600 FILICES. (FERNS.) 



SUBORDER II. OSMUNDINE^E. FLOWERING-FERN FAMILY. 



16. SCIIIZvEA, Smith. SCHIZJSA. (Tab. 13.) 



Fertile fronds of several contracted linear pinnae, which are approximated in 

 pairs at the apex of a slender stalk ; the under (inner) side covered with the 

 fructification, consisting of two rows of sessile naked sporangia, which are oval, 

 vertical, furnished with a striate-rayed crest at the apex, and opening by a lon- 

 gitudinal cleft down the outer side. Sterile fronds linear or thread-like, some- 

 times forked and cleft (whence the name, from <r;(ia>, to slit). 



1. pusilla, Pursh. Sterile fronds linear-thread-form, simple, tortuous, 

 much shorter than the fertile, which bears about 5 pairs of short crowded pinna 

 at the apex of a slender stalk (3 ; -4' high). Low grounds, pine barrens of New 

 Jersey; rare. 



17. LYGODIUITI, Swartz. CLIMBING FERN. (Tab. 13.) 



Fronds twining or climbing, bearing stalked and variously lobed divisions in 

 pairs, with free veins ; the fructification on separate contracted divisions or spike- 

 like lobes, one side of which is covered with hooded scales for indusia, imbri- 

 cated in two ranks, fixed by a broad base, each enclosing a single sporangium, or 

 rarely a pair. Sporangia much as in Schizrea, but oblique, fixed to the vein by 

 the inner side next the base. (Name from \vy<a8r)s, flexile.) 



1. !- pa I 111 a turn, Swartz. Very smooth; stalks slender, flexile.and 

 twining (l-3long), from slender running rootstocks; the short alternate 

 branches or petioles deeply 2-forked, each fork bearing a rounded heart-si laped 

 palmatcly 4-7-lobed sterile frondlet; fertile frondlets above, contracted and 

 several times forked, forming a terminal panicle. (Hydroglossum, WiUd.) 

 Shaded or moist grassy places, Massachusetts to Virginia, Kentucky, and spar- 

 ingly southward ; rare. July. * 



18. OSUH'JNDA, L. FLOWERING FERN. (Tab. 13.) 



Sporangia globular, short-pedicellcd, naked, entirely covering the fertile frond* 

 or certain pinna; (which arc contracted to the mere rhachis), thin and reticulated, 

 not striatc-rayed at the apex, opening opposite the pedicel into two valves. 

 Spores green. Fronds tall and upright, from thickened rootstocks, 1 - 2-f innate \ 

 reins forking and free. (Osmunder, a Saxon name of the Celtic divinity Thor.^ 

 # Fronds twice pinnate, fertile at the top. 



1. O. rcgalis, L. (FLOWERING FERN.) Very smooth, pale green 

 (2 -5 high); sterile pinnules 13-25, lance-oblong, more or less serrulate, 

 otherwise mostly entire, oblique (or often auricled on the lower siJe) at the 

 nearly sessile base (1-2' long) ; the fertile racemose-panicled at the summit of 

 the frond. (Eu.) 



Var. spcctribilis. Pinnules ordinarily narrower and less auricled, or ob- 

 liquely truncate at the slightly stalked base. (0. spectabilis, Wittd ) Swamps 

 and wet woods ; common. June, July. 



