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Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 43-.— K u h n , Fil. Afr., p . 83.— F ou r n
i e r , PI. Mex., Crypt., p. 144.— B ed dom e , Ferns of So. India,
p . I I , t. xxxiii.— G a r b e r , in Bot. Gazette, iii., p. 83.— D a v en po
r t , Catal., p. 17.
P/eris cost'xta, W il ld en ow , Sp. pi., v ., p. 367.— H o o k e r & A rn o t t , Bot.
Beechey Voy., p. 256, t. 51.
Pteris ensifolia, S w a r t z , Syn. P'il., p. 95.— W il ld en ow , Sp. P I, v.,
367.— W'i i .lkom m & L a n g e , Prodr. FI. Hispan., i., p. 4.
Pteris teimifolia, B r a c k e n r id g e , Fil. of U. S. Lxpl. Exped., p. 1 1 2 .
Lonchitis non ramosa longissimis angustis et ad basim auriculatis fo liis,
P l u m ie r , Fil. Amer., p. 5 2 , t. 69, (Other references and
synonymy may be found in the works of Agardh, Hooker and
Milde here quoted.)
H a b .— Key West, C. J. L yo n s , 18 5 7 ; crevices of rocky ledges in
the open pine-barrens at Miami, Florida, D r . G a r b e r . West Indies,
Mexico and Venezuela, and in tropical and sub-tropical regions all round
the world, including southern Australia, Syria and the Mediterranean
countries of Europe.
D e s c r i p t i o n ; — The root-stock is creeping, but rather
short, stout and woody. It is covered with fine and delicate
amber-brown chaffy scales, which are also found on the lower
part of the stalks, and sometimes, though not in our Florida
specimens, follow the stalk and rachis to the apex of the
frond, as in some examples from Santo Domingo, Chiapas
and the Pacific Islands. The stalks of fully developed plants
are often a foot long, and sometimes longer. Their color is
stramineous or brownish stramineous in dried specimens.
They are erect and very strong, having a very thick outer
sclerenchymatous sheath. There is a furrow or channel down
the anterior side, and the back is rounded. The section of
the fibro-vascular bundle is horseshoe-shaped, as it is said to
be in all the related species of the genus, being very different
from that of the common Bracken of the northern states.
The frond is lanceolate in outline, being often longer than
the stalk. Dr. Garber’s specimens from Florida have from
seven to thirteen inches of stalk, and from seventeen to
twenty-three inches of frond. A fine specimen from Cuba,
collected by Mr. Wright, has twenty-eight inches of stalk
and forty of frond.
The largest of the Florida fronds has forty-two pinnæ
on each side. Other plants have sometimes a still greater
number, and sometimes very few, even so few as five or six
on each side.
The longest pinnæ are usually near the middle of the
frond, being about three inches long in the specimens from
Florida, and five or six inches long in some from elsewhere.
The terminal pinna is very variable ; sometimes it is much
the longest of all, and sometimes it is shorter than the average.
From the middle of the frond to the base the pinnæ
grow shorter and shorter, so that the lowest ones are often
only a few lines long. The pinnæ are nearly sessile, the
base commonly truncate, but sometimes sub-cordate, or even
doubly auricled. The apex is oftenest acuminate but not
rarely obtuse. Sterile fronds have pinnæ three to six lines
wide, and minutely denticulate on the semi-transparent cartif
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