20 POLY PODIACEAE. 
vB WOODWARDIA J. E. Smith, Mem. Acad. Tor. 5: 411. 1793. 
Large and rather coarse ferns of swamps or wet woods, with pinnate or nearly 2-pinnate 
leaves and oblong or linear sori, sunk in cavities of the leaf and arranged in chain-like 
rows, parallel to the margins of the pinnae. Leaves all alike or the pinnae of the fertile 
ones much narrower than those of the sterile. Indusia subcoriaceous, fixed by their outer 
margins to a veinlet and covering the cavity like a lid. Veins more or less reticulated. 
Sporanges pedicelled, provided with a vertical ring, bursting transversely. [Name in 
honor of Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, 1745-1820, English botanist. ] 
Six species, mostly of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, another occurs on the 
Pacific coast of North America. 
Leaves uniform ; veins free between the sori and the margin. 1. W. Virginica. 
Leaves of two kinds ; veins everywhere anastomosing, 2. W. areolata. 
1. Woodwardia Virginica (L.) J. E. Smith. Virginia Chain-fern. (Fig. 42.) 
Blechnum Virginicum Y. Mant, 2: 307. 1771. 
Woodwardia Virginica J. E. Smith, Mem. 
Acad, Tor. 5: 412. 1793. 
Rootstock long, stout, horizontal, subterra- 
nean or creeping, chaffy. Stipes stout, 12’—-18/ 
long, nearly or quite naked, dark-colored be- 
low; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at the 
apex, narrowed at the base, 1°-2° long, 6’-9’ 
wide, pinnate ; pinnae linear-lanceolate, usu- 
ally alternate or some of them opposite, coria- 
ceous, glabrous, acuminate at the apex, ses- 
sile, 3/-6’ long, deeply pinnatifid into ovate 
or oblong obtuse segments, their margins 
minutely serrulate; veins forming a single 
series of areolae on either side of the mid- 
vein, the sori borne on the outer curving 
veinlets ; sterile and fertile leaves similar in 
outline. 
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In swamps, often in deep water, Nova Scotia 
to Ontario and Michigan, south to Florida, 
Louisiana and Arkansas. Ascends to 1300 ft. in 
Pennsylvania. Alsoin Bermuda. June-July. 
2. Woodwardia areolata (I,.) Moore. Net-veined Chain-fern. (Fig. 43.) 
Acrostichum areolatum J,. Sp. Pl. 1069. 1753. 
Woodwardia angustifolia J. E. Smith, Mem. 
Acad. Tor. 5: 411. 1793. 
Woodwardia areolata Moore, Index Filicum, 
xlv. 1857. 
Rootstock slender, widely creeping, 
chaffy. Leaves of two kinds, the fertile 
taller than the sterile and borne on longer 
stipes, 1°-2° high, their pinnae much con- 
tracted, narrowly linear, 3’-5’ long, 2’’-3’’ 
wide, distant, their bases connected by a 
very narrow wing to the rachis or quite dis- 
tinct ; sterile leaves deltoid-ovate, membran- 
ous, broadest at the base, or sometimes 
with one or two small pinnae below, the 
apex acuminate, the segments lanceolate 
or oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 
minutely serrulate, sometimes undulate, 
their bases connected by a rather broad 
rachis-wing; veins forming numerous 
areolae. 
In swamps and moist soil, Maine to*Florida, 
‘Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas; also in 
Michigan. Ascends to 3000 ft. in North Caro- 
lina. Aug.-Oct. 
