too 



Our Native Ferns. 



* Vernation wholly straight. 



I. B. simplex, Hitch. Plant 2' — 7' high, fleshy . 

 sterile segment stalked, very nearly approximate 

 to the rhizoma, or even above the middle, ovate, 

 obovate, or oblong, entire, incised, or pinnately 

 parted into i —3 pairs of roundish or semi-lunate 

 lobes; fertile spike long-stalked, simple or i — 2 

 pinnate ; spores the largest of the genus, closely 

 covered with small points ; bud smooth ; apex o' 

 both sterile and fertile segments erect. (Fig. 29.) 

 Specimens with the sterile segment composed of *^s- 29. Verna- 

 two or three pinnately incised divisions form the jj"^." Z *"Tft 

 var. compositum, Lasch. N. Eng., N. Y. and north- Davenport.) 

 ward, the variety in Wy. T. and Cal. II. 



** Vernation partly inclined in one or both portions. 

 \Buds smooth; sterile segments sessile or short-stalked. 

 2. B. lunaria, Swz. (MoONWORT.) Plants' — 8' high, fleshy ; 

 sterile segment nearly sessile, borne near the 

 middle of the stalk, oblong, simply pinnate 

 with 5 — 15 lunate or fan-shaped lobes which 

 are crenate, incised, or entire, close and over- 

 lapping, or distant ; fertile segment bi — tripin- 

 nate, panicled, about the height of the sterile. 

 Apex only of sterile segment bent over and 

 outside of the nearly straight fertile segment 

 in vernation ; divisions of sterile frond arranged 

 nearly perpendicularly. (Fig. 30.) Ct., N. Y., 

 L. Superior, Col. and British Columbia. II. 



3. B. boreale, Milde. Plant lyi'—Y high, 

 smooth, fleshy ; sterile segment placed above 

 the middle, sessile, cordate, ovate or deltoid, 

 pinnately parted, acute ; lowest segment spread- 

 ing from a narrower base, ovate or cordate- 

 ovate, acute, all entire, or here and there fla- 

 bellately incised with acute lobes, or pinnately port) 

 parted ; secondary segments from a narrowed base, ovate, acute, 

 serrate, the upper spreading, quickly decreasing, finally elliptical, 

 acute ; fertile segment bi — tripinnate, panicled. Apex of sterile 

 segment bent over inside of the nearly erect fertile one in verna- 

 tion ; divisions of the sterile segment arranged on an angle. Una- 

 laska. II. 



(After Daven- 



