82 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



stock. Name from Gr. 7to\vS, many, and novs, jroSo'?, foot, 

 alluding to the branching rootstock. The largest, most cosmo- 

 politan genus of ferns, containing 1 50 or more species. 



I. EUPOLYPODIUM. Veins free ; fronds (in our species) 

 pinnate. 



* Son' large. 



1. P. vulg-are L. Stipes 2' 4' long, firm, erect; fronds4' 

 10' long, i' 3' broad, cut nearly or quite to the rachis into entire 

 or slightly toothed, usually blunt pinnae ; veins once or twice 

 forked. Larger fronds with their pinnae sharply serrated and 

 long-pointed form the var. occidental Hook. New England 

 westward to Oregon and southward to Alabama. 



2. P. falcatum Kellogg. Stipes 5' 8' long, stramineous; 

 fronds 12' 15' long, 4' 8' broad ; pinnae numerous, tapering to 

 a slender point, sharply serrate ; sori nearest the midrib; veins 

 with 2 4 veinlets. (P. glycyrrhiza D. C. Eaton.) California to 

 British Columbia. 



** Sori smaller, often minute. 



3. P. plumula H. B. K. Stipes i' 4' long, black, slender; 

 fronds narrowly lanceolate, 9' 1 8' long, i' 2' broad ; pinnae nu- 

 merous, narrow, entire, blunt, lower gradually reduced ; surfaces 

 naked except the black wiry rachis; veinlets forked, obscure. 

 Florida. 



4. P. pectinatum L. Stipes rigid 2' 6' long; fronds el- 

 liptical-lanceolate, i" 2^ long, 2' 6' broad, cut to the rachis 

 into horizontal, entire or toothed pinnae, the lower ones much 

 reduced ; rachis naked or finely villose ; veinlets pellucid, once 

 or twice forked ; sori in long rows, of medium size. Florida. 



2. GONIOPHLEBIUM Blume. V T eins forming ample regular 

 areolce (almost imperceptible in No. 5), each "with a single distinct 

 free included veinlet, bearing a sorus at its terminus. 



* Under surface squamous. 



5. P. polypodioides (L.) Hitch. Rootstock creeping, cov- 

 ered with small brown scales; stipes i' 4' long, erect, densely 

 scaly; fronds 2' 6' long, i' 1|' broad, cut to the rachis into 

 entire pinnae; texture coriaceous; sori small; veins indistinct. 

 (P. incanum Swz.) Virginia to Illinois, and southward. 



