198 MACOUN AND BUEGESS ON 



2. — P. hexagonoptera, Fee, (Hexagon Beech-Fern), Gray, Man., 663. Macoun's Cat., 

 No. 2304. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 14*7. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc, 101. 



Polypodium hexagonopterum , Mx., Fl., Bor.-Am., II, 211 Pursh, II, 659. Swartz, Syn. 

 Fil., 40. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 268. Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 309. 



Polypodium Phegopteris, var. majus, Hook. 



This species, which often closely resembles P. polypodioides, is non-evergreen, grows 

 from 1 to 2J feet high, and inhabits rich, open woods. Rootstock slender, extensively 

 creeping, the newer part moderately chaffy ; stalks usually exceeding the fronds, slender, 

 erect, scattered, dark-coloured and scaly close to the base but green and naked above, pale 

 straw-colour when dry ; fronds acuminate, 5 to 12 inches long and as broad or broader, 

 pinnatifid, slightly hairy on both surfaces, often linely glandular beneath, where also are 

 a few scales along the midveins ; pinnrc sessile, lanceolate, acuminate, and deeply pin- 

 natifid, the lowest pair in living plants turned obliquely forward but not deflexed; vilti- 

 mate segments oblong and obtuse, the middle ones of the lower pinn£e elongated (often 

 much so) and lobed, the rest entire or crenate, while the basal ones are decurrent and ad- 

 nate to the main rachis, the polygonal wings of which they form ; some of the sori usually 

 remote from the margin of the segments. 



Non-typical specimens of this fern are often very difficult to separate from P. polypodi- 

 oides. As a rule it is more southern in its range, is much larger, and has somewhat thicker 

 and more chaffy rootstocks, while its fronds, which are thinner, usually less hairy and 

 scaly, and nearly always as broad as or broader than long, have the lower pair of pinna? 

 longer and broader than the pair next above. The lower pinna? too are much broader in 

 the middle than at the base, and the segments are more toothed. 



The variations of this species seem to be confined to forking of the fronds and pinnae, 

 and a greater or less amount of pubescence. Occasionally specimens are seen with the 

 wing interrupted between the first and second pairs of pinna?. 



Pare in Quebec and Eastern Ontario, but fairly abundant in parts of Central Ontario. 

 Quebec, Que. — Hon. Wm. Sheppard. "Waterloo and Sorel, Que., — Lady DaJhousie. Nun's 

 Island, Montreal, Que. — S. H. Parsons. Mirwin's Woods, near Prescott, Out., rare. — B. 

 Billings. Amongst boulders in a piece of rocky woods two miles from Campbellford, 

 Northumberland Co., Out. ; thickets and hillsides, Port Stanley, Lake Erie, Out.— Macoun. 

 Chippewa, Ont. — Maclagan. Rich woods, London, St. Thomas and Windsor, Ont. — Burgess. 

 Parry Sound, Muskoka District, Ont.— Judge Logie. 



** Fronds triangular but ternate with the three divisions stalked; rachis 

 windless. 



*5 J 



3. — P. Dryoptems, Fee, (Oak-Fern, Ternatc-Polypod), Gray, Man., 663. Macoun's Cat., 

 No. 2303. Fowler's N. B. Cat., No. 752. Ball, Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 150. Watt, 

 Can. Nat., IV, 363. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 157. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 101. 



Polypodium Dryopleris, L, Swartz, Syn. Fil. ,41. Hook. and Baker, Syn. Fil., 309. Pro- 

 vancher, Flor. Can., 713. Lawson, Can. Nat., I., 269. 



Polypodium calcareum, Pursh, II, 659. 



Nephrodium Dryopleris, Mx., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 270. 



Polystichum Dryopteris, Roth. 



The Oak-Fern is a beautiful, non-evergreen plant, growing from 6 to 24 inches high, 



