76 
European Ferns. 
WOODWARDIA. 
IIIS is a small but handsome genus of ferns, with large handsome bipin- 
natifid fronds, natives of the North Temperate zone, extending, though 
but slightly, into the Tropics. The genus was established by Sir James 
Edward Smith in 1794, and named by him in commemoration of 
Mr. Thomas Jenkinson Woodward, a British botanist who published 
some papers on seaweeds and fungi towards the end of the last century. 
Six species are recognised by Hooker and Baker. The rhizome or 
underground stem is very thick, covered with scales, and rooting very 
freely. The stipites are covered at the base with long narrow scales. 
The fronds are uniform in some of the species, and dimorphous in 
others ; they are once or twice pinnate, with undivided or divided 
pinnae, and in many cases are proliferous, giving off small scaly buds from the upper side of 
the fronds, which produce fresh plants. We shall say more about this peculiarity in our de- 
scription of W. radicans. The sori are oblong or linear, “arranged in one or more chain-like 
rows or transverse anastomosing veinlets parallel and near to the midrib.’’ * This disposition 
of the sori has suggested the name “Chain Fern,” by which the genus is sometimes called 
in books. These veinlets form a series of elongated meshes, technically termed arcoles. 
Of the six species, four have uniform fronds, while in two they are dimorphous. Of the 
dimorphous-fronded species, one, W. Harlandi , is a native of Hong Kong, while the other, 
IV. angustifolia (called also IV. areolata), is a United States plant, extending from Massachusetts 
to Florida, and most abundant in the Southern States. Of this latter the sterile fronds are 
membranous, from a foot to a foot and a half in height, with slender stipites and numerous 
pinnae ; the fertile fronds are taller and somewhat leathery, with stout erect brown stems, and 
narrow entire pinnae, which are about half an inch apart. This was introduced to the Royal 
Gardens, Kew, in 1830. Among the species in which the fertile and barren fronds are similar, 
one, W. virginica — a native of the United States, from Maine to Virginia, and southwards — was 
known to Linnaeus, who described it under the name of Blechnum virginicuni. It has a creeping 
underground stem, broad, smooth, pinnate fronds, from a foot to two feet high, the veins 
forming a row of narrow meshes, or areoles, along the midrib of the pinnae. This is a 
handsome and hardy fern, which has been in cultivation in England since 1774, when it was 
grown by Dr. Fothergill. W. orientalis , a native of Japan and southwards, is very nearly 
allied to W. radicans , of which it may be a form. Of this a remarkable variety, at first 
described by Sir William Hooker as a species, J was collected in the Loo Choo Islands, 
1825-28. It is a smaller plant than the type, and the divisions of the pinnae are more 
copiously netted with veins ; but “ its most remarkable feature,” to quote Sir William’s 
description, “arises from the copious scaly buds, each bearing a young frond, which appear 
on the upper side of the lacinim (divisions of the pinnae), and always from a certain point of 
the nervation, in the upper angle of the costal nerves, occasioning a corresponding depression 
on the under side.” He adds: — “Our specimens are almost entirely destitute of sori.” This 
* Gray : “ Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States.” 
f “ Botany of Beechey’s Voyage,” 1841, t. lvi., p. 275. 
