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2 2 8 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Berol., p. 21. — P r e s l , Suppl., p. 68. — G r .a y , Manual, ed. i.,
p . 635, etc. — M e t t e n iu s , Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 1 1 6 ; “ Prod. FI.
Nov.-Gran., p. 79.” — M axim ow ic z , Prim. FI. Amur., p. 3 3 6 .—
H o o k e r & B a k e r , Syn. F i l , p. 426. — M iq u e l , Prolus. FI.
Japon, in Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Batav., iii., p. 182..— M il d e ,
Monogr. Gen. Osmundæ, p. 93, t. v. — F o u r n ie r , PI. Mex.
Ciypt., p. 140.
Struthiopteris cinnamomea, B e r n h a r d i , “ in S c h r a d e r s Jo u r . f. d . B o t .
(1800), ii., p. 126.”
Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, P r e s l , “ in Abh. Bohm. Ges. Wiss., v .
(184S), p. 326.”
Osmunda alata. H o o k e r , “ in Edinb. Phil. Jour. (18 2 2 ), vi,, p. 333 .”
Osmunda Claytoniana, C o n rad , “ in Jour. Ac. Sc. Philad. (1829), vi.,
part i., p. 29, t. ii. ; ” not of Linnæus.
Osmunda imbricata, K u n z e , Die Farrnkraüter, ii., p. 29, t. cxii.
H a b . — Low grounds and moist copses ; very abundant from Newfoundland
to Wisconsin, and southward to Florida and Louisiana. It
occurs also in Bermuda, Cuba, and San Domingo, from Mexico to New
Grenada, Venezuela, and Brazil, and has been collected in Mantchooria
and Japan.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — The cinnamon-fern is in many respects so
like the two species of Osmunda already described, that a full
description of its root-stock, and the stalk-bases with their
wings, is unnecessary. Indeed, the whole plant is so very similar
to Clayton’s flowering-fern, that in the absence of fructification
it is not always easy to distinguish one from the other.
When well grown the crown of fronds fully rivals that of the
other species, and the sterile fronds have almost exactly the
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FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 2 2 9
same shape and dimensions ; the most evident difference being,
that in O. cinnamomea. the apex of the frond is decidedly
acute, or even acuminate, and so also is each particular pinna.
A frond from the swamps of Hudson County, New Jersey, has
a stalk twenty inches long, a few shreds of loose wool still
adhering to it. The frond itself is thirty-seven inches long,
and has thirty pinnæ on each side, besides a few small lobes
which form the apex. The lowest pinnæ are three inches
long, and five-eighths of an inch wide at the base. The longest
pinnæ, which are rather above the middle of the frond, are
seven and a half inches long, and an inch and a quarter wide
at the base. The number of segments in these longest pinnæ
is about twenty-four on each side. In these very large fronds
the stipular wings are more elongated than in smaller plants :
I find one frond with the wings three and a half inches long,
and, the specimen being dried, beautifully marked with oblique
slightly curved lines of blackish sclerenchyma. The margin of
the segments is usually entire, or obscurely crenulate ; but in
plants of large size the lower segments of the pinnæ are not
unfrequently much elongated, and again pinnatifid. Sometimes
it is only the inferior basal segment which is thus enlarged ;
sometimes several of the segments will exhibit this character.
Fronds exhibiting this character have been gathered in Northern
New York by Mrs. Barnes, in Connecticut, and in New
Jersey. A plant producing them is cultivated in the Botanic
Garden a t .Cambridge, Massachusetts; and this form is doubtless
very common throughout the United States.
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