en 

 vei 

 dl 



FILICES. (FERNS.) 59? 



crowded. Indusium flat, scarious, orbicular or round-kidney-shaped, covering 

 the sporangia, attached to the receptacle at the centre or at the sinus, opening 

 all round the margin. Fronds mostly 1 -3-pinnate. (Name dcnridiovj a small 

 shield, from the shape of the indusium.) 



1. DRYOPTElilS, Aclans., Schott. (Nephrodiurn, Rich, in part. Lastrea, 

 Dory. ) Indusium round-kidney-shaped, or orbicular with a narrow sinus, fixed at 

 the sinus : fronds membranaceous or thinnish. 



* Veins simple or simply forked and straight : fronds annual, decaying in autumn, 



the stalks and creeping rootstocks nearly naked. (Thelypteris, Schott.) 



1. A. TlielyptcriS, Swartz. Frond pinnate, lanceolate in outline; the 

 slightly rcflexed or horizontal pinnce gradually diminishing in length from near the 

 base to the apex, sessile, linear-lanceolate, deeply pinnatifid, with oblong nearly 

 entire obtuse lobes, or appearing acute from the strongly rcvolute margins in fruit; 



ins mostly forked, bearing the crowded fruit-dots (soon confluent) near their mid- 

 e. (Polypodium Thelypteris, L.) Marshes; common. Aug. Stalk 1 

 long or more, usually longer than the frond, which is of thicker texture than in 

 the next, slightly downy ; the fruit-dots soon confluent and covering the whole 

 contracted lower surface of the pinnae. (Eu.) 



2. A. NoveboraceilSC, Willd. Frond pinnate, oblong-lanceolate in out- 

 line, tapering below, from the lower pinnce (2 -several pairs) being gradually shorter 

 and dcflexed ; the lobes flat, broadly oblong ; their veins all simple except in the 

 lowest pairs, bearing scattered fruit-dots (never confluent) near the margin. (Poly- 

 podium Noveboracense, L. A. thelypteroides, Swartz.) Swamps and moist 

 thickets; common. July. Frond pale green, delicate and membranaceous, 

 nearly as the last, except in the points mentioned. 



* * Veins, at least the lowermost, more than once forked or somewhat pinnately branch- 

 ing ; the fruit-bearing veinlets often obscure or vanishing above the fruit-dot : fronds, 

 at least the sterile ones, often remaining green through the winter: stalks and apex 

 of the seal i/ thickened rootstocks chaffy, and often the main rhachis also when young. 



+- Frond twice pinnate and with the pinnules pinnatifid or deeply incised : indu- 

 sium deciduous. 



3 A. Spiliulosuin, Swartz. Frond oblong or ovate-oblong in outline 

 (1 -2 long), lively green, smooth; pinnules oblong or oblong-linear, mostly 

 obtuse, horizontal, crowded, the lower deeply pinnatifid into linear-oblong obtuse 

 lobes which are sharply cut-toothed, the upper cut-pinnatifid or incised, with the 

 shorter lobes few-toothed at the apex ; margin of the indusium denticulate or 

 beset with minute stalked glands. (A. intermedium, Mtihl. Dryopteris inter- 

 media, erf. 1.) Woods, everywhere common. July. Exhibits a variety of 

 forms, some of them clearly the same as the European plant, more commonly 

 intermediate in appearance between it and 



Var. (liicltatlllll. Frond broader, ovate or triangular-ovate in outline ; 

 pinnules lance-oblong, the lower sometimes pinnately divided ; indusium smooth 

 and naked. (A. dilatatum, Willd.) A dwarf state, fruiting when only 5'-8 / 

 high, answers to var. (of Lastra^a dilatata) dumetorum. A peculiar form (A. 

 campylopterttm, Kunze ? and Dryopteris dilatata, chiefly, ed. 1 ) has the pinnae*, 

 pinnules, and their divisions remarkably crowded, and directed obliq uely forwards 



