I ri
i ' ■ i
I,
t
1 > •'
i l À
' : >
I '
li r
'• f f
ï L ' l ?
T , H : i* J', T . 1
? 'S
a
■ \ V
i r' !
'V ' /
i.'l' i ' i '
■ k '
. y . ;
• l A
154 F E R N S O F NORTH AM E R IC A .
G r a y , Manual, ed. ii., p. 598.— M e t t e n iu s , Fil. Hort. Lips., p.
93; Aspidium, 56.— M i l d e , Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 129.— W il l
iam so n , Ferns of Kentucky, p. 93, t. xxxiii ; Fern-Etchings, t. xl.
Polypodnim cristatum, L in n æ u s , Sp. PL, p. 15 5 1.
Polystickum cristatum, R o th , “ Tent. FL Germ., iii., p. 84.”— K och, Syn.
FL Germ, et Helv., ed., iii,, p. 733.
Nephrodium cristatum, M ic h a u x , FL Am.-Bor., ii., p. 2 6 9 .— H o o k e r ,
B r it . Ferns, t. 1 7 ; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 1 2 1 .— H o o k e r & B a k e r ,
Syn. Fil., p. 2 7 3 .
Lastrea cristata, P r e s l , Tent. Pterid., p. 77.— M o o r e , Nat. Pr. Brit.
Ferns, t. xix.— L a w s o n , in Canad. Naturalist, i., p. 282.
Polypoditim Callipteris, E h r h a r t , “ Beitr., iii., p. 7 7 .”
Lastrea Callipteris, N ew m an , Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. ii., p. 12.
Lophodium Callipteris, N ew m a n , Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii., p. 170.
Aspidium Lancastriense, S p r e n g e l , Anleit., p. 13 4 ; Engl. Version, p.
1 4 7 .— S c h k u h r , Krypt. Gew., p. 4 4 , t. 4 1 .— W il ld en ow , Sp.
PL, V., p. 261.— B ig e lo w , FL Boston., ed. iii., p. 4 1 9 .
Var. Clinionianum, D. C. E a t o n :— Fronds >n every way much
larger, two and a half to four feet high ; pinnæ oblong-lanceolate, broadest
at their base, four to six inches long, one to two inches wide ; their
divisions more numerous, either crowded or somewhat distant, linear-
oblong, obtuse, serrate or cut-toothed, the basal ones sometimes pinnately
lobed : sori near the midvein, indusium orbicular-reniform with a
shallow sinus, smooth and naked.— Gray’s Manual, ed. v., p. 665.
H a b .— Swampy woods and wet thickets, sometimes in wet meadows
or open bogs, from Newfoundland and New Brunswick to the Slave
River and Lake Winnipeg, and extending southward to West Virginia,
Kentucky and Arkansas. Var. Clintonianum has been noticed in Canada,
New England, New York; New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin. A.
F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A . 155
cristatum is found also in middle and northern Europe, from the British
Islands to the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus. In the United States
it is less abundant than A . marginale and A . Thelypteris, but more
common than A . Goldianum.
D e s c r i p t i o n : — The root-stock creeps just beneath the
surface of the ground, and may attain a length of five or
six inches. Its own thickness is not over three or four lines,
but the apparent diameter is made considerably larger by the
fleshy adherent bases of the stalks, which remain a long time
undecayed. It is chaffy with large thin light-brown ovate
scales, which also cover the young stalk, and are more or
less persistent on the lower part of the stalk.
There is a marked difference between the fertile and the
sterile fronds, the latter being much shorter than the former,
and remaining green through the winter, long after the fertile
ones have withered. The stalks of the sterile fronds are
also much shorter than the others. The stalks are rounded
at the back, and have a narrow but rather deep anterior furrow:
when dried lateral furrows are also formed. There are
two large round anterior-lateral fibro-vascular bundles, and
from one to three smaller posterior ones, the number varying
according to the thickness of the stalk.
The fronds vary in length from a few inches to a foot and
a half in the common form, but are sometimes fully twice as
large in the variety. They are usually from four to six times as
long as they are broad, being linear-oblong or oblong-lanceolate
in outline, and consist of from twelve to eighteen pinnæ on each
l i
r ' ' - i
" I
i c i
V
I -
6 '<
O
I
m