Filices
(Fern Family.)
The fronds are curled upon themselves like a crosier. Upon the under surface of the fertile fronds the fructification is arranged in small round clusters, brown when ripe. The fine dust which comes from the withered fern is the spores.
Pteris Aquilina.---Bracken. Sporangia on margins of fertile fronds and covered by its edge. Fronds 1 to 2-pinnated. A very tall fern common in Topsail.
Osmunda Regalis.---Flowering Fern. Wet woods. Fertile frond very much contracted, 2 to 3 feet high. Very smooth, pale green. Fronds twice pinnate.
Osmunda Cinnamonea.---Cinnamon fern. Clothed with rusty wool when young. Fertile fronds separate, contracted. Covered with cinnamon colored sporangia.
Aspidium Noveboracense.—Fronds pinnate, tapering both ways from the middle. Pale green, delicate. Fruit dots distinct near the margin.
Aspidium Spinulosum, Var.---Intermedium Scales of the stipe few, dark brown. Fronds twice or thrice pinnate. Pinnules crowded. Spreading.
Aspidium Spinulosum, Var. Dilatatum.---Frond broader, more triangular. The lowest pinnules often much elongated.
Onoclea Sensibilis.---Oak Fern. Fertile frond twice pinnate. Much contracted. Fruit dots, one on the middle of each strong primary vein. Moist or wet places.
Phegopteris Polypodioides.---Beech Fern. Fronds triangular, hairy on the veins. Fruit dots all near the margin.
Asplenium Filix-Foemina.---1 to 3 feet high. Fronds twice pinnate. Pinnules confluent on the secondary stalk by a narrow margin.
