KEY TO THE GENERA AND SPECIES. 



Pteridophyta (Fems and Fern Allies) 



1. Ophioglossaceae, Adder's Tongue Family. 



Succulent plants from a fleshy rootstock, stem with 

 one leaf, sporophyl a spike or a panicle, sporanges naked, 

 spores of one kind, yellow. 



1. Leaf with reticulate veins, sporanges in 1-several simple spikes. - - - 2 



1. Leaf with free veins, sporanges in panicled spikes, - Botrychium, Moonworl 

 B. obliquum B. ternatum^. Stalked leaf near the base of the stem, ternate or 



2-pinnate; sporophyl long-stalked, 2-4 pinnate. Low shady woods. 

 B. tenuifolium. Leafstalk very slender, blade bi-ternate; sporophyl a slender 



reed panicle. Low grounds. 

 B. Virginianum, Rattlesnake Fern, Slender fleshy stem, with ternate leaf sessile 



above its middle; sporophyl long stalked and recurved. Woods. 



2. Leaf simple and entire; sporophyl terminal bearing two rows of large cohering 



sporanges; terrestrial plants, - - Ophioglossum, Adder's Tongue 

 O. vulgatum. Stem slender and tall with the obtuse leaf sessile near its middle. 



Low grounds. 

 O. pusillum nudicaulet. Stem short with the ovate leaf near its base, the blade 



narrowed into a short petiole. Sandy soil. 

 2. Leaf palmately lobed; sporophyls several near the base of the leaf; epiphytic 



plants on palmettos. -------- Cheiroglossa 



C palmata. Leaf 1-9 lobed, spikes 1-16. Hammocks. 



2. Osmundaceae, Flowering F- Family, 



Large plants with stout rootstocks; leaves coiled in 

 vernation, veins free, running to the margins; large globu- 

 lar sporanges on modified contracted leaflets, or in sori 

 on their lower surfaces. 



The spore-bearing fronds much contracted with the sporanges on the margins 



of the divisions, veins forked, spores green, - - - Osmunda 

 O. spectabilis regalis), Royal Fern. Leaves clustered from one rootstock. tall, 

 with 2-pinnate leaves that are fertile at the top; sporophyls panicled, at 

 first greenish but later dark-brown. Swampy places. 



