214 MACOUN AND BUEGESS ON 



ably broadly triangular, the basal ones measuring an inch in breadth and length. Speci- 

 mens collected at London, Ont., have branched rootstocks nearly a foot long, while others, 

 gathered in the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia, have the sori confluent and cover- 

 ing every particle of the under surface of the fronds, so as to give them a dark brown 

 appearance. 



.This is one of the most universally distributed of ferns, appearing in almost every 

 part of our whole territory from east to west and from north to south, growing even on 

 the prairie wherever moisture sufficient for it to grow can be obtained near rock. 



2. — C. bulbifeka, Bernh.. (Bulblet Cystopteris), Gray, Man., 667. Provancher, Fl. Can., 

 719. Lawson, Can. Nat., I, 287. Hook., and Baker, Syn. Fil., 103. Macoun's Cat., No. 

 2324. Fowler's N. B. Cat., No. 761. Ball, Trans. N. S. Inst. Nat. Sci., IV, 154. Goode, 

 Can. Nat,, IX, 299. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 55. Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc,, 108. 



Polypodium bulbiferum, L. 



Aspidium bulbiferum, Swartz, Syn. Fil., 59. Pursh, II, 665. 



Aspidium atomarium, Muhl. 



Nephrodium bulbiferum, Miehx, Fl., Bor.-Am., II, 268. 



Cystea bulbifera, Smith, Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. 



A tall, slender, tufted fern, generally producing on its under side lleshy bulblets, which 

 fall to the ground and form new plants which reach maturity in the second year. It is 

 found in wet places among rocks, or in low rich woods, attaining a height of 1^ to 3 feet, 

 and withers with the early frosts of autumn. Rootstock short, covered with old stalk- 

 bases, and sparingly chaffy at its apex ; stalks slender, rather brittle, clustered, much 

 shorter than the fronds, when fresh dark-brown close to the base and green above (some- 

 times brown throughout), but when dry pale straw-colour ; fronds mostly reclined, elon- 

 gated, tapering from base to slender apex, usually 1{ to 2 feet or even more in length by 3 

 to 5 inches wide at the base, thin, very minutely glandular in the living plant, often bear- 

 ing bulblets, which are commonest at the base of the pinna? and toward the apex of the 

 fronds, bipinnate ; pinnae ovate-oblong, pointed ; pinnules oblong, obtuse, pinnatifid or 

 toothed, the lower ones distinct, but the rest decurrent along the narrowly-winged, sec- 

 ondary rachis ; veinlets mostly running out to the teeth of the lobes ; indusia truncate at 

 the free end. 



Professor Lawson proposes a var. horizontalis for a shorter form of this fern, with tri- 

 angular-lanceolate fronds, broad at the base and not more than three or four times longer 

 than broad, pinnae horizontal. The same writer also proposes a var. flagelliformis, which, 

 however, seems to differ in no respect from the typical form of the species. Depauperate 

 forms, but bearing bulblets, collected on exposed cliffs in Gaspe, Que., by Mr. Goode, are 

 only 2\ to 2| inches long including stalks. 



Found in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but not common, and extending west- 

 ward to the Lake of the "Woods, Manitoba. Rare in Nova Scotia ; Hartley's Water-Fall, 

 Pirate Harbour, Strait of Canso. — Rev. E. H. Ball. Aspey Bay, Cape Breton, N. S. — A. H. 

 McKay. Growing with Adiantum pedatum at Newport, Hants Co., N. S. ; Grand Falls, N. B. 

 — P. Jack. Restigouche and St. John, N. B. — Fowler. On damp limestone rocks up Jupiter 

 River, Island of Anticosti, Que. — Macoun. Common in Quebec. — Provancher, D 'Urban. 

 Bell, Maclagan, McCord, etc. Very abundant throughout Ontario, as far west as the Bruce 



