FERN FAMILT. 371 



23. AIiSOFHILA. (From Greek words meaning grove-loving, the species 

 growing in tropical forests. 



A. ^spera. Rarely cult, from W. Indies: trunk 6°"- 8° high; stalks 

 prickly, clothed at the base with pale, narrow scales ; fronds 6° - 8° long, 2° - 3° 

 wide, hipinna,te ; rhachis hairy above ; pinnis oblong-lanceolate ; pinnules very 

 many, lanceolate, pinnatifid almost to the midrib ; lobes oblong, curved, ser- 

 rate, obtuse; fruit-dots 8-10 to a lobe; indusium a thin spale on one side of 

 the fruit-dot, often disappearing with age. 



A. pruin^ta, fi'om S. America, is sometimes seen ; a much smaller plant ; 

 rootstock short, clothed with bright-brown wool ; fronds smooth, green above, 

 pale and glaucous often almost white beneath, bipinnate; pinnules deeply 

 toothed ; fruit-dots solitary at the base of each tooth ; spore-cases mixed with 

 woolly hairs. 



24. TEICHOMAWES. (An ancient Greek name of some Fern, referring 

 to the hair-like stalks.) A large genus ; most of the species tropical. 



T. r adlcans. On dripping rocks, Alabama and Tennessee, very rare : fronds 

 pellucid, 4' -8' high, the stalk and rhachis narrowly winged, lanceolate, pinnate 

 with 1 - 2-pinnatifid ovate pinnse ; involucres on short lobes, funnel-shaped, 

 with long exserted receptacles. — A broader and more compound form from 

 Killarney, Ireland, is grown in Wardian cases. 



25. LYGODIUM, GLlMBIN(5-FERN. (Name from a Greek word 

 meaning flexible, alluding to the twining and climbing fronds.) Not many 

 species ; all but ours tropical. 



Zi. palm^tum. Low shady woods, rather rare : smooth, slender, and deli- 

 cate, 2°-4° high, entangled among herbs; piiinEB roundish, 12"- 18" wide, 

 deeply heart-shaped at the, base, palmately 5 - 7-lobed, upper ones decompound 

 and fertile. 



Ii. Jap6nieum. Conservatory plant from Japan : climbing 10°- 12° high, 

 smooth; pinnse ovate, 5'- 9' long, ijipinnato, divisions ovate-lanceolate, often 

 halberd-shaped ; divisions of the upper pinniE bordered with narrow fertile lobes. 



26. AN£!IMIA. (Name from the Greek, meaning without covering, allud- 

 ing to the naked spore-casps. )^ Mainly tropical. 



A. Phyllitidis. Cult from S. America : 12' -18' high, has the two lower 

 pinnse long-stalked, nan'owly-elongatod, 3-4-pinnate, fertile; middle portion 

 of the frond sterile, simply piniiate ; pinnse lanceolate, finely serrate ; veins re- 

 ticulated. 



A. ajdiantoid@S. Native in Key West, Florida ; with lower pinnae as in 

 the last; middle portion sterile, 2-3-pinnate; pinnae long-pointed; divisions 

 obovate-wedge-shaped, entire or toothed at the end, with free veins forking from 

 the base. 



27. SCHIZ.SIA. (Name from the Greek verb which means to split, refer- 

 ring to the many-forked fronds of certain tropical species. ) 



S. pusUIa. Wet sand, in pine woods of New Jersey : sterile fronds very 

 slender, flattened, simple and linear, curled up ; fenlle ones similar, but straight, 

 2' -3' high, hearing at the top the fertile portion, 2" -3" long, composed of 

 about 5 pairs of minute pinnae. 



28. OSMlfNDA, FLOWERING FERN. (Name of doubtful origin, 

 anciently " Osmund ike Waterman," who was perhaps St. Osmund, Bishop of 

 Salisbury, or possibly St. Christopher, patron of watermen. Vide Hooker's 

 British Ferns. ) Species very few, fruiting in spring or early summer. 



* Fruiting fronds distinct fiom the leafy ones. 

 O. cinnam6mea, Cinnamon-Fern. Swamps, abundant everywhere: 

 sterile fronds 2° -.59 high, broadly lanceolate, pinnate with many lanceolate 

 deeply pinnatifid pinnse ; fertile ones much shorter, at first woolly, soon with- 

 ering ; fructification bright cinnamon color. 



