BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
69 
of this interesting but troublesome genus. It differs from all 
the other species in several more or less important characters ; 
so that Dr. Milde, in his last classification of the genus, placed 
it in a separate sub-genus, to which he gave the name of Os- 
niundopteris} The root -stock is very short, but the roots 
long and fleshy. The base of the stalk is slightly swollen, 
and is provided with a longitudinal fissure, within which the 
bud may be easily seen. The bud itself is decidedly hairy, 
and, as Mr. Davenport has shown, has the “fertile frond re- 
curved its whole length, with the longer sterile frond reclined 
upon it.” It will be remembered that in the other Botrychia 
the stalk-base completely encloses the bud. 
The common stalk in a large plant is often twelve or 
fourteen inches long, and the stalk of the panicle as much 
more; so that the sterile segment, or lamina as Dr. Milde calls 
it, is placed very near the middle of the whole. The sterile 
lamina is broadly triangular; so broad, that the width is usually 
greater than the length. One fine specimen from New Bruns- 
wick has the sterile part a foot broad, and eight inches long; 
and equally large plants are by no means rare. In North 
America the sterile part is closely sessile ; but in the West- 
Indian form, as represented in Plumier’s figure, it has a peti- 
ole over two inches long. The lower primary divisions are 
* “§II. OsMUNDOPTERis. — Basis infima petioli gemmam includens rima 
longa verticali aperta ; segmenti infimi primarii segmenta secundaria anadroma in 
superiore laminae parte autem et tertiaria omnia catadroma. Gemma pilosa. Cel- 
lulae epidermidis flcxuosae ; stomata in pagina laminae sterilis superiore nulla.” — 
Botr. Mpnogr., p. 96. 
