BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 79 
orbicular without a distinct sinus, as in Polystic/ium and 
it is sometimes difficult to see the sinus, but I think it is rather 
because the sides of it overlap than because there is none. 
The sporangia have a ring of from fifteen to twenty articu- 
lations. The spores are ovoid, and somewhat roughened on 
the surface. 
This fern is one of the very finest and largest of the 
species of the Eastern States, being surpassed in these re- 
spects only by the osmundas and the ostrich-fern. The fronds 
are smooth, deep-green in color, slightly paler beneath, and of 
a rather firm papery texture. Unlike A. Filix-mas and A. 
cristatum the fronds wither in the fall of the year, and are 
not “ half-evergreen.” 
It was collected by Pursh on his visit to America in the 
early part of this century, the precise locality not known, — 
in the Flora he says “New Jersey to Virginia,” — and was by 
him referred to A. Filix-mas. His specimens, preserved in 
the herbarium at Kew, are partly A. Goldianmn and partly 
A. cristatum. Mr. John Goldie’s discovery was made near 
Montreal, about the year i8i8, and the excellent figure in 
Hooker & Greville’s leones Filicum was probably taken from 
one of his specimens, or perhaps from live plants originally 
brought by him to the Botanic Garden at Glasgow. 
Though not one of our commonest Ferns, this is very 
abundant in certain localities; — Mrs. Roy sends it from Owen 
Sound, Canada; Dr. Bumstead got it in Smuggler’s Notch, 
Mt. Mansfield, Vermont ; *Mr. Frost has -a fine station on Mt. 
