NEPHRODIUM, § LASTREA. 89 



50. N. (Lastrea) Novelwracense, Dcsv. ; " frond pinnate 

 ohlony -lanceolate in outline tapering below, from the lower 

 pinnce (2-several pairs) beinff (/raduully shorter and dejle.ved, 

 the lobes flat I)roadly-oblong, their veins all simple, except in 

 the lowest pairs, bearing scattered sort {never confluent) near 

 tlie margin." Asa Gray. — Aspidium, Sw. Syn. Fit. p. 55. 

 JVilld. Sp. PL V. p. 248. Schk. Fit. p. 47. t. 46. A. Gray, 

 Man. of Bot. p. 597- Chapm. Fl. S. U. St. p. 534? Poly- 

 podium, Linn. Lastrea, Pr. Nephrod. thelypteroides, Mich. 

 Aspid., Sw. 



Hal). North America : swamps and moist thickets, common in the North United 

 States, Asa Gray; low grounds, North Carolina and iioithward, Chapman; 

 Canada {Linn.), Goldie, in Herb. Nostr.— Of this si)ecies, common as it is said to 

 be in the North United States, I have never received it hut once from an American 

 botanist, with any name of authority, and that was from my frieml Dr. Torrey : 

 in this there is no difference in the outline of the frond from that of our common 

 N. Thelypteris, and the pinnae are equally deeply ])innatifid ; but the costaj be- 

 neath are hairy, with longish white hairs ; the veinlets are all entire ; the sori are 

 less abundant, apparently a little more remote from the margin, in consequence of 

 that margin not being revolute, as is the casein the older state of N. Theli/pterin . 

 I have precisely the same form from Canada (Goldie), and I considered the dif- 

 ference so slight, that I believed that I was justified in saying, in my Fl. Boreali- 

 Americana, that the " two supposed species were identical." Other botanists, how- 

 ever, are of a different opinion, and Dr. Asa Gray has expressed the differences in 

 his specific character as above quoted, and added, " nearly the same as Thelypteris, 

 except the points mentioned." But allowing this to be distinct, I think we have 

 something yet to learn from American botanists. Neither my numerous British nor 

 American specimens of Thelypteris hiive the inferior pinnre of tlie frond the longest, 

 " the frond diminishing in length from near the base to the apex ;" and one of my 

 finest specimens of true Thelypteris from Connecticut has the four lowest pairs 

 of pinnoe very much dwarfed, giving quite a tapering outline to the lower part of 

 the frond, as dwelt upon in the character of N. Novcboracense ; we have there 

 the simple veinlets, except in the lowest pairs, where they may be "forked," the 

 ])lane margin of the segments, and the non-confluent sori, not in themselves very 

 important characters as the chief marks of distinction. Mettenius dwells on the 

 same distinctions: " Ab Asp. Thelypteride differt, segmentis inferioribus sensim 

 decrescentibus, nervis tertiariis tantum ad basin laciniarum furcatis, sorisdistinctis 

 rnargini laciniarum subapproximatis." — I now turn to the Novehoracense in Mr. 

 Chapman's ' Flora of the Southern States.' His specimen now before me from 

 Florida, is much larger in all its parts than my plant from Dr. Torrey, the pinna: 

 nmch less deeply ))innati(id, little more than halfway down to the racliis, and the 

 opposite basal veiidets (all of them simple) instead of being directed to the mar- 

 gin of the segments, meet and closely approximate, if they do not sometimes 

 join, below the sinus. In short, this plant, certainly very distinct from Thely- 

 pteris, and equally so from Noveboracense, 1 refer along with similar specimens 

 from southern North America, to N. {Lastrea) patens (n. 61), the same as Aspid. 

 molle of Sillim. Journal, and farther recorded under tliat name by Chapman as a 

 native of " Florida to South Carolina." 



51. N. (Lastrea) Oreopteris, Desv. ; caudex short erector 

 decumbent copiously scaly, stipites siiort (2-4 inches) tufted 

 scaly at the base, fronds l.\-2 feet long firin-mcmbranace- 



VOL. IV. .\ 



