ONOCLEA, § STHUTIIIOPTKUIS. 161 



Ilah. North AineruM : al)Uii(l;iiit in the United States, from Kiorida to the ex- 

 treme North ; Canada, from Laive Huron to tiic Sasivatchawan (/3. I'eiinsylvania 

 and New Orleans, Drummond). It has not yet hcen detected on tlie I'acilic side 

 of North America, which is the more remarivahle hecause it exists on the opposite 

 coasts of North China ; Annir, Maximowicz, and Manchuria, U'ilford. 



A solitary species only is known of this section of Onoclea. 



(Section Sirut/iioplerin.) 



2. O. (Struthiopteris) Gcrmanica, Willd. ; fronds 1-3 feet 

 loni( broad-lanceolate long-attenuated at the base, fertile 

 pinnae short much contracted linear-terete subinoniliform 

 lobed and torn at the margin, involucres cup-shaped very 

 fragile and soon obsolete. — IViild. Sp. PL v. p. 288. Asa 

 Gray, Man. of Bot. III. p. 590. Osmunda Struthiopteris, 

 Linn. Sp. PL p. 1522. Onoclea Struthiopteris, Stv. Sijn. FiL 

 p. 111. FL Dun. t. 169. Schk. FiL p. 97. t. 105. Metten. 

 FiL Hort. Lips. p. 97- t. 17- ff- 11-15. Onoclea nodulosa, 

 Schk. FiLp.96. t. 104. Struthiopteris Pennsylvanica, Willd. 

 Sp. PL V. p. 289. 



Ilab. Northern Europe, Scandinavia and south to Bohemia and Prussia. 

 North Asia: Altai, Manchuria, {IVilfurd); Amur, Maximoivicz. North Ame- 

 rica: Pennsylvania to Canada and Lake Winipeg. — Few genera of Ferns have 

 found a more unsatisfactory resting-place than Struthiopteris and Onoclea. 

 The former genus was established by Linnaeus, and placed near OphioylosHum ; 

 Onoclea he ranked with Osmunda, and other equally dissimilar Ferns. Willde- 

 now, in 1809, constituted a separate genus of Struthiopteris, arranging the two, 

 however, next to each other ; and the two genera have remained distinct till 

 1856, when Mettenius discovered an involucre in Onoclea, to which the presence of a 

 si)ccial involucre had always been denied ; " indusium inferum dimidiatum basi re- 

 ceptaculi et parenchymati circa basin receptaculi adnatum,fornicatum, margine ex- 

 terne lii)crum." This discovery Dr. Hooker has satisfactorily confirmed on the 

 living plant, as far as 0. Germanica is concerned. Mettenius therefore again 

 unites the two, placing them, on account of the inferior involucre, between 

 Cistopter/s and Woodsia, with which they have certainly no natural affinity. It 

 is to be observed that the real structure of this involucre is very difficult to be 

 detected, on account of its fragile nature and the tough and dry substance of the 

 portion of the frond which encloses it. 



3. O. (Struthiopteris) orientalis, Hook. ; fronds 1-2^ feet 

 long ovato-oblong not attenuated below, fertile fronds ol)l()ng 

 often 2 feet long contracted broad linear-oblong flattened 

 2-edged the refracted margins at first covering the whole 

 back of the frond dark purple-brown glossy involucriforni 

 entire at the edge at length spreading torn at the margin and 

 exposing the fructification which is eventually confluent in 

 a continuous line, stipes rachis and costa deciduously pa- 

 leaceous. — Hook. 2d Cent, of Ferns, tab. 4. Struthiopteris 

 Germanica, Eaton, in Wrir/ht's Herb, of V. S. N. Pad/. 

 ExpL Exp. of Ringgold and Rodgers [not of Willd.). 



VOL. IV. Y 



