., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 273. Hook.. Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 265. Pursh, II, 657. 

 Provaucher, Fl. Can., 721. 



Struthiopteris Claytoniana, Bernh. 



This is a handsome, non-evergreen species, commonly about 2 to 4 feet high, growing 

 in circular tufts in low grounds, wet woods and thickets. The sterile and fertile fronds 

 are unlike, the former growing generally on the outside of the circle, gradually curve 

 gracefully outward in all directions to form a vase-like surrounding for the latter, which 

 are taller, erect, and have a few of the middle pairs of pinnae contracted and covered with 

 sporangia. Rootstock creeping, greatly thickened with imbricated stalk-bases ; stalks 

 stout, erect, usually a little more than half as long as the fronds, when young clothed 

 with loose, brownish wool, with stipular wings at the base ; sterile fronds oblong-lance- 

 olate in outline, 1| to 2| feet long by 6 inches to 1 foot wide, woolly when young but 

 smooth, except for a little of the wool in the axils of the pinnae and along the midribs, 

 when mature, rounded or short pointed at the apex, pinnate ; pinnae short-stalked, oblong- 

 lanceolate, rather obtuse, deeply pinnatifid into ovatc-oblong, obtixse, entire, oblique pin- 

 nules ; fertile fronds like the sterile, except that 2 to 5 pairs of the central pinnae (which 



