206 MACOUN AND BTJKGESS ON 



Polystichum marginale, "Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. 



Nephrodium marginale, Michx.,Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 267. 



Dryopteris Marginal is, Gray. 



A large and conspicuous evergreen fern, growing on wooded banks, and especially 

 common on rocky, wooded hillsides. It varies in height from 8 or 9 inches to 3 feet, and 

 grows in circular tufts. Eootstock stout, ascending, chaffy, covered with old stalk-bases; 

 stalks shorter than the fronds, chaffy, brownish when fresh but stramineous when dry; 

 fronds smooth except for the scattered chaff on the rachis and midribs, paler on the under 

 surface, leathery, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong in outline, 6 inches to 2 feet long, pin- 

 nate ; pinna* almost sessile, lanceolate or lanceolate-acuminate, broadest just above the 

 base, pinnate or pinnatifid ; segments oblong, obtuse, often somewhat scythe-snaped, entire 

 or crenately toothed ; sori rather large, placed close to the margins of the segments ; indusia 

 smooth, often lead-coloured. 



In general size, outline and amount of division, as well as the size, shape and prox- 

 imity of its divisions, this fern is quite variable, and a number of forms have been de- 

 scribed. Elongated, acutish, deeply lobed pinnules, with a sub-cordate base, constitute 

 var. elegant of Robinson, while very large fronds, (3^ feet long), bipinnate with all the 

 pinnules pinnatifid, is var. Traillce of Lawson. Forking fronds are sometimes found, and 

 occasionally others are seen broadest at the ba.se. or having the pinnae and their divisions 

 overlapping each other. Small plants, 5 to 6 inches high, with only the lowest pinnae 

 pinnatifid, the others merely lobed (a young state of the species), are not uncommon. 



Abundant in ravines and on rocky slopes from the Maritime Provinces to the Lake of 

 the Woods, thence more sparingly, and only in places, to the Uocky Mountains. Very 

 generally distributed throughout the Province of Nova Scotia, and to be met with on most 

 rocky banks. — Rev. E. H. Ball. Rather common in New Brunswick. — Foirler. Common in 

 Quebec. — Provancher, McCord, Sheppard, Botha-ell. etc. Very common in Ontario. — Lawson, 

 Meicoun, Billings, Logie, Burgess, etc, Lakefield, Out., var. Trail la. — Mrs. Traill. Common 

 in the Muskoka District of Ontario, and on the Dawson Road, Man. — Burgess. Split Rock 

 Portage, on the Nipigon River, Out., and in Peace River Pass, Rocky Mountains, Lat. 56°. 

 — Macoun. The Saskatchewan. — Drummond. 



f f f Fronds large, fully twice pinnate; indusia rather small, thinnish, fiat, and 

 at length shrivelled or deciduous. 



8. — A. spintjlosum, Swartz, (Spinulose Wood-Fern, Common Wood-Fern), Syn. Fil., 

 50. Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 261. Gray, Man., 664. Provancher, Flor. Can., 719. Macoun's 

 Cat., No. 2316. Fowler's N. B. Cat,, No. 756. Ball, Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 151. 

 Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 163. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc., 10*7. 



Lastrea spinulosa, Presl. 



Nephrodium spinulosum, Desv. 



This species is partially evergreen, especially the barren fronds, and is one of our very 

 commonest and most variable ferns. It has fertile and sterile fronds alike, forming a 

 crown, and finds its home in thick, especially damp, woods, where it reaches a height of 

 1J to 2 feet. Of the typical form, var. vulgare, D. C. Eaton, the following are the charac- 

 ters : Rootstock stout, creeping or ascending, chaffy and covered with old stalk-bases ; 

 stalks rather slender, darkened at the base but green above, chaffy (especially when 



