332 OPHIOCxLOSSACE.E. Botnjchium. 



2. B. ternatum, Swartz. Plant fleshy, sometimes sparsely hairy, usually 4 to 

 1 2 inches high : sterile segment long stalked from near the hase of the plant, broadly 

 deltoid, ternate, variously decompound ; divisions mostly petioled, the ultimate ones 

 usually sessile, roundish reniform to obliquely ovate or ovate lanceolate, crenulate or 

 toothed or incised ; fertile segment twice to four times pinnate, mostly taller than 

 the sterile: bud pilose. — Eaton, 1. c. 147, t. 20, 20^ 



Var. australe, Katun, 1. c, is the typical form, Avith usually ample fronds ; the 

 sterile segment decompound, tertiary or quaternary divisions ovate-oblong, subacute, 

 pinnatifid ; ultimate segments broadly ovate or roundish-rhomboid, the margin 

 crenulate or denticulate. — Ji. australe, J\. Brown, Prodr. 1G4. Ji. silaifolium, Presl, 

 Pel. Hienk. i. 7G. 



Mountain pastures, Plumas Count v {Mrs. Ames and il/rs. Austin), and elsewhere in the Siena 

 Nevada, Miss Pcllon, etc. In Oregon", and widely extended through alniost all parts of the world. 

 The California specimens are among the largest and finest ever seen. 



W. ViRGiNiANUM, Swartz (Williamson, I.e., t. 64), with tlie sterile segment highly decom- 

 pound, delicate in texture, and sessile high up on the common stalk, is common in the Atlantic 

 States, and has been collected in Oregon and Washington Territory. It is therefore to be sought 

 in the northern counties of California. 



2. OPHIOGLOSSUM, Linn. Audkh's-Toxcjue. 

 Fronds with a posterior simjile or forked or palmated sterile segment, having re- 

 ticttlated veins, and one or more anterior or lateral simple spikes of fructification ; 

 the connate sporangia in a row along each side of the spike. Fronds from buds at 

 the base of the stalk, but exterior to it. 



A genus of about a dozen species, two tropical ones with dichotomous or palmated sterile seg- 

 ments, and the remainder with simple sterile segments, variable in form and venation, and their 

 distinctions not yet sufficiently understood. 



1. O. vulgatum, Linn. Eootstock slender, erect : fronds mostly solitary, 2 to 

 12 inches high ; sterile segment fleshy, sessile near the middle of the plant, ovate or 

 elliptical, 1 to 3 inches long ; midrib indistinct or none, the veins forming large 

 areoles enclosing smaller ones and a few free veinlets : fertile s})ike an inch long or 

 more, mucronate, commonly long-stalked and overto{»ping the sterile segment. — 

 Gray, Manual, 672, t. 19 ; Williamson, Fern Etchings, t. 65, A. 



In pastures and meadows, and on gi'assy hillsides ; Arizona and Unalaska, probably in Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon, but not yet reported. It is found in most i)arts of the world. 



Order CXXII. FILICES. 



Leafy plants ; the leaves (fromh) often much branched, circinato in vernation, 

 rising from a rootstock, and bearing on the under surface or on the margins reticu- 

 lated sporangia, which are homologous with leaf-hairs. Prothallns above ground, 

 green, monoecious. — The sporangia are usually collected in little masses called 

 fruit-dots or son', and are often covered by a little scale (indusiit7)i), which is [iro- 

 duced from the cuticle of the frond, or by a general involucre formed from the re- 

 curved margin of the frond. 



A large order, coiitaining about 80 genera and near 3,000 species, the greater jiart of which are 

 found in tropical or subtropical regions. JIany .species are cultivated for ornament, a few are re- 

 puted to have medicinal <|ualities, and a very few have bet;n used as food. Ferns are divided into 

 six suborders, chicHy distinguished y)y differences in the jointed ring of the sporangia, whicii is 

 nearly obsolete in d.imniiilarece, horizont;d and apical in Scliizmicciv, transverse and medial in 

 (rlcicheninccm, whei-e also the sporangia are definite in number, tmnsverse in the filmy-fronded 

 Ilymr.nophyUncccc, and oblique but complete in the arboreous Cijatlieacea.:. Marntliacm: are now 

 considered a .separate order. The remaining suborder, the only one rojuescnted in California, is 

 the following. 



