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Sp. Fil,, iii., p. 1 1 5 . — E a to n , in Chapman’s Flora, p. 5 9 2 .—
L awson, in Canad. Naturalist, i., p. 2 - 5 .— W il l iam so n , Ferns
of Kentucky, p. 6 9 , t. xx, xxi.
Asplenium pycnocai'pon, S p r e n g e l , Anlcitung, p . 1 1 2 ; Engl, version,
p . 1 2 3 .
Lonchitis virginiana fo liis longioribus acutis et dispcnciis variis, M orison ,
fid e Willdenow.
H a b . — Ontario and New England westward to Wisconsin, and
southward to Kentucky, Virginia, and probably the mountains of Northern
Georgia. It is found in damp rich woods, especially in mountainous
districts, and is more common in the States bordering on the
Ohio river than in New England.
D e s c r i p t i o n : — The root-stock of this fern is very much
like that of Asplenium thelypteroides, figured on our fiftieth
plate. It creeps just beneath the surface of the ground, and
attains a length of at least five or six inches. It is mainly
composed of the adherent bases of old stalks, and bears a
very great multitude of branched fibrous but somewhat
fleshy rootlets. The stalks which support the fronds come
from just back of the apex, which is hidden by the buds of
fronds for the next year’s growth. These buds or rudimentary
fronds are about three-fourths of an inch long, and are light-
green in color. A close inspection of them detects a few very
thin chaffy scales, which fall off as the fronds uncoil, leaving
the plant entirely destitute of chaff.
The stalks are usually from eight inches to a foot in
length, and about one-sixth of an inch in diameter. They
are rounded or slightly flattened at the back, and in the front
a little narrowed, but with a rather deep and narrow furrow
which is deeper, and has more elevated sides, nearer the
base of the frond. In the living plant the stalk is herbaceous,
rather brittle, smooth, and green, except at the very
base, where it is blackened like the root-stock. The section
discloses two strap-shaped fibro-vascular bundles, one running
along each side of the stalk, the furrow partly separating
them.
The sterile and fertile fronds are a little different from
each other, the latter having longer stalks and much narrower
pinnæ. The fronds arc smooth, dark-green, membranaceous,
and unable to endure the lightest frost. They are lanceolate
in outline, and sometimes, with the stalks, attain a height of
three and a half to four feet. The pinnæ are very numerous,
sometimes as many as forty along each side of the rachis.
The middle pinnæ are the longest, the lower ones being gradually
shorter, more distant, and slightly deflexed; so that the
very lowest ones arc often only little auricles a few lines
long. The pinnæ of the sterile fronds are slightly cordate
at the base, where they are about half an inch wide. From
the middle they taper to a long and slender point. The margin
is wavy and finely crenulate, or even slightly serrate, as it
was in the form on which Sprengel founded his A . Pycno-
carpon. The very edge consists of triangular transparent
cellules, arranged in two rows, and by their outer angles,
which are slightly rounded, giving an appearance of minute
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