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Woodwardia areolata, M o o r e , Ind. Fil., p. x lv .— H o o k e r , Sp. Fil., iii.,
p. 70 ; Garden Ferns, t. Ixi. — L owe, Ferns, t. xlvi. — H oo k er &
B a k e r , Syn. F i l , p. 189.
Acroslichiim areolatum, L in næ u s , Sp. Pl., p . 1 5 2 6 .
Lorinseria areolata, P r e s l , Lpim. Bot., p. 7 2 .— F é e , Gen. Fil., p. 208,
t. 1 7 B .— J. S m ith , Ferns, Brit, and Foreign, p. 207.
Onoclea nodulosa, M ic h a u x , FI. Bor. Am., ii., p. 272.
Osmunda Caroliniana, W a l t e r , “ F'l. Carol., p . 2 5 7 .”
Acrostichum fronde pinnata, fo lio lis alternis linearibus apice serratis,
G ronoviu s, FI. Virg., p . 1 2 4 ; e d . ii., p . 16 5 .
H a b. — W et swampy woods, not very common, but plentiful In certain
localities, from Massachusetts to Florida and Louisiana, apparently
never very far from the coast. It occurs near Hingham and Amherst in
Massachusetts ; in East Haven, Orange, and Stratford, in Connecticut ; at
Wading River, and near Hempstead, on Long Island ; and Is by no means
rare in the lower portions of New Jersey.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — The root-stock is several inches or even a
foot long, often branched, round, and rather less than a quarter of
an inch thick. It is of a very dark brown, and bears blackish
fibrous roots along its whole length. The newest portion has
a few very thin appressed scales. A short distance from the
apex a few (2-4) stalks rise, usually from alternate sides ; and
still nearer the end are one or two spur-like undeveloped stalks.
The bases of the old stalks remain a year or two before they
finally decay. The fertile and the sterile fronds are unlike; and
it was this heteromorphism, combined with some differences in
the venation, that induced Presl, and after him Fée and John
, V i
Smith, to consider this fern the type of a genus distinct from
Woodwardia.
The sterile fronds, which are far the most abundant, are
usually nine or ten inches long, and rest on a stalk of about
the same length. The stalk is naked, except for a few very
thin scales at the base. It is dark-brown or blackish at the
base, becoming paler higher up, and passing into the green
color of the rachis as it nears the frond. In section it is very
convex on the back and sides, and slightly convex on the face.
Where the two convexities meet there is on each side a slightly-
raised line, which higher up becomes more prominent, and passes
into the border or wing of the rachis. There is a single central
fibro-vascular bundle,^ convex on the back, and either flattened
or slightly hollowed on the face. The frond itself is
oblong-ovate in outline, and consists of a terminal segment,
variable in size, and more or less sinuately lobed, and from
four to twelve oblong pointed lobes on each side. These lobes
are separated by broad open or rounded sinuses or bays, and
are connected at their bases by a wing which runs along
either side of the rachis or midrib, from just below the base
of the frond, where it is very narrow, up to the terminal lobe,
widening upwards, and near the apex often fully half an inch
broad. The lobes are from one to four inches long, and
from half an inch to an inch wide. They are more or less
undulate, and are finely serrated. In texture they are softly
^ P re s l s ay s th e r e a re th r e e in th e s ta lk of th e s te r ile frond, a n d o n e in th a t of
th e fe rtile . I find b u t o n e in e ith e r sta lk.
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