I'
I» i * I
if
If
<*
i / * - i l
r * *
9
T .:
• I;
| I * V i
U
h
H a b . — On shaded and overhanging sandstone cliffs, constantly
moistened by percolation or by spray. First discovered by Hon. T. M.
P e t e r s in Winston (formerly Hancock) County, Alabama, in July, 1852,
and later in the same year found by Mr. J. F. B eaumont in Franklin
County, and by both gentlemen in Lawrence County. Afterwards it was
detected in the Cumberland Mountains of Eastern Tennessee by Rev.
Dr. C u r t is . It was discovered in Carter County, Kentucky, in 1872, by
Dr. H. H i l l , as stated by Mr. Williamson. In 1873 Professor J ohn H uss
e y also found it in Carter County, and in Edmonson and Barren Counties.
It has since been collected in Laurel and Rockcastle Counties by
Mrs. Y a n d e l l , Miss R u l e , and Dr. C r o s i e r ; and will doubtless be found
in other places in the States of Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — The Alabama bristle-fern, as it may be
called to distinguish it from the forms of Trichomanes radicans
growing in other countries, is by far the most delicate of
the ferns of the United States. The root-stock is blackish
and f.brillose, especially the newer portions, with very slender
and minute dark blackish-brown chaffy hairs. It is creeping,
and not unfrequently a foot in length, while the thickness
is less than a line. The fronds are scattered along the whole
length of the root-stock : they are from three to seven inches
long, and less, sometimes much less, than two inches wide.
They rest on short stalks, which are winged from the very
base, the wing continuing along the rachis to the top of the
frond. The fronds are lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate in shape,
and are bipinnatifid, or even tripinnatifid. The pinnæ are triangular
ovate or rhomboidal, the lower ones a little shorter and
broader than those in the middle. They are divided into nar?
t 1
row oblong obtuse lobes, or into segments composed of several
such lobes. The midvein is pinnately branched, and from the
veins single veinlets extend through the middle of every lobe.
The frond is smooth throughout, and, excepting the veins, is
composed of a. single layer of slightly elongated hexagonal cells,
the middle of each cell vacant and transparent, the chlorophyl
consisting of minute grains lining the cell-wall.’- The fruit,
when it is present, is formed at the ends of the lower lobes
of the divisions or segments of the pinnæ, and consists of
little funnel-shaped cups, narrowly wing-margined, and having
an obscurely two-lipped orifice. From the bottom of this cup
there rises a slender dark-colored bristle-likc receptacle or columella,
on the sides of which, inside the cup, are borne the
top-shaped sporangia. These have a nearly horizontal complete
elastic ring. The spores are ovoid and obscurely papillose.
A careful description of the mode of growth of this most
interesting fern was written by Professor John Hussey, and
published by Mr. Williamson in his “ Ferns of Kentucky.”
Another account, by the same close observer, was published in
“ The Independent” of Feb. 25, 187 5 ; —
“ I discovered it growing in more than a dozen localities under the
Green River Country cliffs. It was found in every instance on the under
side of an overhanging rock, generally considerably withdrawn from the
light, never reached by the direct rays of the sun. It does best on a moist
' S e e the elaborate monograph 011 the structure of Hymaiophyllaceæ b y Dr.
Mettenius, wherein the various forms of cells and dispositions of chlorophyl arc
described and figured.
f
I
7 '
iV
, 44 i
• 1'
U : i