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176 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Aspidium spinulosum, var. Boottii, G r a y , Manual, e d . ii., p. 5 9 8 .—
E .\to n , in Gray’s Manual, ed . v ., p. 6 6 5 .
Aspidium cristatum, var. uliginosum, Milde . Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 13 1,
Lastrea nliginosa, N ewman, in “ Phytologist, iii., p. 679.”
Lophodium uliginosum, N ewman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii., p. 163.
Lastrea cristata, var. uligiiwsa, Moore, Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. xx.
Aspidium spimdosum X cristatum, Milde , in Nov. Act. Acad. Nat.
Cur,, xxvi,, ii., p. 532. tt. 4 1, 42, 43.
Dryopteris rigida, G ray, Manual, ed. i., p. 631.
H ab.— Wet places in woods, often in alder-ihickets near streamlets
or ponds. Discovered near Lowell, Massachusetts, by Mr. William
B o o n as early as 1843, and since found by several collectors near
Fresh Pond, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, near Amherst and near
Pelham, all In the same State. Mr. P'rost has it near Brattleboro,; I
have found it in more than one place in Connecticut; it occurs in
central and southern New York, and Mr. A. Commons has sent It from
the vicinity of Wilmington, Delaware. It is known to occur in England,
in Continental Europe, and in Siberia.
D e s c r ip t io n ;— I n the structure of the root-stock, and in
its mode of growth there is nothing to distinguish this fern
]\Ir. Moore’s character reads thus ;—'■'‘F ro n d s various, ea rly f e r t i l e ones tall,
erect, narrow, lincar-laticeolate, bipiniiate below w ith oblong-acute adnate inciso-serrate
or lobed p ijin u le s h a v in g aristate in cu rv ed teeth] barren ones shorter, w ith oblong
blunt ish pijmule s, adizate or decu rran t; la te r f e r t i le ones broader, w ith oblong bluntish
crcnato-serrate p in n u le s ; anterior a n d po sterio r basal p in n u les o f the lowest pinnce
nea rly equal in size.”— Mr. Moore’s plate well represents the three kinds o f fronds he
describes, all taken from a plant brought by Mr. John Lloyd from Oxton bog, Nottinghamshire.
FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 177
from Aspidium cristatum or A . spinutosum. The stalks are
chaffy when young with ovate ferruginous shining scales,
most of which drop off as the season advances. The section
of the stalk shows about five roundish fibro-vascular bundles,
the two anterior ones largest, and with a slight furrow between
them, which deepens as the fronds wither, or when tliey
are dried for preservation.
The fronds grow in a circle or crown, several from the
apex of the root-stock, and stand fully three feet high in the
largest plants. They are of a deep herbaceous green, moderately
firm in texture, smooth above, and provided with a few
scattered minute chaffy scales on the lower surface. The
early fronds are usually tall, narrowly oblong-lanceolate and
fertile, the lowest pinnæ broadest at the very base, and having
the superior basal pinnules but little smaller than those
on the inferior side. These larger pinnules are seldom
over an inch long. The next few pairs of pinnæ are gradually
a little longer and narrower, becoming more oblong-
lanceolate in shape. The pinnules are mostly distinct, oblong
ovate, acutish, adnate to a narrowly winged secondary
rachis, and pinnatifid-toothed with short spinulosely serrate
lobes, the upper pinnules of course more and more confluent
and only simply serrate. The sori are rather numerous,
not large, and either medial or sub-terminal on the
veinlets a little nearer the midvein than the margin. The
indusium is dotted with minute stalked glands, and a very
few similar glands may be detected on the lower surface of
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