102 PLANTS OF BERMUDA, 



wide ; barren leaves, bright glossy green ; fertile leaves completely 

 covered beneath with golden, brownish spores. Distribution, "West 

 Indies and Florida ; habitat, marshes. A large, handsome fern. 



YI. ASPIDII'M. 



Sort scattered, orbicular or Mdncy-shaped^ covered vjith a membrane and 

 attached by the centre, beneath the slender veinlets. 



1. A. exaltatum. Leaves simply pinnate, sub-erect or weak and 

 trailing, narrow oblong, two to three feet long by two or three 

 inches wide ; petiole somewhat woolly ; leaflets leathery, oblong- 

 lanceolate, acute, finely serrated, abrupt and sessile at the base, 

 bearing upwards an angular lobe, veinlets thickened near the mar- 

 gin ; sori on the termination of the veinlets nearer to margin than 

 to midrib ; membrane kidney- shaped, attached at the notch and 

 opening all round, allowing the capsules to escape. Distribution. 

 West Indies ; habitat, woods near caves and in marshes, common. 



2. A. Capense {Ten- day fern). Rhizome and base of petiole 

 covered with chaffy scales ; leaves smooth, shining, triangular ovate, 

 twice or thrice pinnate ; petiole and its divisions winged ; leaflets 

 leathery, ovate, incisely lobed and toothed, wedge-shaped at the 

 base ; sori orbicular, attached by the centre, few in number and 

 scattered on the slender upper veinlets. Habitat, Devonshire 

 marsh, rare ; my specimens were growing on the half -immersed 

 trunk of a spreading Palmetto. 



•3. A. patens. Swartz. Leaves lanceolate, softly pubescent, pin- 

 nate, one to four feet high ; petiole four-angular, hairy ; leaflets 

 lanceolate, pointed, pinna tijid to the middle, lobes short, oblong, 

 blunt ; veinlets simply pinnate, lowest pair uniting at the sinus ; 

 sori small, kidney- shaped, midway between the midvein and margin 

 of the lobes. Distribution, Bahamas, Florida, &c. ; habitat, way- 

 sides and woods, very common and variable in size. 



4. A. Hehfptfris (Lady fern). A smaller species than the last; 

 leaves lanceolate-ovate, somewhat pubescent, pinnate, about a foot 

 high, petiole rounded beneath, channelled above ; leaflets narrow 

 lanceolate, pinnntifid almost to midrib ; lobes oblong, acute ; veinlets 

 forked ; sori small, placed close together, at length uniting and 

 spreading over the whole under surface. Distribution, England and 

 Northern United States ; habitat, wayside hollows. 



5. A. moUe. Swartz, vel. A. ietrayon/a/i. Ilouker. This species is 

 more rarely met with, and is not to be distinguished from A. patens 

 but by the veins. In this species the lowest pair of veinlets unite 

 ro form a vein which runs into the sinus [Grisebach). 



H. Oumwridd-e? .—Capsules destitute of an elastic' rinp. 



YII. OSMUXDA. 



Capunloi sesti/e nr shortly stalked, two-valved.. in dense dustei's on the 

 contracted leaves or in terminal 2)anlcles. 



1. 0. reoalis fRoval or flowering fern). A large, handsome fern. 



