598 FiLiCES. (ferns.) 



cal ring. Fronds elongated, climbing, tlie branches usually in pairs with a short 

 common foot-stalk. 



1- L. palmatum, Swartz. Fronds slender, pinnae deeply cordate at the 

 base, palmately 4 - 7-lobed, the lobes oblong, obtuse, entire ; the upper pinn« 

 decompound and bearing the fruit on the very narrow segments. — Low shady 

 woods, Florida, and northward ; not common. — Eootstock very slender, creep- 

 ing. Fronds 2° - 5° high, climbing on weeds and bushes. 



20. ANEIMIA, Swartz. 



Sporangia ovate, many-rayed at the apex, attached by the base in a double 

 row to the narrow one-sided paniculate divisions of the two lower branches of 

 the frond, or on separate fronds. Indusium none. Fronds erect, commonly 

 three-branched, the middle branch sterile and 1 - 3-pinnate. 



1. A. fldiantifolia, Swartz. Fronds sparingly pubescent, erect on a slen- 

 der stipe ; the two lower branches elongated, pinnately decompound, fertile ; 

 sterile part of the frond deltoid-ovate, 2 - 3-pinnatc ; ultimate segments obovate, 

 cuneate, entire or lolied, striate above with numerous flabellate veins. — Key 

 West, &c.. South Florida. — Fronds 6'- 12' high, rather rigid. Rootstock creep- 

 ing, slender, covered with a black tomentum. 



21. OSMUNDA, L. Flowering Fern. 



Sporangia globular, short-pedicelled, having an incomplete transverse ring, 

 represented by a few parallel striue near the apex, opening by a vertical chink 

 into two nearly equal valves, paniculately arranged on contracted parts of the 

 frond or on separate fronds. Fronds tall, erect, several from a stout rootstock, 

 1-2-pinnate. Veins forking, free. 



* Fronds bipinnate, fertile at the top ; sterile pinnce few. 

 1. O. regalis, L. Fronds ovate, smooth ; sterile pinnas distant ; the finely 

 serrulate pinnules distinct, oblong-lanceolate, cordate or truncate at the nearly 

 sessile base, sometimes auricled at the lower side of the base ; the upper pinnae 

 erect, panicled and thickly covered with light brown sporangia. (0. spectabilis, 

 Willd.) — Swamps, Florida to Mississippi, and northward. — Fronds l°-5° 

 high; pinnules l'-2' long, 3" -4" wide. 



* * Sterile fronds pinnate: thepinnoe numerous^ deeply pinnatijid, with oblong entire 



2. O. Claytoniana, L. Fronds broadly lanceolate, woolly when young, 

 at length nearly smooth ; sterile pinnfe sessile, oblong-lanceolate, deeply pinna- 

 tifid ; the segments crowded ; fertile pinnae few, between the middle and the base 

 of the frond, contracted, the sporangia deepening in color as the sterile pinnae 

 expand. (0. interrupta, Michx.) — Low grounds in the upper districts, and 

 northward. — Fronds 2° -3° high. 



3. O. cinnamomea, L. Sterile fronds covered with rusty wool when 

 young, at length smooth ; pinnse sessile, lanceolate ; segments broadly oblong, 



