24 POLYPODIACEAE 



line: leaflets separated, mostly 1-2 dm. long, the blades 

 lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acuminate or merely 

 acute, pinnatifid, sessile, the segments ovate to lanceolate 

 or elliptic with a very narrow obscurely toothed pale 

 border: veins beyond the areolae simple or forked: 

 indusia mostly 2-2.5 mm. wide. Everglades, prairies, 

 and adjacent hammocks. Figure 13, reduced. 



The chain-fern is not common in our range, but it 

 occurs in and about low or wet places around and within 

 Royal Palm Hammock. It sometimes grows in the open, 

 but it thrives best in partial shade around the bases of 

 trees or among cypress-knees. Although discovered in 

 the early part of the eighteenth century or before, this 

 plant was not found in Florida until many years later. 

 Outside of the United States, where it ranges from 

 Nova Scotia and Ontario to Florida and Louisiana, it is 

 known only in Bermuda. 



10. TECTARIA Cav. 



Elegant terrestrial, usually rock-plants. Leaves erect 

 and arching or pendent, more or less clustered on the 

 short creeping or horizontal rootstock, the petiole not 

 jointed to the rootstock: blades broad, usually of a 

 deltoid, ovate, or hastate type, lobed or 1-pinnate. Veins 

 freely anastomosing, forming numerous areolae with 

 free included veinlets. Sori orbicular or reniform, 

 scattered over the back of the leaf -blade or its segments, 

 situated in the angles of veins or on the back of a vein. 

 Indusia peltate, flattish, opening all around the edge. 

 About twenty-four species widely distributed in the 

 tropics. 



1. T. heracleifolia (Willd.) Underw. Rootstock stout, 

 elongate, decumbent or nearly erect, with dark-brown 



