ioo Silvery Spleenwort 



or serrate: pinnae sessile or very short-stalked, linear-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, or the uppermost acute to obtuse, passing toward 

 apex of blade into obtuse segments, deeply pinnatifid, the apices 

 undulate to serrulate or serrate: pinnae's segments oblong or 

 ovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, serrate or crenate, often ob- 

 scurely so, or incisely serrate or lobed: rachis furrowed on face, 

 at least above, toward base bearing a few scales which are 

 articulated at apex arid similar to those of upper part of 

 petiole: surfaces studded, especially along rachis, midribs and 

 veins, with articulated hairs marked at joints and sometimes 

 tinged otherwise with golden-brown: color green: texture her- 

 baceous. 



Venation pinnate, free or with occasional areolae: primary 

 branches of midveins of pinnae's segments commonly simple, 

 sometimes once-forked, especially in the more deeply cut seg- 

 ments, or in latter bearing a few simple branches. 



Sori borne each on a primary branch, when this is simple, 

 of a midvein, when it is compound, extending along or wholly 

 upon its superior basal branch, opening toward midvein; single 

 and oblong or linear or the smaller suboval, or on veins that are 

 both primary branches of one midvein and superior basal branches 

 of primary branches of another, often opposed in pairs (dipla- 

 zioid) for the whole or part of their length, one sorus of each 

 pair opening toward one midvein, the other toward the other 

 midvein, the two often connate at outer end forming an athyrioid 

 sorus which is either hamate or hippocrepiform ; indusia silvery 

 and arched when young, often pointed at ends, entire or sub- 

 entire. 



Spores bean-shaped, irregularly and narrowly winged. 



Habitat. Rich, damp woods and ravines, near banks of 



