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F E R N S OF NORTH AM E R IC A .
Woodsia hyperborea, var. arvonica, Koci-i, Syn. FI. Germ, et Helv., p.
7 3 1. — M il d e , Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 16 1.
Acrosiichum hyperboreum, L il je b l a d , “ in Act. Stockholm, 1793, p. 201,
t. 8.”
Polypoditim hyperboreum, S w a r t z , Syn. Fil., p. 39. — S ch k u h r , Krypt.
Gew., t. 17 b. — W il ld en o w , Sp. PL, v., p. 197.
Acrostichum alpinum, B olton, “ F i l . B r i t ., p. 76, t. 4 2 . ”
Polypodium arvoniczim, S m it h , “ FL Brit, iii., p . 1 1 1 5 . ”
H a b . — British America, the limits not ascertained, and in the
northern parts of Vermont and New York. To Mr. D. A. W a t t , of
Montreal, I am indebted for a very copious series of specimens collected
by himself “ on a moist mossy bank near the falls on the Riviere-clu-
Loup, and within reach of the spray from the falls, Sept. i, 1865,”
and “ on moist mossy rocks, in a ravine, Temiscouata, Canada East,
18 6 8 ;” also for others collected on the northern shore of Lake Superior
by Mr. M acoun. The late H o ra c e M a n n , jr., discovered it on
Willoughby Mountain, in Vermont, and Mr. C. C. P r in g l e has gathered
it in the same place, and also in Smuggler’s Notch, Mount Mansfield,
Vermont. Professor C. H. P e c k has sent it from the Adirondack
Mountains of New York. I have not seen the plant from Boylston,
Massachusetts, but doubt very much, if it can be true hyperborea.
In the Herbarium at Kew is a specimen from Norway House, on
the Saskatchawan River, collected by Dr. R ich a rd so n , and the species
is said to have been seen in Newfoundland. Its range extends through
the northern and alpine regions of Europe and Asia.
D e s c r i p t i o n : — The root-stocks are clustered, and hidden
by a multitude of stalk-bases, which persist long after the
fronds have fallen off. The stalks and the rachis as far as
F E R N S OF NO R TH AM E R IC A . 109
the middle of the frond are bright-chestnut-brown and shining.
The stalks in large specimens are two inches long, and one-
sixtcenth of an inch thick. In this species, as in W. Ilvensis
and IV. glabella, there is a manifest articulation in the stalk,
about half an inch from the root-stock. Below this articulation
the stalks are chaffy, the scales being bright-ferruginous,
ovate-acuminate, distantly ciliate-toothed, destitute of midnerve,
and about two lines long. Above the articulation the scales
are very narrow, almost hair-like, and so few that often the
frond seems perfectly smooth. I find a solitary roundish-
triangular fibro-vascular bundle. A delicate, funnel-shaped
expansion of the fibro-vascular bundle connects it with the
surface of the stalk just at the articulation.
The fronds are oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate in
outline, usually about four inches long, and scarcely one
inch wide. They have about twelve or fifteen pinnæ on each
side, those towards the base being a little shorter than the
others and more distant. The texture is soft and membranaceous:—
Hooker says “ rather fiaccid.” The middle pinnæ
are seldom over half an inch long, and a quarter of an inch
broad at the base. They are ovate from a broad base, obtuse
or rounded at the apex, and pinnately lobed rather than
cleft into from three to seven short rounded lobes on each
side. The veins are free, and mostly simple, and bear
rounded fruit-dots just below the apex.
The indusium is placed beneath the sorus, instead of
above it as, in most of our ferns, and consists of a minute
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