30 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 



3. Dryopteris arguta (Kaulf.) Watt, Canad. Nat. II. 3: 160. 1866. 



Aspidium argutum Kaulf., Enum. Fil. 242. 1824. 

 Dryopteris rigida var. arguta Underw., Our Native Ferns, ed. 4, 

 116. 1893. 



Queen Creek Canyon above Superior, Pinal County (Harrison 

 2089, 3180), Superstition Mountains, Pinal County (Goodding 6151), 

 Sierra Ancha, Gila County (Little 4221), 4,000 to 5,000 feet, along 

 streams. Extreme southwestern Washington to southern California 

 and Arizona. 



4. Dryopteris filix-mas (L.) Schott, Gen. Fil. 1834. 



P olyp odium filix-mas L., Sp. PI. 1090. 1753. 

 Aspidium filix-mas Swartz, Jour. Bot. Schrad. 1800 2 : 106 

 1801. 



White Mountains (Apache County), San Francisco Peaks and 

 vicinity (Coconino County), and mountains of Graham, Gila, Cochise, 

 and Pima Counties, 7,000 to 10,000 feet, in rich soil among rocks and 

 along streams. Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to Ver- 

 mont, Michigan, and in the mountains to western Oklahoma, western 

 Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, and Mexico; 

 Greenland; Eurasia. 



From this species, known from the time of the old herbalists as malc- 

 fern, is derived the drug aspidium, used extensively as a vermifuge, 

 especially for tapeworm. It is a violent poison, and grave consequences 

 have resulted from overdoses. 



5. Dryopteris patula (Sw.) Underw., Our Native Ferns, ed. 4, 117 



1893. 



Aspidium patulum Swartz, Svenska Vetensk. Akad. Handl. 38: 

 64. 1817. 



Variable; widely distributed in tropical America. It is represented 

 in the United States (Arizona only) by var. rossii C. Chr. ; canyons of 

 the Huachuca Mountains, Cochise County (Lemmon in 1882, Goodding 

 1328), in moist swales; Mexico. 



6. CYSTOPTERIS. Bladderfern 



Delicate small ferns of rocky or alluvial shaded situations, the 

 rhizomes slender and creeping; fronds ascending or recurved; blades 

 1- to 4-pinnate, the fertile ones commonly longer stalked and less leafy 

 than the sterile; veins free; sori roundish, dorsal, separate; indusium 

 membranous, hoodlike, attached at the inner side of the broad base, at 

 first concealing the sporangia, soon thrust back. 



Key to the species 



1. Blades narrowly triangular-lanceolate, the greatly elongate apex usually 



bearing bulblets beneath 1. C. bulbifera. 



1. Blades broadly lanceolate, the apex acute; bulblets wanting, _ 2. C. fragilis. 



1. Cystopteris bulbifera (L.) Bernh., Neues Jour. Bot. Schrad. I 2 : 10. 

 1806. 



Polypodium bulbijerum L., Sp. PL 1091. 1753. 



Filix bulbifera Underw., Our Native Ferns, ed. 6, 119. 1900. 



