330 BOTANY. 



Aspleraiutn Filix-ftemina, Bemliardi, 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, existing 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 Atliyrium asplenoides, Desv., making two varieties, one with broader and 

 one with narrower pinnules ; but the distinctive character 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; pinnae oblong-lanceo- 

 late, deeply cut into oblong laciniae, which are 2-3 toothed at the end. 



Maine (Prof. O. D. Allen). Chocorua, New Hampshire, Minot Pratt. A starved form, which un- 

 doubtedly will be found in many exposed and mountainous places. 



Yar. amgustum. 



Fronds 1-3 feet high, rather rigid, narrow in outline, nearly bipinnate; 

 pinnae 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-fcemina, var. Michauxii, 

 Mettenius. D. C. Eaton in Botany of 40th Parallel, p. 396. Atliyrium 

 asplenioides, var. angustum, Moore, Index Fil p. 179. 



Common in New England and Middle States in dryish and sunny localities. Sacramento Valley, 

 (Brewer, No. 1437). Wahsatch Mts., Utah, Watson, Eaton. 



Yar. latifolium, Hooker. 



Frond 2-3 feet high, oblong-lanceolate in outline, nearly bipinnate ; 

 pinnae 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. Atliyrium Filix-fcemina, var. latifolium, Moore, Nat. Print. Ferns, t. 

 31, f. B.(!) 



An uncommon form. Port Orford, Oregon, Gen. Kautz. Oregon, E. Ball, No. 683. Near Philadel- 

 phia, Penn., F. Sourquin, 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 

 now before me. 



