CANADIAN FILICINE.K 195 



Var. angustum, D. C. Eaton, (Aspidium angustum, Willd., Asplenium Filix-foemina var. 

 Michauxii, Mett.), has narrow, rigid, nearly bipinnate fronds, 1 to 3 feet long, with the 

 pinnae narrow and obliquely ascending or curved upward ; pinnules crenate or serrate, 

 and sori sbort and abundant. Var. rhoeticum, of the Davenport Catalogue, and of Lawson, 

 in the "Canadian Naturalist," is covered by this form. 



The rootstock of A. Filix-foemina possesses anthelmintic properties similar to those of 

 the Male-fern, but in a somewhat lessened degree. 



This is one of our most widely diffused ferns, being common in most parts of British 

 America, from the Atlantic to northern British Columbia. Iu the northern woods it is 

 particularly luxuriant, and does not produce the contracted forms seen at the south, where 

 the atmosphere is less charged with moisture. Quite common and widely distributed 

 throughout Nova Scotia. — Rev. E. H. Ball. A very common and variable fern in New 

 Brunswick. — Fowler. Very common in Quebec and Ontario. — Lawson, McCord, Macoun, etc. 

 Common in wooded parts of Manitoba and the Northwest Territory, in the Eocky Moun- 

 tains and in British Columbia. — Macoun. Throughout Canada to the Saskatchewan and 

 Alpine woods of the Eocky Mountains. — Drummond. The var. angustum, though less com- 

 mon, is not extremely rare, especially in Ontario. Salt Mountain, Whycocomagh, N. S. — 

 Macoun and Burgess. Farmersville and Delta, Out. — Lawson. Ottawa, Out. — J. Fletcher. 

 Belleville, Out. — Macoun. London, Out. — Burgess. 



[Note. — The crediting of Asplenium marinum, L., to New Brunswick, in Hooker's " Flora 

 Boreali- Americana," on the authority of E. N. Kendall, is now know^to have been a mistake, 77/ 



and by Eaton, in " Ferns of North America," it is excluded as a North American species.] 



Genus XL— SCOLOPENDEIUM, Smith, Hakt's-Tongtje. 



1. — S. vtjlgare, Smith, (Common Hart's-Tongue, Caterpillar-Fern), Cray, Man., 662. 

 Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 246. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 2*78. Macoun's Cat., No. 2319. 

 Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 247. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 100. 



S. officinarum, Swarfz^ A Pursh, II, 667. 



Asplenium scolopendrium, L. 



An evergreen and rare American fern, 7 to 24 inches high, found growing in tufts in 

 wet, shaded ravines on the debris of limestone rocks. Eootstock chaffy, short and erect, 

 or long and inclined, with adherent stalks, which are also very chaffy; fronds bright- 

 green, supported on usually short stalks, 6 to 18 inches long by f to 2 inches wide, oblong- 

 ligulate in outline, from an auricled heart-shaped base, simple with entire or undulate 

 margins, obtuse or acute at the apex ; sori linear, placed almost at right angles to the mid- 

 vein, in pairs, side by side, one on the lower side of one veinlet, the other on the upper 

 side of the next veinlet below, thus appearing to have a double indusium opening along 

 the middle. 



Variations in this fern are very common in Europe, but none of them, with the ex- 

 ception of forking fronds, an approach to var. multifidum, Moore, have, so far as known, been 

 found within our limits. 



The leaves of S. vulgare have been employed as astringents in hemorrhages and fluxes, 

 as solvents for renal calculi and as applications to bums, but their properties are feeble, 

 and they have fallen into disuse. 



