ScOLOPENDRIUM. 



FILICES. 



491 



A fern growing in thick tufts. Stipe 3-5 inches long, chaffy. Frond 9-15 inches long 

 and 1-2 inches wide, bright green, pale underneath, often waved on the margin ; the base 

 cordate-auriculate ; the apex rarely 2-forked : veins free, parallel, direct. Sori very large, 

 linear ; each one formed, indeed, of two closely approximated unilateral sori, which are con- 

 fluent ; the involucres connivent, with their free margins nearly meeting when young, but 

 finally turned outward by the growth of the capsules. 



Limestone rocks along Chiltenango creek, near the falls : abundant. Fr. July. This fern 

 is undoubtedly indigenous in the locality here given, which is the only place where it has 

 hitherto been found in North America. It was first detected in North America by Pursh, 

 who found it in " shady woods among loose rocks near Onondaga, on the plantation of J. 

 Geddis, Esq." Nuttall (/. c.) states that he found it in the western part of the State, without 

 giving the locality ; but according to my friend Dr. Pickering, the specimens of Mr. Nutlall, 

 in the herbarium of the Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia, are marked " near Canandaigua, 

 at Geddis's Farm, in a shady wood, with Taxus Canadensis.' 1 '' 



10. ASPLENIUM, Linn. ; /. Smith, I. c. no. 69. spleenwort. 



[From the Greek, a, privative, and spten, the spleen ; because of its supposed medicinal virtues.] 



Sori linear, oblique, scattered. Involucre plain or vaulted, opening longitudinally on the side 

 toward the midrib. — Habit various. Veins of the frond forked or pinnated ; the branches 

 direct, bearing the capsules on their upper side. 



* Aeplenium proper, J. Sm. Fronds simple or pinnate ; the margin entire or crenate. Sori usually equal on both sides of 



the midrib. 



1. Asplenium Trichomanes, Linn. Sma/l Rock Spleenivort. 



Frond pinnate ; pinnae roundish-obovate or oval, cuneate at the base or obliquely truncate, 

 crenate ; sori linear-oblong, 3 - 6 on each pinna ; stipe and rachis shiny, dark purple. — 

 Linn. sp. 2. p. 1080 ; Engl. hot. t. 576 ; Michx. fl. 2. p. 264 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 392 ; 

 Torr. cornpend. p. 382; Beck, hot. p. 453; Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 581. A. melanocaulon, 

 Willd. sp. 5. p. 332 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 666. 



Fronds growing in dense spreading tufts, 3-8 inches long. Stipes filiform, smooth and 

 polished, semiterete. Pinnas 3-4 lines long, oblique, entire and more or less cuneate at the 

 base, sometimes auriculate on the upper side, irregularly crenate, without a distinct midrib ; 

 the veins branching and forking from the base. Sori mostly 4 or 5 on each pinna, nearly oval 

 when old. 



Shady rocks, particularly on the side towards the north. Fr. July. Our plant seems to be 

 identical with the European A. Trichomanes. 



62* 



