GENERA AND SPECIES. II5 
PLATE XLIV. 
WOODSIA ILVENSIS. Robert Brown. 
ELBA WOODSIA. 
This is a small, tufted species, not more than five inches 
high, with oblong-lanceolate fronds, bearing pinnately-parted 
crowded pinne, the lower more widely apart than those 
toward the apex. The pinnules are numerous, obtuse; the 
points somewhat crenate, with the fruit-dots near the mar- 
gin, and confluent, at least on the mature fronds. The 
whole plant, especially on the under side, is covered with 
rusty, chaffy hairs. The articulation of the stipe is charac- 
teristic. Unlike the Polypodium the joint is not at the 
root-stock, but from a half an inch to one inch above the 
base, and much less distinct. When the frond decays it 
always breaks off at this place, and not at some indefinite 
point of the stipe, as in most ferns. 
I have not been able definitely to give this beautiful little 
fern “a local habitation and a place” in Kentucky, although 
there are reasonable grounds for believing that it inhabits 
the rocky spurs of the great Appalachian chain, along the 
eastern border of the State. As it is the most character- 
istic species of the genus, and as it may help local col- 
lectors to identify this representative of a more northern 
latitude, I have included it among the Kentucky ferns. 
It is the Nephrodium rufidulum of Michaux, and is 
found in the Northern United States and Canada, and, 
according to Gray, southward in the Alleghanies; and is 
therefore very properly referred by Mr. Redfield to his 
Boreal region. The counties of Boyd, Martin, Pike, Har- 
lan, Bell, and Whitley, by their altitude, are well adapted 
