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F E R N S OF NO RTH AM E R IC A .
2 7 2 . — H o o k e r & B a k e r , S y n . F il., p . 14 7 . — F o u r n ie r , Pl.
M e x ., C r y p t ., p . 1 1 9 . — W il l iam so n , F e r a s o f K e n tu c k y , p.
5 2 , t. 12 .
P/eris atropurpúrea, L in n æ u s , Sp. Pl., p. 1534.— M ic h a u x , F 1. Bor.-Am.,
ii., p. 261.—Sw A R T Z , Syn. Fil., p. 106.—S c h k u h r , Krypt. Gew.,
p. 93, t. 10 1.— W il ld en o w , Sp. Pl., v., p. 3 7 5 . _ P u r sh , FI.
Am. Sept., ii., p. 668.
Platyloma atropurpureum, J. S m it h .— T o r r e y , F 1. New York, ii., p. 488.
Allosorus atropurpureus, K u n z e , in Sill. Journ., July, 1848, p. 86 ; Linnæa,
xxiii.', p. 218.— G r a y , Manual, ed. ii., p. 591.— M e t t e n iu s ,
P'il. Hort. Lips., p. 44.
Pellcea mucronata. F e e , pme Mém., p. 8.
Pellæa glabella, M e t t e n iu s & K u h n , in L in n æ a , x x x v i ., p . 8 7 .
Pteris spiculata, S c h k u h r , Krypt. Gew., p . 9 2 , t. 10 0 .
Pteris A dianti facie, catUe ramulis petiolisque politiore nitore nigrican-
tibus, e tc ., G r o n o v iu s , F 1. V i r g in ic a , ed . ¡., p. 19 7 .
H a b . — Crevices of shaded calcareous rocks ; from Canada to the
Rocky Mountains of British America, and southward to Alabama, Arkansas,
Indian Territory and Arizona. It has been found in several
parts of Mexico, and even in South America ( “Andes of Mecoya,
P e a r c e ,” according to Synopsis Filicum'). It was collected by J ohn
C la yto n about 1736, “ on the shore of the river Rappahannock in a
shady place by the root of a juniper near the promontory called Point
Lookout,” and I take pleasure in giving it an English name in his
honor.
D e s c r i p t i o n ; — The root-stock of this fern is rather
short, usually somewhat nodose, and densely chaffy with very
M !
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F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A . 63
narrow long-pointed soft bright-brown scales, which in the
specimens examined are destitute of midncrve.
The stalks are rigid and wiry, terete, nearly black in
color, but with a slight reddish tinge, and usually more or
less pubescent with very narrow chaffy hairs, which are often
more abundant and harsher along the rachises, making them
almost hirsute. Pellæa glabella was founded on specimens
from Missouri and the North-West, which had the stalk
perfectly smooth, and the chaff of the root-stock a trifle
wider than usual. The section of the stalk shorvs a single
U-shaped fibro-vascular bundle, and a strong outer sclerenchymatous
sheath.
The fronds are developed late in the Spring, and remain
green through the next Winter. They are almost coriaceous
in texture, smooth and dark-bluish-green above, paler, and
sometimes slightly chaffy beneath. They are from a few
inches to about a foot in length, and vary in outline from
ovate to oblong-lanceolate. In seedling plants the earliest
fronds are round-cordate, the next cordate-ovate, and then follow
trifoliate, pinnate, and finally mature bipinnate fronds.
The largest fronds have about five pairs of compound pinnæ,
eacli with from three to eleven pinnules, and above these are
from four to six pairs of simple pinnæ, besides the terminal
one, which is often the longest of all.
The pinnules and the simple pinnæ of the sterile fronds
are commonly oval, and not more than half an inch long,
hut those of the fertile fronds are narrower and longer, somel
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