332 OPITIOGLOSSACE.-E. Botrydiium. 



2. B. ternatlim, Swartz. Plant fleshy, soraotinics sparsely hairy, usually 4 to 

 12 inches high : sterile segment long stalked from near the base 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, Eaton, 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. — £. australe, R. Brown, Prodr. 164. B. silaifolium, Presl, 

 Ptel. Ha^nk. i. 76. 



Mountain pastures, Plumas County {Mrs. Ames and Mrs. Austin), and elsewhere in the Sierra 

 Nevada, Miss Pclfon, etc. In Oregon, and widely extended through almost all parts of the world. 

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



B. ViRGiNiANUM, Swartz (Williamson, 1. c, t. 64), with the sterile segment highly decom- 

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

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

 in the northern counties of California. 



2. OPHIOGLOSSUM, Linn. Adder's-Tongue. 



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

 ticulated veins, and one or more anterior or latei-al 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. Rootstock slender, erect : fronds mostly solitary, 2 to 

 12 inches higii ; 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 spike an inch long or 

 more, mucronate, commonly long-stalked and overtopping 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 parts of the world. 



Order CXXII. FILICES. 



Leafy plants ; the leaves (fronds) often much branched, circinate 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. Prothallus above ground, 

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

 fruit-dots or soj-i, and are often covered by a little scale (mdusimn), wdiich is pro- 

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

 curved margin of the frond. 



A large order, containing about 80 genera and near 3,000 species, the greater part of wliich are 

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

 puted to have medicinal (pialities, and a very few have been used as food. Ferns are divided into 

 six suborders, chiefly distinguislied by differences in the jointed ring of the sporangia, whicl> is 

 nearly obsolete in Osviundnccce, horizontal and apical in Schizceacrce, transverse and medial in 

 Gleichcniacrm, wliere also the s]iorangia are definite in number, transverse in the filmy-fronded 

 Hymcnopliyllaccoi, and obliijue but com])li'te in tlie arboreous Cjiathcacea': Marattiarro' -.wi'. now 

 considered a separate order. The remaiiiitig suborder, the oidy one represented in Calilbrnia, is 

 the following. 



