GENERA AND SPECIES. 79 
PLATS ZXYVtL. 
PHEGOPTERIS. Fée. 
GEN. CHAR.—Fruit-dots naked on the back of the veins near the 
apex; stipe continuous with the root-stock, not articulated with it; 
fronds ternate or twice pinnatifid. 
This genus has given rise to much discussion among 
pteriologists, or fern specialists. Formerly it was included 
in the tribe Polypodiez, and was considered a true Poly- 
pody, including the P. hexagonopterum of Michaux, which 
bid fair to be one of the very few ferns found by that en- 
terprising naturalist, whose name should survive the con- 
stant changes of the nomenclature. The fruit-dots were 
destitute of indusia, as in the Polypodium ; but the general 
appearance of the plant, the character of the veins, and 
the position of the sori were quite different from the latter. 
Prof. Sachs places this genus in the tribe Aspidiez, where 
it would seem to properly belong. Prof. D. C. Eaton, in 
the last edition of Gray’s Manual, has also included this 
genus in the tribe Aspidieze. In a letter to the author this 
distinguished pteriologist remarks: “ Phegopteris is capable 
of being defined in nearly the same words as Polypodium, 
but it really has nothing to do with it. But it is so closely 
connected with Aspidium that there is hardly any clear 
distinction between the two. The mode of growth from 
the root-stock is precisely the same; the fosztion of the 
fruit-dots on the back of the vein, not at the tip or on the 
point of union of several veins, is the same in both; and 
the general shape and branching of the fronds are very much 
alike in the two. As to the presence or absence of indu- 
sium, the fact is that many species have been said by some 
authors to have no indusium, and other authors will find 
