224 MA CO UN AND BUEGESS ON 



they may be broadly-oval or oblong-lanceolate. Their apices may be .sub-acute and their 

 bases very unequal, rounded, sub-cordate or auricled on the lower side, while the margins 

 may be entire or lobed in their lower half. The American plant has been described as a 

 distinct species, under the names O. glattcescens and 0. spectabilis, also as a distinct variety 

 O. regalis var. spectabilis, but it corresponds too closely to the European to admit of such 

 separation. The distinctions of the European O. regalis have been found in its darker 

 colour, greater size, more spreading pinnae, and auricled pinnules, but American specimens 

 identical in all these respects are not at all uncommon. As regards the fertile fronds, 

 sometimes some of the fruiting pinnae are but partly contracted and continue leaf-lijfe /t/ 

 with sporangia along their margins, a state analogous to var. obtusilobata of Onoclea sensibilis, 

 or, again, the fruiting may imitate that of O. Claytoniana, the frond being fertile in the 

 middle and barren above and below, var. inlerrupta, Milde. 



This plant was formerly esteemed as possessing astringent and emmenagogue proper- 

 ties, but is now considered of little value. In the northern parts of England an infusion 

 of the rhizome, which is very starchy, is a popular remedy for rickets, and an application 

 to sprains and bruises, while in the north of Europe a similar infusion has been used as 

 a starch. 



The Royal-Fern is very common in most parts of the eastern half of our territory, but 

 becomes rare toward its western limit, which, according to Richardson and Eaton, is the 

 Saskatchewan. Observed north of Lake Superior at Round Lake, on the line of the Cana- 

 dian Pacilic Railway, twelve miles east of the Pic River, and at Currant River, Thunder 

 Bay. — Macaun. Muskeg Island, Lake "Winnipeg. — J. M. Macovn. 



* * Sterile fronds pinnate, with deeply pinnatifid pinnae. 



2. — O. Claytoniana, L., (Clayton's Flowering-Fern, Interrupted Fern), Swartz, Syn. 

 Fil., 160. Pursh, II, 657. Gray, Man., 6*70. Hook, and Baker, Syn. Fil., 426. Lawson, 

 Can. Nat., I, 291. Macoun's Cat., No. 2333. Fowlers N. B. Cat., No. 768. Ball, Trans. 

 N. S. Inst. Nat, Sci., IV, 155. Watt, Can. Nat., IV, 364. Eaton, Ferns of N. A., I, 219. 

 Underwood, Our Nat, Ferns, etc., 113. 



O. interrupta, Mx.. Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 273. Hook.. Fl. Bor.-Am., II, 265. Pursh, II, 657. 

 Provancher, Fl. Can., 721. 



Struthiopteris Claytoniana, Bernh. 



This is a handsome, non-evergreen species, commonly about 2 to 4 feet high, growing 

 in circular tufts in low grounds, wet woods and thickets. The sterile and fertile fronds 

 are unlike, the former growing generally on the outside of the circle, gradually curve 

 gracefully outward in all directions to form a A r ase-like surrounding for the latter, which 

 are taller, erect, and have a few of the middle pairs of pinnos contracted and covered with 

 sporangia. Rootstock creeping, greatly thickened with imbricated stalk-bases ; stalks 

 stout, erect, usually a little more than half as long as the fronds, when young clothed 

 with loose, brownish wool, with stipular wings at the base ; sterile fronds oblong-lance- 

 olate in outline, \\ to 2 J feet long by 6 inches to 1 foot wide, woolly when young but 

 smooth, except for a little of the wool in the axils of the pinna; and along the midribs, 

 when mature, rounded or short pointed at the apex, pinnate ; pinnae short-stalked, oblong- 

 lanceolate, rather obtuse, deeply pinnatifid into ovate-oblong, obtuse, entire, oblicpue pin- 

 nules ; fertile fronds like the sterile, except that 2 to 5 pairs of the central pinna 1 (which 



