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196 FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA.
Acad. (n. s .) vi., p. 42 1. — MErrENius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 97.—
Maximowicz, Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 3 3 7 .—’E a to n , in Chapman’s
Flora, p. 596.— H o o k e r & B a k e r , Syn. Fil., p. 46.— M iq u e l,
Prolus. Fl. Jap., in Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Batav., iii., p. 179.—
M ild e , Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 157. — R e d f i e ld , in Bulletin of
Torrey Botan. Club, vi., p. 4. — W illiam s o n , Eerns o f Kentucky,
p. 109. t. x ii; Fern-Etching.s, t. xlv.
Onoclea obiusilobata, S c h k u h r , K r y p t . Gew., p. 9 5 , t. 10 3 . — PuRSir, FI.
Am. Sept., ii., p. 665.
Onoclea obtusiloba, L ink, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 37.
Osmunda frondibus -pinnatis fo lio lis superioribus basi coadujiatis, omni-
bus lanceolaiis, pinnato-sinuatis, L innæus, Hort. Cliff., p. 472.—
G ronovius, Fi. Virginica, p. 19 6 ; ed. ii., p, 16 3 .— (Other-
ancient names are repeated by L innæus and W illdenow.)
H ab. — Wet meadows and thickets, from New-Brunswick to the Saskatchewan,
extending southward through Dacotah, Kansas, and Arkansas
to Louisiana, and eastward to St. Augustine, Florida, one of our commonest
and most abundant ferns, often occupying large portions of land
to the partial exclusion of other plants. Not found in western America
or in Europe, but occurring in Japan, Mantchooria and eastern Siberia.
D e s c r ip t io n ;— The root-stock is about one-third of an
inch thick, and irregularly roundish in section. It creeps
widely below the surface of the ground, rooting freely and
often forking, so that in cultivation it is very difficult to confine
the plant to one spot. The root-stock contains six or
eight roundish or flattened fibro-vascular bundles arranged in a
circle near the outer surface. It bears no chaff. The stalks
are scattered along its length, the apex being covered with the
FERNS OF NORTH AMERICA. 197
thickened stalk-bases of next year's fronds, and the stalks for
the present year rising a few inches back of the apex.
The fronds are truly dimorphous, the fertile ones being so
unlike the sterile, that no one who is unacquainted with the
plant would suppose they had anything to do with each other.
The sterile fronds vary in length from one or two inches
to fifteen or eighteen, and are supported on stalks usually
rather longer still, so that, while the smallest plants may be
concealed in the grass, the tallest ones are often fully three
feet high. The bases of the stalks are flattened, discolored
and very sparingly chaffy; the upper part is green in the
living plant, brownish-stramineous when dried, smooth and
naked, rounded at the back, and slightly furrowed in front.
It contains two obliquely-placed strap-shaped fibro-vascular
bundles, which unite below the base of the frond and form
one having a U-shaped section. The outline of the sterile
fronds is triangular or triangular-ovate. The midrib is winged,
either from the very base, or from the second pair of segments;
the wing at its lower extremity very narrow, but gradually
widening towards the apex, so that its greatest width is but
little less than that of the terminal segment. The number
of segments in the smallest fronds is two or three on each
s ide; in the largest fronds twelve or thirteen on each side.
The lowest segments are rather more than half as long as
the whole frond; the next segments usually a little smaller,
but sometimes a little longer than the first pair, and the
remaining ones rapidly decreasing. The segments are broadly
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