24 
BEAUTIFUL FERNS. 
275. — Lastrea dilatata. Presl, Tent. Pterid., p. 77. — Moore, Nat. Pr, 
Brit. Ferns, t. xxii — xxvi. — Dryopteris dilatata. Gray, Manual, ed. i., p. 
531. — Aspidium ca^npylopterum, Kunze, in Silliman’s Journal, July, 
1848, p. 84. 
Hab. — In shady woods, often in springy places and along shaded 
rivulets, from Newfoundland to Oregon and North-West America, and 
extending southward to North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas. The 
typical form, our var. vulgare, has been seen in Newfoundland, New 
Brunswick, Canada, New England, the Middle States, Kentucky, about 
Lake Superior, and westward to British Columbia. Var. intermedmm 
has nearly the same range, but extends to Tennessee and probably to 
Arkansas, and is not reported from Newfoundland. It is the common 
form of the species in the northern United States. Var. dilatatum is 
found on the higher mountains of New England, and extends along 
the Appalachian chain to North Carolina: it is known in Newfoundland, 
New Brunswick, Canada, and thence westward to Oregon, British Co- 
lumbia and Alaska. In New England and New York it seems to pass 
in less mountainous districts into both the other forms. Aspidium 
spimdosum, in several forms, is common in Europe and northern Asia, 
and is credited to the Cape of Good Hope also. Var. intermedium 
seems to be exclusively North American. 
Description: — The root-stock is either creeping or as- 
surgent, or even occasionally erect. It may sometimes be 
found six or eight inches long, but is usually much shorter. 
It has an actual diameter of about a quarter of an inch, but as 
the fleshy bases of the stalk are adherent and continuous with 
it, and persist unwithered for at least a year after the fronds 
have gone, the thickness of the whole is considerably greater. 
