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Scolopendrium rhizophylhim, E n d l ic i ie r , Gen. PI., Suppl. ¡., p. 13 4 8 .—
H o o k e r , Sp. Fil., iv., p. 4. — H o o k e r & B a k e r , Syn. F i l , p. 248.
H a b . — On mossy rocks, especially limestone. Not uncommon from
Canada to Virginia and Alabama, and westward to Wisconsin and Kansas.
It occurs m many places in Western New England, but is rare to the east.
It has lately been found a few miles from Boston ; but there is a doubt
whether the station is truly natural.
D e s c r i p t i o n . — The walking-leaf is usually found in patches
of considerable extent. It seems to prefer mossy calcareous rocks,
and the finest specimens are usually firmly rooted in the crevices.
In Cheshire, Connecticut, it grows freely on moist cliffs of sandstone
bordering a deep ravine ; and in Orange, in the same State,
it is found on scattered ledges of serpentine. The root-stock is
very short, but creeping : it bears a few dark-fuscous scales, and
is covered with the remains of decayed stalks. A few fronds
grow from the end of the root-stock, and are supported on slender
herbaceous stems a few inches long. A transverse section of the
lower part of the stalk is semicircular, and shows a very slender
triangular central thread of dark sclerenchyma, with two somewhat
roundish fibro-vascular bundles close beneath or behind it.
A section higher up shows that the stalk is there narrowly winged
on each side, and the two fibro-vascular bundles have coalesced
into one of a roundish-triangular shape. The frond is long and
narrow, and rarely rises erect, but usually is decumbent or reclined
in position.
The wings of the stalk widen out into a wedge-shaped base,
which is sunken in a sinus between two basal auricles of the
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frond. These auricles are scantily developed in small fronds ;
but in larger ones they are more or less prominent, making the
base of the frond either cordate or hastate. In specimens from
Cheshire, Connecticut, and in some from Indiana, the auricles are
drawn out into slender points, in one instance fully four inches
long. The fronds are deep-green in color, and sub-coriaceous in
texture. The fronds of mature plants are from six to twelve, or
even fifteen, inches long; and their greatest width, measured just
above the auricles, is about one-twelfth of the length, or from six
to fifteen lines. The midrib is a little paler than the rest of the
frond, and is rather prominent on the under surface. The margin
of the frond is gently undulating or entire, rarely incised.^ The
upper part of the frond is scarcely wider than the stalk, and
commonly produces a proliferous bud at the apex, where it very
frequently takes root, and develops a new plant. In this way a
single plant in a favorable position will become a whole colony
in a few years’ time.
The venation is peculiar, and the disposition of the sori
depends mainly on the peculiarities of the venation. Dr. End-
licher’s description of them is so clear, that it is well to repeat it
here: “ Veins anastomosing [i.e., reticulating] in two series of
hexagonal areoles [meshes], the angles of the marginal areoles
sending out free, simple or forked, veinlets. Sori linear, solitary
in.the costal areoles Jthose nearest the midrib] and on the marginal
veinlets : the indusium of the latter free toward the margin
‘ S e e the “ h'iora of New Y o r k ” for some figures of laciniated and forking
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