ge Maidenhair Spleenwort 
the uppermost sessile, articulated at points of attachment; the 
lower reduced, roundish-oblong or roundish-oval or reniform, 
or roundish-fan-shaped with cuneate or truncate base; those 
above roundish-oblong or oval, obliquely wedge-truncate at base, 
inequilateral, sometimes auricled on upper side; except at base 
somewhat crenate or sometimes more or less incised: surfaces 
glabrous: rachis purplish-brown, glossy, flattened or slightly 
convex on face, appearing furrowed from wings connecting 
pinne which are similar to and continuous with wings of petiole: 
foot-stalks of pinne purplish-brown: color otherwise deep green: 
texture firmly membranaceous. 
Venation pinnate, free: primary branches of pinne’s mid- 
veins, excepting the basal, mostly once-forked or the outermost 
simple, or a few bearing branches which are simple to twice 
forked: superior or both basal primary branches of midveins 
once to three times forked or bearing branches which are simple 
or bear branches. 
Sori oblong or linear, each borne on a midvein’s primary 
branch when this is simple, when it is compound extending along 
or wholly upon its superior basal branch or extending along or 
wholly upon a veinlet of the latter next the midvein, opening 
toward the midvein: indusia whitish, delicately membranous, 
subentire or undulate or irregularly crenate. 
Spores marked with anastomosing ridges or verrucose or 
papillose with ridges reduced or lacking. 
Habitat. Seams, pockets, and ledges of shaded cliffs, par- 
ticularly limestone. 
Range. Nova Scotia and eastern coast of Hudson Bay to 
Alabama, Texas, and Arizona, northwestward to Oregon, British 
Columbia, and Alaska. 
