CANADIAN FILICINB.E. 221 



chaffy, covered with old stalk-bases ; stalks shorter -than the fronds, quite dark near the 

 base but lighter upward, puberulent with minute pointed hairs and stalked glands; fronds 

 lanceolate in outline, 4 to 8 inches long by 9 lines to 2 inches wide, pinnate, rachis and 

 under surface puberulent and glandular like the stalk ; pinnae numerous, oblong-ovate, 

 sub-acute, deeply pinnatifid into short, ovate or oblong, obtuse, crenulate or toothed lobes ; 

 sori sub-marginal ; indiisia very delicate and deeply cleft into narrow segments which 

 terminate in short hairs. 



Specimens vary greatly in the amount of their pubescence, the smoother forms being 

 very difficult to distinguish from W. Oregana. Some British Columbian specimens from 

 near Yale have fronds fully two inches wide with the pinnae so crowded as to overlap. 



In the United States this species extends as far eastward as Minnesota, but with us, as 

 far as known at present, it is confined to the Rocky Mountains and British Columbia. 

 Rocky Mountains and Elk River, Kootanie Valley, B. C. — G. M. Daivson. Among loose rocks 

 on mountain side, specimens thirteen inches long, at Lytton, B. C, also on Mount Finlay- 

 son, near Victoria, Vancouver Island, B. C. — J. Fletcher. Along the Fraser and Thompson 

 Rivers, B. C, from Yale to Spence's Bridge, and on the mountains at these places ; abun- 

 dant in Kicking House Pass, Rocky Mountains. N. W. T. — Macoim. 



6.— W. Oregana, D. C. Eaton, (Oregon Woodsia), Gray, Man., G69. Macoun's Cat., 

 No. 2329. Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 363. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., II, 185. Underwood, Our 

 Nat. Ferns, etc., 110. 



W. obtuscij var. LyalUi, Hooker. 



This is a delicate, non-evergreen fern, with the fertile and sterile fronds somewhat 

 unlike (the former being the taller), growing from 5 to 10 inches high in dense patches 

 in the crevices of rocks, very often where exposed to the. sun. Rootstocks short, creeping, 

 chaffy, covered with old stalk-bases ; stalks usually rather more than half the length of 

 the fronds, slender, chaffy below when young, darkened near the base but greenish or 

 straw-colored above ; fronds lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 3 to 6 inches long by 8 to 12 

 lines wide, smooth, pinnate ; pinnae triangular-oblong, obtuse or acutish, pinnatifid into 

 segments, which are obtuse, oblong or ovate, crenate or toothed, with the teeth often 

 reflexed and covering the sub-marginal sori ; indusia very minute and divided almost to 

 the centre into a few beaded hairs. 



Woodsice Oregana and scopulina are very much alike, and, unless the specimens are in 

 good condition, it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other. The most important 

 distinctions are the minute glandular pubescence of the latter, the difference in the divi- 

 sion of its larger indusia, and the similarity of its fertile and sterile fronds. In general 

 appearance, too, W. Oregana resembles small forms of W. obtusa, from which, however, its 

 glabrous fronds and rudimentary involucre distinguish it, Forking fronds are not 

 uncommon in this species. 



The Oregon Woodsia, ranges from British Columbia eastward to Lake Nipigon, while 

 northward it is known to reach as high as Lake Athabasca. Along the Fraser and 

 Thomson Rivers, B. C, from Yale to Spence's Bridge; on Blackwater River, along the 

 Telegraph Trail, and at Fort St. James, northern British Columbia ; Peace River Pass, 

 Rocky Mountains; Fort Chipewyan, Lake Athabasca, N. W. Ter., Lat. 58° 48'; crevices of 

 rocks, Blackwater River, Lake Nipigon, Ont., 1884, a very glandular form. — Maeoun, 



