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4 8 F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A .
distance look like the fronds of Osmunda cinnamomea. They
are oblong-ovate in shape, slightly narrowed at the base, and
short-pointed at the apex. There are about sixteen pinnæ
on each side, each one divided to within a line of the midrib
into very numerous crowded slightly oblique triangular-
oblong minutely serrulate segments or lobes. The veins form
a series of very narrow areoles, running from the midvein
of one lobe to that of the next. A like series of shorter
areoles runs along both sides of the midveins of the lobes.
Outside of these areoles the veinlets are free and forking.
In fertile fronds, which are in other respects like the sterile,
the areoles, or many of them, are filled each with a single
oblong sorus, covered by a somewhat arched indusium which
is attached to the enclosing vein, and opens along the side
next the midrib. The spores are oval and irregularly winged.
Mettenius remarks of this fern: — “ This species, distinguished
by the formation of the frond, was raised by Presl
to a genus, “ Anchistea',' and characterized by a flat indusium
and by veinlets anastomosing in the callous border. These
statements are erroneous, for the indusium is arched over
the swelling sori, and the veinlets radiating from the areoles
extend to the border composed of compact colorless cells
without forming any anastomosis.”
Plate L I I .— Woodwardia Virginica. The plant figured is from
Newton, Massachusetts, and is in Mr. Faxon’s collection. Fig. 2 shows
two segments enlarged. Fig. 3 is a spore; P'ig. 4, a section of the
stalk, and Fig. 5, of the root-stock.
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