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17 6 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Dryopteris fra g ran s , S chott, Gen. Fil., Observ. sub Polysticho.
Nephrodium fra g ran s , R ich a rd so n , “ App. to Frankl. Journ., p. 7 5 3 . ” —
H o o k er & G r e v il l e , I c. Fil., t. Ixx. — H o o k e r , Sp. Fil., iv.,
p. 1 2 2 . — H o o k er & B a k e r , Syn. Fil., p. 2 7 5 .
Dryopteris rubum idceum spirans, A mmann, “ Ruth., p. 2 5 1 . ”
H ab. — In crevices of shaded cliffs, and on mossy rocks, especially
near cascades and rivulets, from Northern New England to Wisconsin,
and northward to Arctic America. Also in the Caucasus, and in Siberia,
Mantchooria, and Kamtschatka. Special American localities are Mount
Kineo, Maine, A. H. and C. E. S m i t h ; at Berlin Falls, the “ Alpine Cascade,”
and the “ Gulch,” all near the White Mountains, H. W i l l e y ; Mount
Mansfield, Vermont, C. G. P r in g l e ; Lake Avalanche, Adirondack Mountains,
New York, C. H. P e c k ; Falls of St. Croix, Wisconsin, C. C. P a r r y ,
and on the Penokee Iron Range, in the same State, L ap h am ; Saguenay
River, Canada, D. A. W a t t . It is apparently more common farther north :
Sitka, Iliuliuk, Unalaska, Arakamtchetchene, Kotzebue Bay, Igloolik, Ritten-
benk in Greenland, and several other places, are recorded as stations for it.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — The root-stock is rather stout, ascending or
erect; and its apparent thickness is much increased by the persistent
bases of stalks, which also give it a dense covering of
broad bright-brown chaffy scales. The fronds, frequently to the
number of six or eight, besides old and shrivelled ones, stand in
a crown at the upper end of the root-stocks, resting on stalks
from one to four inches long, which are usually very chaffy, the
chaff continued along the rachis and midribs, though composed
of smaller scales than those lower down. The fronds are from
three or four to ten inches in length; and the greatest breadth,
just above the middle, is from one-fifth to one-sixth of the length.
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FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 177
The outline is exactly lanceolate, as the apex is acute, and the
lower part gradually tapering to a somewhat narrowed base.
The fronds are delicately, but densely, bipinnate. In a frond
nine inches long there are about thirty primary pinnæ on each
side, and in one of the middle pinnæ about ten oblong-ovate
obtuse pinnately-incised pinnules on each side. The pinnules are
from a line to two lines long, and are adnate to the secondary
rachis by a more or less decurrent base. In large fronds the
teeth of the pinnules are again crenately toothed; but in small
specimens the pinnules themselves are entire, or but slightly
toothed. Two sterile fronds collected by Professor M. W. Harrington,
in Iliuliuk, Alaska, are broadly ovate-lanceolate in outline,
and have acute primary pinnæ ; and other specimens, some from
Eastern Canada, collected by Mr. Watt, and some from Northern
Wisconsin, collected by Mr. Lapham, are much slenderer and
less scaly than usual. This is the var. ^ of Hooker. Usually
the fronds are rather rigid, full-green above, a little paler beneath,
and both surfaces, together with the rachis, especially the
canal along the upper side of the rachis, are dotted with very
minute pellucid pale amber-colored glands. The fronds commonly
fruit very fully, even the lowest pinna bearing sporangia.
The indusia are very large, thin, orbicular, with a narrow
sinus, more or less ragged or toothed and gland-bearing at the
margin, and are so dense as to overlap each other, and nearly
conceal the back of the pinnules. The spores are ovoid, and
have a minutely verrucose or warty surface.
The pleasant odor of the plant remains many years in the
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