282 Synopsis of Canadian Fer7is and Filicoid Plants. 



Hook, and Grev. Ic. Fil. Polypodium obtusum, Swartz. — An impres- 

 sion prevails that this plant, which is said to be common in the Northern 

 States, especially towards the west, grows also in Canada. Mr D. C. 

 Eaton, in the kindest manner, cut out of his own herbarium a specimen 

 for me, from near High Bridge, New York cit}^ in an excellent state for 

 examination, which has enabled me to understand the species and to 

 ascertain that we have as yet no satisfactory evidence of its occurrence 

 in Canada. Large forms of W. Ilvensis have in some cases passed for 

 it. (I introduce this notice of the plant with -a view to promote farther 

 inquiry.) 



OSMUNDA. 



0. regalis jS. spectabilis.— Fronds erect, pale-green, glabrous, bi- 

 pinnate ; pinnules oblong-lanceolate, oblique, shortly stalked, very 

 slightly dilated at the base, nearly entire ; fertile pinnules forming a 

 racemose panicle at the summit of the frond. Osmunda spectahilis, 

 Willd., J. Smith. Farmersville ; Hardwood Creek, Hinchinbrook, and 

 other places in rear of Kingston, usually in thickety swamps, by corduroy 

 roads, &c. ; Millgrove Marsh, Hamilton, Judge Logic ; Ramsay, Rev. 

 J. K. M^Morine, M,A, ; woods near the Hop Garden, Belleville, not 

 common, J. Macoun ; Prescott, common, B. Billings, jr. ; around Metis 

 Lake, &c. ; opposite Gros Cap ; also Sou-sou-wa-ga-mi Creek and Schib- 

 wah River, R Bell, jr. ; near Montreal, Rev. E. M. Epstein and W. 

 S. j\L D'Urban ; mountain, Bonne Bay, Newfoundland, on rocks 1000 

 feet above the sea, James Richardson l a small form) ; Welland, J. A. 

 Kemp, M.D. ; Osnabruck and Prescott Junction, Rev. E. M. Epstein ; 

 Nicolet, Wolfe Island and Navy Island, P. W. Maclagan, M.D. ; Lake 

 »St Charles. M. L'Abbe Provancher ; - Caledonia Springs and L'Orignal, 

 J. Bell; Portland, Thos. R. Dupuis, M.D. ; Bedford; London, W. 

 Saunders. The fronds of our plant are a little more drawn out than those 

 of the European one ; the pinnules are often distinctly stalked, and the 

 overlapping auricles either altogether absent or only slightly developed. 

 This is 0. spectabilis, Willd. ; 0. regalis, /3. Linn. Sp. PL Some 

 botanists distinguish two American forms, one agreeing with the typical 

 regalis of Europe ; but it is difficult to do so. The typical 0. regalis 

 is a larger, more robust, and more leafy plant, with more widely spread- 

 ing or divergent pinnas, and more leafy auricled sessile pinnules, more or 

 less pinnatifid at the base ; in our Canadian plant they are quite entire. 

 The divisions of the fertile portion of the pinnae are also more widely 

 divergent in a regalis. The frond, moreover, is of a darker colour. 



0. cinnamomea, Linn. — Sterile and fertile fronds distinct, the former 

 ample, broadly lanceolate, pinnate ; the pinnae rather deeply pinnatifid ; 

 lobes regular, entire ; fertile frond contracted, erect, in the centre of the 

 tuft of sterile fronds, and not nt all foliaceous. Sporangia ferruginous. 

 Fertile, frond decaying early in the summer. Osmunda cinnamomea, 

 Linn , Gray, J. Sm. 0. Claytoniana^ Conrad, not of Linn. — Fairfield 

 farm and elsewhere about Kingston, not uncommon ; Millgrove Zvlarsh, 

 Hamilton, Judge Logic ; Sandwich and Montreal, P. W. Maclagan, M.D. ; 

 o[)posite Gros Cap ; also Two Heart River, Lake Superior, R. Bell, jr., 

 C E ; Belleville^ swamps and low grounds, common, J. Macoun ; Ramsay, 



