226 MAOOUN AND BURGESS ON 



Vol. IX, p. 101, a good distinguishing point between the sterile fronds is, that in O. cinna- 

 momea at the base of each pinna there is a small, persistent bunch of wool, which is 

 nearly or wholly wanting in O. Claytcmiana. 



Like the other Osmundas, variations in the pinnee aud pinnules are not very uncom- 

 mon. The former may be more lanceolate than oblong-lanceolate, and the latter may be 

 somewhat acute, obscurely crenulate and even in the lower ones elongated and pinnatifid, 

 or more or less imbricated. Fertile fronds are occasionally found in which a few or most 

 of the lower pinnae are barren, thus imitating the normal method of fruiting in O. regulis, 

 a state which constitutes the var. frondosa, Gray. Occasionally, too, fronds are found copy- 

 ing O. Claytoniana in being fertile in the middle, while more rarely the apex is barren and 

 the base fertile. Var. alata, Hook., has the rachis slightly wing-margined, a not uncom- 

 mon character of large fronds, while pinnse, retaining a more or less foliaceous character, 

 with a marginal fructification, arc found from time to time. Var. imbricans, Milde, a very 

 close approach to which is sometimes seen in American specimens, has rigid fronds, with 

 the segments elongated and overlapping each other. 



The rhizomes of this fern have been reputed to possess demulcent, sub-astringent, 

 and tonic properties. Boiled in milk, they yield a fine mucilage, which is useful in 

 diarrhoea. 



Very common throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario to 

 Georgian Bay, which probably is with us its western limit, though it is recorded by Lawson 

 in the " Canadian Naturalist " as having been found at Two Heart Fiver, Lake Superior, 

 by R. Bell, Jr. Var. .frondosa has been found at the following places : Windsor, N. S. — 

 How. Halifax Water-Works, Halifax Co., N. S.— P. Jack. Molus River, Kent Co., N. B — 

 — Foivler. Bismark, Out., along the Canada Southern Railway. — Macoun. 



