POLYPODIACEAE. 5 



divisions 10-25 cm. long; ultimate divisions numerous, oblong or ovate, 

 obtuse, lobed on the outer margin. 



Wet banks and woods, not uncommon. Alaska to California. 



7. CHEILANTHES. 



Mostly pubescent or tomentose rock-loving and small ferns 

 with much divided leaves; fruit dots on or near the ends of the 

 veins, at first small and distinct, afterwards crowded; sporangia 

 often concealed in the scales or hairs which in many species 

 cover the segments. 



The species occurring within our limits has the ultimate 

 segments of the leaflets very small and circular in form and the 

 false indusia formed by the incurving of the whole of the leaf 

 margin. 



Cheilanthes gracillima D. C. Eaton. Lace Fern. Petioles densely tufted, 

 shining brown, 4-8 cm. high, bearing a few scattered lanceolate scales; blades 

 2-8 cm. long, oblong-lanceolate, bipinnate; leaflets numerous, crowded, pin- 

 nately divided into 5-9 oval mostly entire segments, glabrate above, pubescent 

 beneath with rusty matted woo;. 



Common in rock crevices in the mountains at 1000-1500 m. altitude. 

 British Columbia to Idaho and California. Common in the Olympic Moun- 

 tains and on Vancouver Island. 



8. STRUTHIOPTERIS. 



Fruit-dots in a continuous band next the midrib of the con- 

 tracted ultimate segments of the spore-bearing leaf, covered 

 until mature by an elongated indusium parallel to and within 

 the margin ; veins of the sterile leaf segment^ oblique to the midrib, 

 simple or forked and free; leaves pinnate, of two kinds, the spore- 

 bearing commonly much contracted. 



Struthioperis spicant (L.) Weiss. Deer Fern. Tufted; sterile leaves 

 short-stalked, linear-lanceolate in outline, 15-60 cm. long, 3-9 cm. wide, the 

 numerous segments oblong and obtuse; fertile leaves taller, longer-stalked and 

 more erect, the segments longer, narrower and less crowded. 



In wet places in woods, Alaska to California. Also in the Old World. 



9. WOODWARDIA. 



Fruit dots oblong or linear, sunk in cavities in the leaf, ar- 

 ranged in a chain-like row parallel and near to the midribs of 

 the leaf-segments; indusium fixed by its outer margin to a vein 

 and covering the cavity like a lid ; veins more or less in a network. 



Woodwardia spinulosa Mart. & Gal. Rootstock stout, covered with 

 pale-brown scales ; leaves in a round cluster, long-stalked, ovate-oblong, pinnate, 

 leathery, 1-2 m. long; principal divisions lanceolate, 10-40 cm. long, deeply 

 pinnatifid, the lobes spinulose-serrate, acuminate. 



In woods, British Columbia to Mexico. Near Tacoma, Flett; Texada 

 Island, Anderson. More common southward. 



