330 BOTANY. 
Asplenium Filix-feemina, Bernhardi, in Schraders N. Journ. Bot. 1806, 
pt. ii, p. 26, 48, t. 2, £7. Gray, Manual. Hooker, Sp. Fil. iii, p. 217. 
North Temperate Zone generally, ettaing | in a great variety of forms, and in some perhaps doubt- 
ful forms in Africa and South America. Moore separates the greater part of the North American forms 
specifically under the name of Athyrium asplenoides, Desv., making two varieties, one with broader and 
one with narrower pinnules; but the distinctive thane tte which he relies mainly upon, the “creeping 
caudex,” seems to be invalid, as our American plants grow in crowns no less decidedly than those of 
Europe. Having regard to only characters evident in ordinary herbarium specimens, I should arrange 
the North American forms which exist in my collection in five groups or varieties, as follows: 
Var. exile. 
Fronds 3-6 inches high, lanceolate, pinnate; pinnz oblong-lanceo- 
late, deeply cut into oblong laciniz, which are 2-3 toothed at the end. 
Maine (Prof. 0. D. Allen). Chocorua, New Hampshire, Minot Pratt. A starved form, which un- 
doubtedly will be found in many exposed and mountainous places. 
Var. angustum. 
Fronds 1-3 feet high, rather rigid, narrow in outline, nearly bipinnate; 
pinne obliquely ascending or curved upwards, narrowly lanceolate; seg- 
ments oblong, crowded, crenated or serrate; sori usually abundant, straight 
or curved.—Aspidium angustum, Willd. <Aspl. Filix-feemina, var. Michauxii, 
Mettenius. D.C. Eaton in Botany of 40th Parallel, p. 396. Athyrium 
asplenioides, var. angustum, Moore, Index Fil p. 179. 
Common in New England and Middle States in sce and sunny localities. Sacramento Valley, 
(Brewer, No. 1437)... Wahsatch Mts., Utah, Wetson, Eaton 
Var. latifolium, Hooker. 
Frond 2-3 feet high, oblong-lanceolate in outline, nearly bipinnate ; 
pinnz 3—4 inches long, oblong-linear, having a narrowly winged secondary 
rachis; pinnules broadly ovate and foliaceous, obtuse, simply or doubly 
serrate; sori nearer the midvein than the margin, indusia straight or curved, 
the basal ones often hippocrepiform (horseshoe-shaped).—Sp. Fil. iii, p. 
218. Athyrium Filix-femina, var. latifolium, Moore, Nat. Print. Ferns, t 
51, f. B.(?) 
An uncommon form. Port Orford, Oregon, Gen. Kautz. Oregon, EF. Hall, No. 683. Near Philadel- 
phia, Penn., F. Bourquin, 1867. I am not satisfied that this is exactly Moore’s plant, and indeed the pin- 
nules of the Oregon specimens are less imbricated than those he figures, while in the Philadelphia 
specimen they are for the most part quite distinct, but on the whole his plate well represents the form 
_ how before me 
