CLIMBING FERN FAMILY. 7 
Family 4. SCHIZAEACEAE Reichenb. Consp. 39. 1828. 
Ferns of various habit, with simple or pinnate leaves. Sporanges borne 
in spikes or panicles, ovoid, sessile, provided with an apical ring, opening verti- 
cally by a longitudinal slit. 
Five genera and about 75 species, the following genera represented in the north temperate 
zone, the others tropical in distribution. 
Sporanges in close 2-ranked spikes ; leaves filiform. 1. Schizaea. 
Sporanges in ample panicles ; pinnules palmate. 2. Lygodium. 
1. SCHIZAEA J. B. Smith, Mem. Acad: Tor. 5: 419. pl zo. f.9. 1793. 
Small slender ferns with filiform or linear leaves, the fertile distinct from the sterile. 
Sporanges sessile in close distichous spikes along the single vein of the narrow divisions of 
the fertile leaves, provided with a complete apical ring. [Greek, in allusion to the cleft 
leaves of some species. ] 
_ A genus of 16 species, of wide geographic distribu- 
tion, mostly in tropical regions. 
1. Schizaea pusilla Pursh. Curly-grass. 
(Fig. 12.) 
Schizaea pusilla Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 657. 1814. 
Sterile leaves linear, very slender and tortuous. 
Fertile leaves longer, 3/-5/ high, the fertile por- 
tion terminal, consisting of about 5 pairs of 
crowded pinnae, forming a distichous spike; 
sporanges ovoid or pyriform, sessile in two rows 
along the single vein of the narrow incurved linear 
divisions of the fertile leaf, partially concealed by 
itsincurved margins which are hooded at the apex 
and ciliate ; ring apical, the sporanges opening by 
a vertical slit. 
( 
In wet soil, pine barrens of New Jersey and in 
Nova Scotia. Rare and local. Aug.-Sept. 
2. LYGODIUM Sw. Schrad. Journ. Bot. 2: 106. 1800, 
Twining or climbing ferns, the lower divisions sterile, variously stalked and lobed, the 
fertile terminal, panicled. Sporanges ovoid, solitary or two together in the axils of imbri- 
cated scale-like indusia, provided with an apical ring, opening vertically. Indusia fixed by 
their broad bases to short oblique veinlets. [Greek, in allusion to the flexible stipes. ] 
Sixteen species, mostly of tropical distribution. 
1. Lygodium palmatum (Bernh.) Sw. 
Climbing Fern. Hartford Fern. 
(Ginges, aee4 )) 
Gisoplerts palmata Bernh. Schrad. Journ. Bot. 2: 129. 
ae 
endear palmatum Sw. Syn. Fil. 154. 1806. 
Rootstock slender, creeping. Stipes slender, 
flexible and twining ; leaves 1°-3° long, their short 
alternate branches 2-forked, each fork bearing a 
nearly orbicular 4~7-lobed pinnule which is more 
or less cordate at the base with a narrow sinus; 
surfaces naked; fertile pinnules contracted, sev- 
eral times forked, forming a terminal panicle; 
sporanges solitary, borne on the alternate veins 
which spring from the flexuous midvein of the 
segments, each covered by a scale-like indusium. 
In moist thickets and open woods, Massachusetts to 
Pennsylvania, south to Florida and Tennessee. As- 
cends to 2100 ft. in eastern Pennsylvania. Summer. 
