FILICES. (FERNS.) 601 



# # Sterile fronds once pinnate ; the pinnce deeply pinnatifid ; the lobes entire, 



2. O. Cliiytoiiiana, L. Clothed with loose wool when unfolding, soon 

 perfectly smooth (2 -3 high) ; pinnce oblony -lanceolate, with oblong obtuse 

 divisions; some (2-5 pairs) of the middle pinnce fertile, these entirely pinnate ; 

 sporangia greenish turning brown. (0. interrupta, Michx., frc.) Low grounds ; 

 common. May: fruiting as it unfolds. This, being Clayton's plant (as I as- 

 certained in 1839, both from the Clay Ionian and Linnaean herbaria), must bear 

 the original Linnajan name, though wrongly described, from young specimens in 

 which the fructification was thought to be terminal. 



3. O. ciiiBiamoiBifa, L. (CINNAMON-FERN.) Clothed with rusty 

 wool when young ; sterile fronds smooth when full grown, the lanceolate pinnae 

 pinnatifid into broadly oblong obtuse divisions; fertile fronds separate, from the 

 same rootstock, contracted, 2-pinnate, covered with the cinnamon-colored spo- 

 rangia. Var. FROND^SA is a rare occasional state, in which some of the fronds 

 are sterile below and more sparsely fertile at their summit. (O. Claytoniana, 

 Conrad, not of L.) Rarely such fronds are fertile in the middle, otherwise 

 sterile. Swamps and low copses ; everywhere. May. Growing in large 

 bunches; the fertile fronds in the centre, perfecting fruit as they unfold, l-2 

 long, decaying long before the sterile fronds (at length 4 -5 high) get their 

 growth. 



SUBORDER III. OPHIOGLOSSE^E. THE ADDER-TONGUE FAM. 



19. rf O T R Y C II I U UI , Swartz. MOONWORT. (Tab. 13.) 



Frond ternately or pinnately divided or compound, rising straight from the 

 roots (of strong clustered and thickened fibres) ; the lateral division sterile, with 

 forking free veins, the terminal one wholly fertile : spike contracted, the spikes 

 pinnately panided. Sporangia sessile, clustered but distinct, rather coriaceous, 

 veinless, transversely 2-valved, shedding the copious powdery sulphur-colored 

 spores. (Name a diminutive of /Sorpus, a cluster of grapes, from the appearance 

 of the fruitful fronds.) 



1. 15. immrioillcs, Swartz. Sterile frond petioled, from near the base, 

 2 - 3- tern ate, or the ultimate divisions often pinnate or pinnately parted, broadly 

 triangular in general outline ; the lobes or divisions obovatc, somewhat kidney- 

 shaped, roundish, or oblong, somewhat crenate ; fcrti'e stalk 3' -6' high; fruc- 

 tification mostly 2-pinnate. (Botrypus lunarioides, Michx. Botrychium fuma- 

 rioides & matricarioides, WiUd.} Dry, rich wcods, mostly southward. July. 

 A state, from Hingham, Mass. (C. J. Spragm], has the t\vo lateral primary 

 divisions of the sterile frond changed into long-stalked fertile fronds. (Eu.) 



Var. oblaqilltlll (B. obliquum, M uhl.) is mostly larger (6'- 17' high) ; 

 the fertile frond more compound ; the sterile with oblong or lanceolate divisions, 

 either obtuse or oblique at the base, nearly entire, toothed, or irregularly pin- 

 natifid. New England to Wisconsin, and southward; rather scarce. 



Var. diSSectuni (B. dissectum, MM.). Divisions of the sterile frond 

 ccmpoundly and laciniatcly cut into narrow small lobes and ietth : otherwise as 

 the lost, into which it passes, and with which it grows. 



