Part 211 (1/2)

2. NOTHOLae'NA, R. Brown. CLOAK-FERN.

Fruit-dots roundish or oblong, placed near the ends of the veins, soon more or less confluent into an irregular marginal band, with no proper involucre. Veins always free. Fronds of small size, 1--4-pinnate, the lower surface almost always either hairy, tomentose, chaffy, or covered with a fine waxy white or yellow powder. (Name from ?????, _spurious_, and ?a??a, _a cloak_, the woolly coating of the original species forming a spurious covering to the sporangia.)

1. N. dealbata, Kunze. Fronds triangular-ovate, 1--3' long, 3--4-pinnate; rhachis and branches straight, black and s.h.i.+ning; ultimate pinnules scarcely a line long, white and powdery on the lower surface.--Clefts of calcareous rocks, Mo., Kan., and southwestward.

July--Aug.

3. ADIaNTUM, L. MAIDENHAIR. (Pl. 17.)

Fruit-dots marginal, short, borne on the under side of a transversely oblong, crescent-shaped or roundish, more or less altered margin or summit of a lobe or tooth of the frond reflexed to form an indusium; the sporangia attached to the approximated tips of the free forking veins.--Main rib (costa) of the pinnules none (in our species), or at the lower margin. Stipes black and polished. (The ancient name, from a privative and d?a???, meaning _unwetted_, the smooth foliage repelling rain-drops.)

1. A. pedatum, L. (Pl. 17, fig. 1--3.) _Frond forked at the summit of the upright slender stalk_ (9--15' high), the recurved branches bearing on one side several slender spreading pinnate divisions; pinnules numerous, short-stalked and obliquely triangular-oblong, entire on the lower margin, from which the veins all proceed, and cleft and fruit-bearing on the other.--Rich, moist woods. July.--A delicate and most graceful Fern.

2. A. Capillus-Veneris, L. _Fronds with a continuous main rhachis, ovate-lanceolate_, 9--18' long, often pendent, 2--3-pinnate at the base, the upper third or half simply pinnate; pinnules wedge-obovate or rhomboid, 6--12” long, deeply and irregularly incised; veinlets flabellately forking from the base; involucres lunulate or transversely oblong.--Moist rocky places, Va. to Mo., and southward. (Eu.)

4. PTeRIS, L. BRAKE or BRACKEN. (Pl. 17.)

Sporangia in a continuous slender line of fructification, occupying the entire margin of the fertile frond, and covered by its reflexed narrow edge which forms a continuous membranaceous indusium, attached to an uninterrupted transverse vein-like receptacle connecting the tips of the forked free veins.--Fronds 1--3-pinnate or decompound. (The ancient Greek name of Ferns, from pte???, _a wing_, on account of the prevalent pinnate or feathery fronds.)

1. P. aquilna, L. (COMMON BRAKE.) Frond dull green (2--3 wide), ternate at the summit of an erect stout stalk (1--2 high), the widely spreading branches twice pinnate; pinnules oblong-lanceolate; the upper undivided; the lower more or less pinnatifid, with oblong obtuse lobes, margined all round with the indusium, which is really double in this species.--Var. CAUDaTA, with the lobes very narrow and revolute, the terminal ones much elongated, is a southern form, which extends in a modified condition as far north as New Jersey.--Thickets and hillsides, common. Aug. (Eu.)

5. CHEILaNTHES, Swartz. LIP-FERN. (Pl. 17.)

Sporangia borne on the thickened ends of free veinlets, forming small and roundish distinct or nearly contiguous marginal fruit-dots, covered by a mostly whitish and membranaceous, sometimes herbaceous, common indusium, formed of the reflexed margin of separate lobes or of the whole pinnule.--Low, mostly with 2--3-pinnate and hairy or chaffy, rarely smooth fronds, the sterile and fertile nearly alike, the divisions with the princ.i.p.al vein central. Some species with continuous indusium connect this genus very closely with the next. (Name composed of ?e????, _a lip_, and ?????, _flower_, from the shape of the indusium.)

[*] _Fronds smooth, or at most hairy._

1. C. Alabamensis, Kunze. _Fronds smooth_, chartaceous (2--8' long), ovate-lanceolate, bipinnate; pinnae numerous, oblong-lanceolate; pinnules triangular-oblong, rather acute, often auriculate or lobed; _indusium continuous, rather broad, pale, and of firm consistence_.--On rocks, mountains of Va. to Ky., and southward.

2. C. vestta, Swartz. (Pl. 17, fig. 1, 2.) Fronds (6--15' high), lanceolate-oblong, hirsute, as are the brown and s.h.i.+ning stipes, with _straightish prominently articulated rusty hairs_, twice pinnate; pinnae rather distant, triangular-ovate; pinnules oblong, crowded (2--4”

long), more or less incised, _the ends of the roundish or oblong lobes reflexed and forming separate herbaceous involucres_, which are pushed back by the ripened sporangia.--Clefts of rocks, Manhattan Island (_W. W. Denslow_) and N. J. to Ill., and southward.

[*][*] _Fronds woolly or tomentose._

3. C. tomentsa, Link. Fronds (12--20' high) lanceolate-oblong, densely tomentose with _slender and entangled whitish obscurely articulated hairs_, thrice pinnate; primary and secondary pinnae oblong or ovate-oblong; _pinnules distinct_, minute (--1” long), roundish-obovate, sessile or adnate-decurrent, the upper surface less woolly, _the reflexed narrow margin forming a continuous somewhat membranaceous indusium_.--Mountains of Va. and Ky.; thence west and southward.--Stipe and rhachis rather stout, brown, covered with narrow chaffy scales and whitish hairs.

4. C. lanuginsa, Nutt. Stipes slender, at first hairy, black or brown, s.h.i.+ning; fronds (3--6' high) ovate-lanceolate, woolly with _soft whitish distinctly articulated flattened hairs_, becoming smoother above, twice or thrice pinnate; pinnae (5--6” long) ovate, the lowest distant, the others contiguous; _pinnules crenately pinnatifid_, or mostly divided into minute and roundish densely crowded segments (--1” long), _the herbaceous margin recurved forming an almost continuous indusium_.--In dense tufts, on dry rocks and cliffs, Ill. to Minn., thence west and southward.

6. PELLae'A, Link. CLIFF-BRAKE. (Pl. 16.)

Sporangia in roundish or elongated cl.u.s.ters on the upper part of the free veins, distinct, or confluent laterally so as to imitate the marginal continuous line of fructification of Pteris, commonly covered by a broad membranaceous and continuous (rarely interrupted) general indusium, which consists of the reflexed and altered margin of the fertile pinnule or division. Small ferns, with 1--3-pinnate fronds, the fertile ones with narrower divisions than the sterile, but otherwise similar. Stipes generally dark-colored, smooth and s.h.i.+ning. (Name from pe????, _dusky_, alluding to the stipe.)

1. P. gracilis, Hook. (Pl. 16.) Fronds smooth (3--6' high), _delicately membranaceous and slender_, of few pinnae, the lower ones once or twice pinnately parted into 3--5 decurrent divisions, those of the fertile frond oblong or linear-oblong, entire or sparingly incised; of the sterile ovate or obovate, crenate or incised; veins of the fertile fronds mostly only once forked.--Shaded calcareous rocks, Ma.s.s. to Minn., and northward; rare. July.--Rootstock very slender, creeping; stipes polished, brownish, darker and sparingly chaffy at base.

2. P. atropurpurea, Link. Smooth, except some bristly-chaffy hairs on the midribs and especially on the _dark purple and polished stalk_ and rhachis, 6--15' high; _frond coriaceous_, pale, once or below twice pinnate; the divisions broadly linear or oblong, or the sterile sometimes oval, chiefly entire, somewhat heart-shaped or else truncate at the stalked base; veins about twice forked.--Dry calcareous rocks; not common, but of wide range. July.--Rootstock short and stout; stipes cl.u.s.tered.

7. CRYPTOGRaMME, R. Brown. ROCK-BRAKE.