I2O Marginal Shield Fern 



bipinnate : apices pinnatifid, becoming dentate or crenate or sub- 

 serrate or near tip undulate or entire, long-acuminate: pinnae 

 alternate or opposite, approximate or distant, short-stalked, the 

 uppermost subsessile to sessile, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, or 

 the basal unequally lanceolate-deltoid; mostly broadest above 

 the base or below the middle: pinnules mostly approximate, the 

 innermost largely subsessile to short-stalked, otherwise mostly 

 adnate to rachis and somewhat decurrent, oblong or oblong- 

 lanceolate, often oblique, sometimes slightly falcate, obtuse or 

 subacute or rarely acute, entire to dentate or crenately toothed or 

 lobed, or pinnatifid on the inner side or both sides: margins mi- 

 nutely paleaceous at or near nodes of pinnae's lobes to glabrous: 

 surfaces somewhat chaffy along or near rachises : scales minute or 

 larger, lance-linear or linear, acuminate, ciliate-toothed : rachises 

 furrowed on face : color dark-bluish-green or sometimes yellow- 

 ish: texture subcoriaceous. 



Venation pinnate, free: veinlets mostly curved: lobes of 

 pinnules each occupied by a primary branch of the pinnule's 

 midvein: primary branches of pinnules' midveins mostly once- 

 forked or bearing branches which are simple or once-forked or 

 in the larger lobes bear simple branches, or in smaller pinnules 

 and apices of pinnules simple. 



Sori submarginal, borne on the simple superior basal branches 

 of primary branches of pinnules' midveins or on superior basal 

 branches of the compound, below or more rarely on apices of 

 veinlets: indusia at first white, becoming lead -colored, finally 

 brown, orbicular-reniform, convex at first, entire, glabrous. 



Spores ovoid-reniform, with a narrow crenulate wing. 



Habitat. Woods, roadsides, and stone walls: particularly on 

 or near rocks, or on old logs or stumps in wet woods and swamps. 



