598 FILICES. (ferns.) 



c:il ring. Fronds elongated, climbing, the branches usually in pairs with a short 

 common foot-stalk. 



1 L. palmatum, Swartz. Fronds slender, pinnae deeply cordate at the 

 base, palmately 4 - 7-lobed, the lobes oblong, obtuse, entire ; the upper pinme 

 decompound and bearing the fruit on the very narrow segments. — Low shady 

 woods, Florida, and northward ; not common. — Kootstock very slender, creep- 

 ing. Fronds 2° - 5° high, climbing on weeds and bushes. 



20. ANEIMIA, Swam. 



Sporangia ovate, many-rayed at the apex, attached by the base in a double 

 row to the narrow one-sided paniculate divisions of the two lower branches of 

 the frond, or on separate fronds. Indusium none. Fronds erect, commonly 

 three-branched, the middle branch sterile and 1 - 3-pinnatc. 



1 . A. adiantifolia, Swartz. Fronds sparingly pubescent, erect on a slen- 

 der stipe ; the two lower branches elongated, pinnately decompound, fertile ; 

 sterile part of the frond deltoid-ovate, 2-3-pinnate; ultimate segments obovate, 

 cuneate, entire or lobed, striate above with numerous flabcllate veins. — Key 

 West, &c., South Florida. — Fronds 6'- 12' high, rather rigid. Kootstock creep- 

 ing, slender, covered with a black tomentum. 



21. OSMUNDA, L. Flowering Fern. 



Sporangia globular, short-pedicelled, having an incomplete transverse ring, 

 represented by a few parallel striae near the apex, opening by a vertical chink 

 into two nearly equal valves, paniculately arranged on contracted parts of the 

 frond or on separate fronds. Fronds tall, erect, several from a stout rootstock, 

 1-2-pinnate. Veins forking, free. 



* Fronds hi pinnate, fertile at the top; sterile pinna' few. 



1. O. regalis, L. Fronds ovate, smooth; sterile pinna? distant; the finely 

 serrulate pinnules distinct, oblong-lanceolate, cordate or truncate at the nearly 

 sessile base, sometimes aurieled at the lower side of the base ; the upper pinme 

 erect, panieled and thickly covered with light brown sporangia. (O. spcetabilis, 



Wiild.) — Swamps, Florida to Mississippi, and northward. — Fronds l°-5° 

 high ; pinnules 1'- 2' long, 3" -4" wide. 



* * Sterile fronds pinnate: the pinnce numerous, deeply pinnatifd, with oblong entire 



segments. 



2. O. ClaytOIliana, L. Fronds broadly lanceolate, woolly when young, 

 at length nearly smooth; sterile pinnae sessile, oblong-lanceolate, deeply pinna- 

 tifid ; the segments crowded ; fertile pinnae few, between the middle and the base 

 of the frond, contracted, the sporangia deepening in color as the sterile pinnae 

 expand. (O. interrupta, Michx.) — Low grounds in the upper districts, and 

 northward.— Fronds 2° -3° high. 



3. O. cinnamomea, L. Sterile fronds covered with rusty wool when 

 young, at length smooth ; pinnae sessile, lanceolate ; segments broadly oblong, 



