Aspidiam. FILICES. 345 



Damp, licli woods, not nwv. A coimiion foni tlirou<^liout tcinppiatc Nortli Aiiiciio:i, Europe 

 ami iiorthein Asia, presenting; very many modilieations in si/,u, shape of the IVond, and cutting of 

 tlie jiinniB and pinnules. The fully dcveU)i)ed subtrijiinnate fonn (var. connnune, Eaton) is not 

 rare in California. Var. latifoliiim. Hook., with broadly ovate-oblong jiinnules, var. ci/closorum, 

 IJuproelit, with very large and broad fronds and roundish sori, and var. amjustuin, witli narrow 

 and rather rigid fronds, besides various intermediate forms, are all found within the State. 



12. PHEGOPTERIS, Fee. 

 Sori roundish, minute, nakeil, placed on the back of the veins below their attenu- 

 ated apices. Fronds various, subtripiunate in our only species. Stalk continuous 

 with the rootstock, and not joining it by an articulation as in Polypodium. 



This genus, containing about 100 species, dilfers from Aspidium only in having no indusium. 

 Four s{>eeics are found in North America, three of them also common to Europe. i 



1. P. alpestris, iMcttenius. Rootstock short and thick, erect or assurgent : 

 stalks subterniinal, 4 to 10 inches long, ehairy near the base : fronds 1 to 2 feet 

 long, menibranaceons, smooth, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, i)innate with delicately 

 bipinnatilid deltoid-lancoolato pinna', the lower pinna? distant and decreasing mod- 

 erately ; pinnules ovate-oblong, or ovat('-lan(;eolate, doubly incised and toothed : sori 

 small, round, usually copious on all but the lowest pinna\ — Kil. llort. Lips. 83; 

 Eaton, Ferns of X. Amer. i. 171, t. 23, tig. 1. Pohjpodiinn alpextre, Iloppe ; Hooker, 

 ]>rit. Ferns, t. G, and Sp. Fil. iv. 251. 



Among rocks at high elevations ; to[» of Lassen's Peak, and on Mount Shasta, Pyramid Peak, 

 and other high peaks in tlie Sierra Nevada, Brarer, Lemmon, Mitir, etc. This fern often forms 

 jintrhcs of several feet in extent, as noticed icpcatedly by Biriccr and Lcmvum. It is found also 

 in IJritish Columbia, and in the mountains of northern and central Europe to the Caucasus. 



P. POLvroDioiDES, Fee (F^aton, Ferns of N. Amer. ii. 217, t. 75, fig. 1-4). Rootstock very 

 slender, creeping : fronds 4 to 6 inches long, hairy on the veins, deltoid-ovate, bipinnatifid with 

 obtuse lobes : rhachis interruptedly winged by the adnate basal segnients of the pinnoe. Said to 

 have been recently dis(;overed near San .lose. It is a connnon fern in the Eastern States north of 

 Tennessee, ami is found in Alaska, (Jreenland, Labrador, Europe, northern Asia and Japan. 



P. Drvoptf.kis, Fee, with a smooth ternate frond, primary divisions stalked and 1 -2-pinnate 

 with obtuse lobes, is an eastern and European fern, found in Oregon, but not yet in California. 



13. ASPIDIUM, Swartz. Siiield-Feun. Woou-Fkiin. 



Sori round, borne on the back or at the apex of the veinlcts, the indusia round 



and attached to the njiddle of the sorus by a short central stalk, or roundish-reniform 



and attached at the ba.se of the sinus or indentation. Veins free in the Californiau 



species, the fronds mostly large and once or twice pinnate. 



A genus embracing, as here understood, over 300 species, tlie greater part tropical or subtropi- 

 cal, but a few extending to tlie .Arctic regions. Standanl P.ritish works divide the genus into two, 

 corresponding with the following sec^fions. 



§ 1. Indusium roundish-renifonn or orhicufnr nufh a narrow sinus. — DtiYOP- 

 TKiiis. [Nephrodinm, Hooker & I>aker.) 



* Tevtnrc thin or viembranaceoxis : veins simjtle or once forked. 



1. A. Nevadense, Eaton. Ilootstock rather stout, creeping, chaffy and covered 

 with jjersistent stalk-bases : fronds thin and delicate, standing in a crown, short- 

 stalked, narrowly lanceolate, 1^ to 3 feet high, pinnate ; pinna; linear-lanceolate from 

 a broad and nearly sessile base, 2 to 4 inches long, deeply pinnatidd ; the lower pairs 

 distant and gradually reduced to mere auricles ; .segments crowded, narrowly oblong, 

 obtuse, subentire, slightly hairy on the veins beneath and minutely resinous-dotted : 

 veins mostly simple, the lower ones sometimes forked : sori close to the margin ; in- 

 dusium minute, glandular and sparsely pilose. — Ferns of N. Amer. i. 73, t. 10. 



Moist and shady iilaces ahmg creeks and in moiintnin meadows; Mutte Coniity (.l/c?. AmcR) ; 

 Plumas County {Mrs. Jihc.v and Mrs. ^lustin) ; Trinity County {Klrxhrr<j<r) ; Webber Lake, and 



