218 MACOUN AND BURCKSS ON 



range, extending from New Brunswick west to the Rocky Mountains, while northward it 

 reaches the Arctic Circle. The Tunnel, Restigouche, N. B., rare.— Fowler. Grand Falls, 

 N. B.— P. Jack. Limestone rocks, twelve miles up Jupiter River, and under cliffs at Ellis 

 Bay, Island of Anticosti, Que. ; frequent in crevices of rocks along the Gaspe coast and 

 on cliffs along the Ste. Anne des Monts River, and Riviere du Loup, Que. ; ledges of rock, 

 Kakabeka Falls, Kaministiquia River, ten miles south of Fort William, Red Rock near the 

 C P. Ry. station, and on trap rocks up the Nipigon River, Lake Superior, Ont. ; limestone 

 rocks, Pine Portage, Clearwater River, below Methy Portage, Lat. 57°; crevices of rock, 

 Bow River Pass, Rocky Mountains, N. W. Ter.— Macoun. Saguenay River and Montmor- 

 enci Falls, Que.— D. A. Watt. Great Bear Lake, the original station, N. W. Ter.— Richard- 

 son. On rocks along the Arctic coast, from Mackenzie River to Baffin Bay.— Hook., Arc PI. 



2.—W. hyperborea, R. Br., (Northern Woodsia, Alpine Woodsia, Flowercup-Fern), 

 Hook., Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 2f>9. Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 4(5. Provancher, Fl. Can., 720. 

 Macoun's Cat., No. 2327. Watt, Can. Nat,, IV, 3G3. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 107. 

 Underwood, Our Nat. Ferns, etc, 110. 



W. Alpina, S. F. Gray, Lawson, Trans. Bot. Soc. Ed, VIII, 108, and Can. Nat, I, 289. 



W. Ilvensis, var, Benth. 



Poli/podium hyperboreum, Swartz, Syn. Fil, 39. 



Acrostichnm alpinum, Bolton. 



Poli/podium arvonicum, Smith. 



A small, non-evergreen fern, 3 to 8 inches high, growing in tufts on moist, mossy 

 rocks. Rootstocks short, ascending, clustered, thickly set with old stalk-bases ; stalks 

 less than half the length of the fronds, stout for the size of the plant, numerous, chaffy 

 near the base, and sparingly so with hair-like scales or almost smooth above, shining,_ 

 reddish-brown ; fronds linear-lanceolate, 2 to G inches long by 6 lines to 1 inch wide, spar- 

 ingly chaffy, hairy or nearly smooth, pinnate ; pinna; 3 to G lines long, triangular-ovate, 

 obtuse, pinnately lobed into a few obtuse, rounded or obovate, nearly entire lobes ; sori 

 usually distinct ; indusia long-ciliate. 



By some authorities this fern is not considered distinct from W. Ilvensis. Usually the 

 two are easily separated, but intermediate forms occur, and it is at times very hard to 

 decide under which to place such. W. hyperborea is usually the smaller, narrower, more 

 delicate in texture, smoother, and has shorter, more obtuse and less deeply lobed pinnae, 

 with sori usually remaining distinct. Prof. Lawson, in Can. Nat., Vol. I, p. 4, describes a 

 nearly smooth form, with longer (9 inches) and lax fronds, which he proposes to distin- 

 guish as var. Belli, but the distinctions seem insufficient to warrant the construction of a 



distinct variety. 



In Canada this fern occurs very locally from New Brunswick to the Saskatchewan, 

 and north to the Arctic Circle. Aroostook Falls, Victoria Co, N. B.— Hay and Wetmore. 

 Dartmouth River, Gaspe, Que, twenty miles from its mouth, var. Belli.— J. Bell. Perpen- 

 dicular faces of rocky cliffs near Cape Rosier, Gaspe, Que. ; on rocks and in their crevices 

 twenty miles up the Ste. Anne des Monts River, and at the Falls of the same river at the 

 base of Mont Albert, Que. ; on mountain masses along the north shore of Lake Superior, 

 west of Nipigon Bay, on cliffs of Jack Fish Island, Lake Nipigon, and on ledges of rock 

 between the Hudson's Bay Co.'s post and Lake Superior at Michipicotin. Out.— Macoun. 



