CHAPTER XXIL 



WOODS I A, E. Brow. 



(Wood'-si-a.) 



N Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Filicum " Woodsia forms 

 Genus 11. It is dedicated to the memory of Joseph Woods, 

 author of " The Tourists' Flora," and is composed of about 

 fourteen species of small-growing, much-tufted, greenhouse 

 and hardy Ferns, of distinct appearance and very neat habit. 

 All are of soft texture and of a deciduous nature ; their stalks are often 

 jointed and separating at the joints. The distinctive characters of Woodsia 

 reside principally in the globose shape of the spore masses and in the inferior, 

 soft, membranous involucre, from the first calyciform or more or less globose 

 -and sometimes enclosing the sorus (spore mass), at length opening at the 

 top, its margin or mouth being irregularly lobed or fringed. According to 

 the nature of the involucre the genus Woodsia is divided as follows : 



EuwooDSiA (Eu-wood'-si-a), or Woodsia proper, with involucre smaller 

 than the sorus, but fringed with hairs, which extend beyond it ; and 



Physematium (Phy-se-mat'-i-ura), in which the involucre is larger than 

 the sorus and not ciliated. 



Culture. 



Most of the known Woodsias are found in cold and temperate chmates. 

 North America is particularly rich in them, and the genus is well represented 

 in Great Britain by two species, W. hyperborea and W. ilvensis, both of 



