472 Eaton: Pteridophytes observed in Florida 



Pteris caudata L. 



Q 



woods and on borders of ham- 



mocks, small when in dry situations but attaining a great size 

 when in fairly moist humus. At Orange Glade there was an 

 abandoned Indian camp that was a complete tangle of this fern, 

 some specimens being 36 dm. high, with a spread of 18 dm. 



Pteris longifolia L. 



Common in the rough limestone a little back from hammocks 

 and in small lime-sinks and pot-holes in pine woods, usually in 

 company with Ancimia adiantifolia. Sometimes 11.5 dm. high 

 and 12 cm. wide when growing in deep shaded cavities. Not 

 observed save in the limestone region. 



Blechnum serrulatum Rich. 



Abundant throughout, in fresh-water swamps, in the rich 

 mucky hammocks bordering the streams and everglades, and in 

 the cypress of the west coast. In sunlight the fronds are erect, 

 the pinnae ascending or erect, and the plants are rather small, 

 being only 4-6 dm. tall ; but in rich moist hammocks they often 

 exceed 18 dm. in height and 3 dm. in width, clambering among 

 the shrubbery. At a little distance the species has the appearance 

 of a large Poly stic hum acrostichoides. In sandy swamps the root- 

 stocks creep just beneath the surface and are about 5 mm. in 

 diameter, covered with narrowly lanceolate, almost bristly, scales. 

 In the heavy cypress of the west coast, where subject to inunda- 

 tion for much of the year, the rootstocks become erect, sometimes 

 5 dm. long, I-I.S cm - m diameter, irregular, finely rugose- 

 roughened, and bear a crown' of fronds, often a few roots also, at 

 the top. At Flamingo the soil is too salty for it, but I found one 

 plant, with the rootstocks several feet long, winding about in the 

 decayed leaf-bases of a cabbage palmetto at the height of ten feet 

 from the ground. The rootstocks were about as thick as in the 

 normal form and similarly clothed, but the fronds were much 

 thinner and doubly serrate. 



Woodwardia areolata (L.) Moore 

 Not found in the lower counties of the east coast. It ^rew 

 in the ditches and thickets on the border of the Caloosahatchee 



