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 tlu 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 Avith 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, the stalk and rhachis narrowly winged, lanceolate, pinnate 

 with I - 2-pinnatiiid ovate pinnae; involucres on short lobes, funnel-shaped, 

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

 Killarney, Ireland, is grown in Wardian ca-cs. 



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

 meaning jlcxiltlr, 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; pinnae roundish, 12"- 18" wide, 

 deeply heart-shaped at the base, palmate'.y 5-7-lobed, upper ones decompound 

 ail' I fertile. 



L. Jap6nicum. 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 pinna; bordered with narrow fertile lobes. 



28. 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 long-stalked, narrowly-elongated, 3-4-pinnate, fertile; middle portion 

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

 ticulated. 



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

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

 obovate-wedgc-shaped, entire or toothed at the end, with free veins forking from 

 the base. 



27. SCHIZ-ZEA. (Name from the Greek verb which means to s/>fit, refer- 

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



S. ptisilla. 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 pinnae. 



28. OSMUNDA, FLOWERING FERN. (Name of doubtful origin, 

 anciently " Osmund the Wiiturimin," who was perhaps St. Osmund, Bishop of 

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

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



# Fruiting fronds distinct from ihe leafy ones. 



O. cinnam6mea, CINNAMON-FERN. 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. 



