Aspidium. FILICES. 34,") 



Damp, rich woods, not rare. A coiniiioii ft'ni tliroiii^hout tempcrato North iVmciica, Europe 

 ami iifirtheni Asia, presenting very man\' niodiiicatioiis in size, shape of tlie t'rond, and eiitting of 

 the jiiuHie and pinnules. The fully developed subtripinnate form (var. coiinti.uue, Eaton) is not 

 rare in California. Var. lati/olium, Hook., with broailly ovate-obkmg pinnules, var. cijclosorum, 

 Eupreeht, with very large and broad fronds and roundish sori, and var. aiujuslum, with narrow 

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



12. PHEGOPTERIS, Fee. 

 Sori roundish, minute, naked, placed on tlie l)aek of the veins below their attenu- 

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

 with the rootstock, and not joining it by an articulation as in Poiypod'mm. 



This genus, containing about 100 species, differs from As2ndmvi only in having no indusium. 

 Four species are found in North America, three of them also common to Europe. 



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

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

 long, membranaceous, smooth, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, pinnate with delicately 

 bipinnatilid deltoid-lanceolate pinnce, the lower pinnae distant and decreasing mod- 

 erately ; pinnules ovate-oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, doubly incised and toothed : sori 

 small, round, usually copious on all but the lowest pinnse. — Fil. Hort. Lips. 83 ; 

 Eaton, Ferns of N. Amer. i. 171, t. 23, tig. 1. Polypodium alpestrc, Hoppe ; Hooker, 

 Brit. Ferns, t. 6, and Sp. Fil. iv. 251. 



Among rocks at high elevations ; top of Lassen's Peak, and on Mount Shasta, Pyi'amid Peak, 

 and other high peaks in the Sierra Nevada, Brewer, Lcvimon, Muir, etc. This fern often forms 

 patches of several feet in extent, as noticed repeatedly by Brewer and Lemmon. It is found also 

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



P. POLYPODIOIDES, Fee (Eaton, 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, bipinnatilid witli 

 obtuse lobes : rhachis interruptedly winged by the adnate basal segments of the pinnjE. Said to 

 have been recently discovered near San Jose. It is a connnon fern in the Eastern States north of 

 Tennessee, and is found in Alaska, Greenland, Labrador, Europe, northern Asia and Japan. 



P. Dryopteris, 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. Shield-Fern. Wood-Ferx. 



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



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



and attached at the base of the sinus or indentation. Veins free in the Californian 



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



A genus emljracing, as here iniderstood, over 300 species, the gi'eater part tropical or subtropi- 

 cal, but a few extending to the Arctic regions. Standard British works divide the genus into two, 

 corresponding with the following sections. 



§ 1. Indusium roundish-reniform or orbicular ivith a narrow sinus. — Dryop- 

 teris. {Nephroduim, Hooker & Baker.) 



* Texture thin or membranaceous : veins simple or once forked. 



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

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

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

 a broad and nearly sessile base, 2 to 4 inches long, deeply pinnatifid ; 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 places along creeks ami in mountain meadows ; Butte County (J/r.s. Amrx) ; 

 Plumas County {Mrs. Ames and Mrs. Austin) ; Trinity < 'ouuty {Klccbcnjcr) ; Webber Lake, and 



