20 



POLYPODIACEAE. 



7. WOODWARDIA J. E. Smith, Mem. Acad. Tor. 5: 411. 1793. 

 Large and rather coarse ferns of swamps or wet woods, with pinnate or nearly 2-pinnate 

 leaves and oblong or linear sori, sunk in cavities of the leaf and arranged in chain-like 

 rows, parallel to the margins of the pinnae. Leaves all alike or the pinnae of the fertile 

 ones much narrower than those of the sterile. Indusia subcoriaceous, fixed by their outer 

 margins to a veinlet and covering the cavity like a lid. Veins more or less reticulated. 

 Sporanges pedicelled, provided with a vertical ring, bursting transversely. [Name in 

 honor of Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, 1745-1820, English botanist.] 



Six species. mostly of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, another occurs on the 

 Pacific coast of North America. 



Leaves uniform : veins free between the sori and the margin. 

 - cif t\vi> kinds ; veins even-where anastomosing. 



1. If. 1'irginica. 



2. JC. areolata. 



i. Woodwardia Virginica (L,.) J. E. Smith. Virginia Chain-fern. (Fig. 42.) 



Blechnum Virginicum L. Mant. 2: 307. 1771. 

 U'ood-cardia I'irginica J. E. Smith, Mem. 

 Acad. Tor. 5 : 412. 1793. 



Rootstock long, stout, horizontal, subterra- 

 nean or creeping, chaffy. Stipes stout, i2 / -iS / 

 long, nearly or quite naked, dark-colored be- 

 low ; leaves oblong-lanceolate, acute at the 

 apex, narrowed at the base, i-2 long, 6'-g' 

 wide, pinnate ; pinnae linear-lanceolate, usu- 

 ally alternate or some of them opposite, coria- 

 ceous, glabrous, acuminate at the apex, ses- 

 sile, 3 '-6' long, deeply pinnatifid into ovate 

 or oblong obtuse segments, their margins 

 minutely serrulate ; veins forming a single 

 series of areolae on either side of the mid- 

 vein, the sori borne on the outer curving 

 veinlets ; sterile and fertile leaves similar in 

 outline. 



In swamps, often in deep water. Xova Scotia 

 to Ontario and Michigan, south to Florida, 

 Louisiana and Arkansas. Ascends to 1300 ft in 

 Pennsylvania. Also in Bermuda. June-July. 



2. Woodwardia areolata (L. ) Moore. 



^ tit hum areolatum L. Sp. PI. 1069. i~>^ 

 t:>-aniia anyiisli folia J. E. Smith. Mem 

 Acad. Tor. 5:411. 1793. 



Wood-a-ardia areolata Moore. Index Filicum 

 xh 



Rootstock slender, widely creeping, 

 chaffy. Leaves of two kinds, the fertile 

 taller than the sterile and borne on longer 

 stipes, i-2 high, their pinnae much con- 

 tracted, narrowly linear, 3 '-5' long, 2 // -3 // 

 wide, distant, their bases connected by a 

 very narrow wing to the rachis or quite dis- 

 tinct ; sterile leaves deltoid-ovate, membran- 

 ous, broadest at the base, or sometimes 

 with one or two small pinnae below, the 

 apex acuminate, the segments lanceolate 

 or oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 

 minutely serrulate, sometimes undulate, 

 their base* connected by a rather broad 

 rachis-wing; veins forming numerous 

 areolae. 



In -wamps and mojvt -.ii. Maine to Florida, 

 TenncMce, Ixmisiana, and Arkansas; also in 

 Michijfan. Ascends to 3000 ft. in North Caro- 

 lina. Aug. -Oct. 



Xet-veined Chain-fern. (Fig. 43.) 

 i 



