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H a b . — On shacly river-cliffs near New Braunfels, Texas, L in d h e im e r .
Medina, in Western Texas, and in a rocky arroyo at the mouth of the River
Pccos, W r ig h t . Not collected in recen*- years. It was first described
from A sch en bo r n ’s Mexican specimens, and is now reported as found also
in Guatemala.
D e s c r i p t io n . — The root-stock is creeping, though probably,
not greatly elongated ; it is covered with narrow fuscous or blackish
scales, which are curled rather than crisped, and is developed
slightly in advance of the growing fronds. These are nearly
erect, and their whole height is from six to about fifteen inches.
Fully half this height consists of the stalk, which is slender and
straw-colored, — at least in dried specimens. The sterile portion
of the fertile frond, and the sterile frond, are exactly alike ; the
general shape is triangular-ovate. The pinnæ arc sub-coriaceous,
and commonly about five or six on each side besides the terminal
one, — the lowest ones with a distinctly cordate base, the upper
ones with a rounded or truncate base, usually having the upper
side a little fuller and rounder than the lower. All the pinnæ are
short-stalked, — the lowest ones with a stalk two lines long, the
upper ones having them gradually shorter. The general shape of
the pinnæ is between ovate and lanceolate. The pinnæ have a
well-marked mid-vein, distinct to the very apex, and very closely-
placed forking veins on each side of it. These veins give the
surface a striated appearance. The tips of the veins extend to
the apices of the minute but very sharp and incurved serratures
along the margin of the pinnæ. In the fertile frond there arc
two narrow pinnately-compound panicles, which are raised on
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stalks almost as long as the sterile portion, and appear to be its
two lowest pinnæ developed into fructification. Kunze notes that
the fruiting branchlets are hcrbaceoiis-margined, glandular-pubescent,
and more or less dilated and confluent at the apex of the
panicle. The sporangia have a horizontal apical ring, much as in
Lygodium: but aré attached by the bottom, not by the side as in
Lygodium. They are arranged in a double row on the divisions
of the fruiting panicle. The spores are very beautiful : they are
roundish-tetrahedral, the sides covered with curious elevated and
sometimes forked ridges, wdiich Kunze considers characteristic of
the genus.
The genus Aneimia has but two species within our limits,
but is represented in the tropics — principally in Tropical America
— by about twenty-seven species. The generic character is this :
Sporangia acorn-shaped, with a transverse apical ring, like a
radiated cap, sessile in two rows on the branchlets o f a panicle.
Panicles either separate fronds, or in pairs, — in the latter case
being the changed and Icmg-stalked lower pinnæ o f an otherwise
sterile and pinnately-divided frond. As already pointed out on
page 4, the genus is associated with Lygodium, Mohria, Schizcea,
and Trochopteris. The name was originally written Anemia by
Swartz, who took it “ from the Greek word A,fwr, not clothed,
naked, because the capsules, without any covering, rest naked in
the spikelets.” But as the Greek word is really Arf«,,, Kaulfuss
wrote the vtoxA Aneimia ; in which orthography he has been generally,
though not universally, followed. The curious reader will
find an amusing note in regard to this matter on page 23 of
Link’s “ Ferns of the Berlin Garden.”
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