FERN FAMILY. 371 



23. ALSOPHILA. (From Greek words meaning grove-loving, the species 

 growing in tropical forests. 



A. aspera. Rarely cult, from W. Indies: trunk 6 - 8 high; stalks 

 prickly, clothed at the base with pale, narrow scales ; fronds 6 - 8 long, 2 - 3 

 wide, bipinnate ; rhachis hairy above ; pinnae oblong-lanceolate ; pinnules very 

 many, lanceolate, pinnatifid almost to the midrib ; lobes oblong, curved, ser- 

 rate, obtuse ; fruit-dots 8-10 to a lobe; indusium a thin scale on one side of 

 the fruit-dot, often disappearing with age. 



A. pruinata, from S. America, is sometimes seen ; a much smaller plant ; 

 rootstock short, clothed with bright-brown wool ; fronds smooth, green above, 

 pale and glaucous often almost white beneath, bipinnate ; pinnules deeply 

 toothed ; fruit-dots solitary at the base of each tooth ; spore-cases mixed with 

 woolly hairs. 



24. TRICHOMANES. (An ancient Greek name of some Fern, referring 

 to the hair-like stalks.) A large genus ; most of the species tropical. 



T. radicans. On dripping rocks, Alabama and Tennessee, very rare : fronds 

 pellucid, 4' -8' high, tbe stalk and rhachis narrowly winged, lanceolate, pinnate 

 with 1 - 2-pinnatiiid ovate pinnas ; involucres on short lobes, funnel-shaped, 

 with long exserted receptacles. A broader and more compound form from 

 Killarney, Ireland, is grown in Wardian cases. 



25. LYGODIUM, CLIMBING-FERN. (Name from a Greek word 

 meaning flexible, alluding to the twining and climbing fronds.) Not many 

 species ; all but ours tropical. 



L. palmatum. Low shady woods, rather rare : smooth, slender, and deli- 

 cate, 2 -4 high, entangled among herbs; pinnas roundish, 12" -18" wide, 

 deeply heart-shaped at the base, palmately 5 - 7-lobed, upper ones decompound 

 ami fertile. 



L. Japonicum. Conservatory plant from Japan : climbing 10- 12 high, 

 smooth; pinnae ovate, 5' -9' long, bipinnate, divisions ovate-lanceolate, often 

 halberd-shaped ; divisions of the upper pinnae bordered with narrow fertile lobes. 



26. ANEIMIA. (Name from the Greek, meaning without covering, allud- 

 ing to the naked spore-cases.) Mainly tropical. 



A. Phyllitidis. Cult, from S. America : 12'- 18' high, has the two lower 

 pinnae lontr-stalked, narrowly-elongated, 3-4-pinnate, fertile; middle portion 

 of the frond sterile, simply pinnate; pinnae lanceolate, finely serrate; veins re- 

 ticulated. 



A. adiantoides. Native in Key West, Florida ; with lower pinna? as in 

 the last ; middle portion sterile, 2 - 3-pinnate ; pinnae long-pointed ; divisions 

 obovatc-wedge-shaped, entire or toothed at the end, with free veins forking from 

 the base. 



27. SCHIZJ5EA. (Name from the Greek verb which means to split, refer- 

 ring to the many-forked fronds of certain tropical species. ) 



S. pusilla. Wet sand, in pine woods of New Jersey : sterile fronds very 

 slender, flattened, simple and linear, curled up ; fertile ones similar, but straight, 

 2' -3' high, bearing at the top the fertile portion, 2" -3" long, composed of 

 about 5 pairs of minute pinnox 



28. OSMUND A, FLOWERING FERN. (Name of cioubtfnl origin, 

 anciently " Osmund ihe ITu/m/m/), 1 ' who was perhaps St. Osmund, Bishop of 

 Salisbury, or possiblv St. Christopher, patron of watermen. Vide Hooker's 

 British Ferns.) Species very few, fruiting in spring or early summer. 



* Fruiting frond* distinct from the leafy ones. 



O. cinnamdmea, CISXAMON-FKUX. Swamps, abundant everywhere-, 

 sterile fronds 2 - 5 high, broadly lanceolate, pinnate with many lanceolate 

 deeply pinnatifid pinnae ; fertile ones much shorter, at first woolly, soon with- 

 ering ; fructification bright cinnamon color. 



