CANADIAN FILICINE2E. 



169 



51 

 52 

 53 

 54 

 55 



56 



57 

 58 

 59 

 GO 

 Gl 

 G2 

 03 

 64 



SPECIES. 



Brought forward 



Phegopteris polypodioides, Fee 



Polypodium falcatum, Kellogg 



Polypodium Scouleri, Hooik. and On 



Polypodium vulgare, L 



Pteris aquilina, L 



Var. lanuginosa, Bung 



Sohizrea pusilla, Pwsh 



Scolopendrium vulgare, Smith 



Woodsia glabella, B. Br 



Woodsia hyperborea, B. Br 



Woodsia Ilvensis, B. Br 



Woodsia obtusa, Torr 



Woodsia Oregana, D. C. Eaton 



Woodsia scopulina, D. C. Eaton 



Woodwardia Virginica, Smith 



44 



1 



II. 



4G 



1 



III. 



24 

 1 



Totals . 



54 



55 



IV. 



20 



1 



25 



31 



27 



Throughout the paper the distributions and habitats, as well as the limits of size as- 

 signed to the various species are, in most cases, given from personal observation, but are 

 supplemented by facts bearing on these points recorded in standard authors, or communi- 

 cated by reliable correspondents. 



The habitat of ferns is subject to considerable variation. Plants from any cause 

 thrown out of their proper range, and finding themselves in their new abode destitute of 

 their accustomed surroundings, make a desperate effort to accommodate themselves to 

 their new environment, and often fully succeed. Thus the Common Polypody, which 

 has its usual home on rocks, in parts of Ontario lacking such, flourishes freely on dry 

 banks, and the Matricary Grape-Fern, commonly found in wet woods and in moss along 

 streams, has been noted in Nova Scotia on high, dry and open grass lands. 



Variations in size depend to so great an extent on the character of the soil and the 

 climatic conditions under which a plant grows, that it becomes a matter of difficulty, or 

 well nigh impossibility, to ascribe any usual height to a species, e. g\, Asplenium Filix- 

 foemina, which, in low, rich woods reaches a height of two to three or four feet, in exposed 

 mountainous places often does not exceed three to six inches. Information on this head, 

 however, is not without importance to pteridologists. and an endeavour has been made to 

 mention the better known extremes, but without the intention, in any degree, to lay these 

 down as absolutely fixed limits. 



Sec. IV., 1884. 22. 



