VA ’ ■ '
Phegopteris vulgaris, M e t t e n iu s , Fil. Hoi-t. Lips., p. ,83 ; Phegopteris,
p. 15.— J - S m i t h , Fcrns, British and P'orcign, p. 17 1.
Polypodium Phegopteris, L in n æ u s , Sp. Pl., p. 1550,— S w a r t z , Syn. F il,
p. 40. — S c h k u h r , Krypt. Gew., p. 17, t. 2 0 .— W h x d e n o w ,
Sp. PI, V., p. 199. — H o o k e r , Fl. Bor.-Am,, ii., p. 20 8 .—
T o r r e y , Fl. New York, ii., p. 484. — R u p r e c h t , Dist. Crypt.
Vase, in lmp. Ross., p. 5 1. — G r .a y , Manual, ecl. i., p. 623:
ed. ii., p. 590.— M o ü r e , Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. iv. — M a x i m
o w ic z , Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 337.— H o o k e r , Sp. Fil., iv., p. 245;
Brit. Ferns, t. 3.— L .aw so n , in Canad. Nat., i., p. 26g.— H o o k e r
& B a k e r , Syn. P'il, p. 308.
Polypodium connectile, M ic h a u x , FI. Bor.-Am,, ii., p. 2 7 1 .— W i l l d e n o w ,
Sp. Pl., V., p. 200.— P u r s h , FI. Am. Sept., ii., p. 659.
Polystichum Phegopteris, R o t h , “ Fl Germ., iii., p. 72.”
Gymnocarpium Phegopteris, N ewman, Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii., p. 49.
H a b .— Damp woods and hillsides, commonest in the mountainous
parts of New England and the Middle States, the range in America
extending to Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland in the East, and
to the Saskatchewan, Sitka, Alaska and Unalaska in the North-West,
but not known in the United States west of the one hundredth meridian.'
Iceland, Europe and northern Asia to Mantchooria, Kamtschatka
and Japan.
D e s c r i p t i o n : — The root-stock of this fern is only about
one line in thickness, but is often a foot long, or even
longer. It creeps just beneath the surface of the ground,
’ While coi-recting the proof I uin iiifonned that it has just been discovered near
San José, California, but there is not now time to investigate the accuracy o f the report.
or in the crevices of mossy rocks, and throws up fronds usually
about an inch apart. The newer portion bears a few
very thin ovate scales; and the fronds for the next year’s
growth are seen closely coiled up a few inches in advance
of the fronds of the present year.
The stalks are very slender, variable in length, and somewhat
hairy. When very young they bear lanceolate long-
pointed scales, which usually have one or two needle-pointed
marginal hairs near the apex. The stalks are green when
fresh, brownish-stramineous when dry. They contain two oval
fibro-vascular bundles which unite into one trough-like bundle
some distance below the base of the frond.
The frond is triangular in outline, more or less acuminate,
and usually considerably longer than broad. It is
slightly hairy above, and more so beneath, with appressed
or spreading acute unicellular shining hairs. Along the mid-
ribs, both primary and secondary, are scattered delicate pale-
ferruginous scales, ciliated with spreading slender-pointed hairs.
The two lowest pinnæ are somewhat deflexed and turned obliquely
forwards. These are lanceolate or broadly lanceolate in
shape, somewhat narrowed towards the base, and are commonly
not connected with the next pair, the basal segments being free
from the rachis or general midrib. The remaining pinnæ
have the basal lobes nearly or quite as long as the middle
ones, adnate to the rachis, and connected with each other by
a narrow wing, or else plainly confluent, so that the rachis
is bordered nearly throughout its length by an irregular
if ) ! ' I
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