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FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
opposite, but one is an eighth or a quarter of an inch below
the other. These divisions, as is almost universally the case in
a ternately compound leaf or frond, have their sides somewhat
unequal, being broader or more developed on thé" lower side,
so that their outline is unsymmetrically triangular-ovate. The
middle primary division is, of course, symmetrical, and broader
than either of the side divisions. In the smallest and simplest
fronds which I have seen, each of the three primary divisions
consists of three little denticulate, rather obtuse ovate segments,
not more than three lines long. From this, up to the ample
decompound fronds of var. austmle, or the delicately multisect
var. dissectum, there are many degrees of complexity of incision,
and of diversity in outline, of subdivisions and lobes. In
var. hmarioides, the lobes or ultimate segments are mostly distinct
and roundish-reniform, very much like those of B. Lunaria.
In var. rzitoefolhmi, only the lowest lobes are distinct ; and they
are very obliquely ovate, being cordate on the lower side, and
rounded or truncate on the upper. The upper lobes are less
and less distinct, and finally unite in an ovate, barely pointed
terminal lobe. In var. australe the plant is usually of much
larger size, and the sterile segment correspondingly more compound,
being often fully four times pinnatisect. The lobes- are
obliquely ovate, the terminal one not long-pointed, and the margin
more or less denticulated. Var. obliquum is characterized
by having ovate-lanceolate long-pointed terminal lobes, the basal
lobes being obliquely ovate. The margin is more or less denticulate
; and, when the dcnticulations become very deep, the
k É ill
FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
form passes into var. dissectum, reaching at last a condition in
which all the divisions are laciniately cut up into very narrow
and minute lobes and teeth.*
The hairs of the bud remain on the frond until it is fully
developed, so that the plant is more or less hairy, though in old
fronds this pubescence gradually disappears. The frond is very
fleshy; perhaps more so than in any other species of the genus.
The fertile segment, unless dwarfed by some accident, considerably
overtops the sterile, and varies, according to the size
of the plant, from a little bipinnate raceme up to an ample
panicle. Rarely two distinct fertile panicles are developed from
one plant at the same time. The spores are thickly covered
with very minute roundish protuberances.
The new fronds come up in New England and the Middle
States in July, and the spores arc matured in early autumn.
During the winter the fertile panicle withers aw ay; but the
sterile segment remains until spring, or, not unfrequently, until
' The following is Dr. Milde’s final arrangement of the forms of this species. His
campestris and montana are simply larger and smaller plants, and his miUefolium is nearly
or quite identical with dissectum.
A) E uropæum.
«. campestris.
ß. montana.
B) Austr-alaslvticum.
«. vulgäre.
B o t r y c h ium te rn a tum .
Forma sub-bifoUata.
dentaban.
B) AusTR-ALASlAxrcuhi {continued).
y. erosum.
3. 7niUcfolium.
C) AMERIC/tNmf.
rt. lunarioides.
obliquu7n.
y. dissecb/m.
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