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ONOCLEA STRUTHIOPTERIS, Hoffmann.
Ostrich-Fern.
Onoclea Struthiopteris:—Caudex short, thick, erect, emitting slender
subterranean stolons; stalks stout, a few inches to a foot long, chaffy
at the base; fronds standing in a vase-like crown, dimorphous; sterile
ones one to ten feet high, herbaceo-membranaceous, broadly lanceolate,
narrowed from the middle to the base, abruptly short-acuminate, pinnate;
pinnæ very many, sessile, the lowest ones sinuate and deflexed, the rest
three to eight inches long, five to nine lines wide, linear-lanceolate,
acuminate, deeply pinnatifid into numerous close-placed oblong obtuse
entire segments provided with a midvein and several simple veinlets on
each side; fertile fronds in the middle of the crown or vase, much
shorter than the sterile, rigid, contracted, narrowed at the base,
pinnate; pinnæ one to two inches long, crowded, obliquely ascending,
linear, obtuse, sub-entire or pinnately lobed, the lobes one or two lines
long and broad, the margins much recurved, and the whole pinna forming a
somewhat articulated pod-like body; veinlets of the fertile segments few,
soriferous on the back; receptacle elevated; indusium very delicate,
lacerate-toothed, half surrounding the sorus; sporangia at length
confluent and filling the fertile pinnæ.
_Onoclea Struthiopteris_, Hoffmann, “Deutschlands Flora, p. 11
(1795).”—Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 111.—Weber & Mohr, Taschenbuch, p.
47, t. iv., f. 3, 4.—Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 97, t.
105.—Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 97, t. xvii., f. 11-15.—Milde,
Fil. Eur. et Atlant., p. 154.
_Onoclea nodulosa_, Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., p. 97, t. 104 (Perhaps also of
Michaux, but this is still uncertain).
_Onoclea Germanica_, Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv., p. 161.—Hooker & Baker, Syn.
Fil., p. 46.
_Osmunda Struthiopteris_, Linnæus, Sp. Pl., p. 1522.
_Struthiopteris Germanica_, Willdenow, “Enum, p. 1071;” Sp. Pl., v., p.
288.—Link, Fil. Hort. Berol., p. 38.—Hooker, Fl. Bor.-Am., ii., p.
262.—Torrey, Fl. New York, ii., p. 486.—Gray, Manual, ed. i., p.
623, etc.—Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ. et Helv., ed. iii., p.
739.—Williamson, Fern-Etchings, t. 44.
_Struthiopteris Pennsylvanica_, Willdenow, Sp. Pl., v., p. 289.—Pursh,
Fl. Am. Sept., ii., p. 266.—Torrey, Compendium, p. 385.—Bigelow,
Fl. Boston., ed. iii., p. 421.
_Struthiopteris_, the genus only, Willdenow, in Berl. Mag., 1809, p. 160.
Hab.—Low grounds, especially in fine alluvial soil subject to the
overflow of rivers; from the Saskatchewan and Lake Winnipeg to New
Brunswick, and southward to Pennsylvania and Illinois. Mentioned by
Alexander Braun as coming from Arkansas. From Lapland to Sicily, and
eastward to the Amoor region, Sachalin and Kamtschatka. Not known in
the western parts of either Europe or America.
Description:—The ostrich-fern is one of our finest ferns, being surpassed
in grandeur only by _Acrostichum aureum_, _Woodwardia radicans_, and
perhaps _Osmunda regalis_. The plant is propagated chiefly by long and
slender stolons, bearing appressed rudimentary stalk-bases. These stolons
are said by Sachs to originate from buds formed on the stalks near the
base: they run underground for several inches or a foot, and at the end
rise to the surface and there thicken into a short erect caudex, covered
by imbricating stalk-bases, and throwing up from the apex a grand
vase-like circle of foliage, which is often higher than a man’s head, and
sometimes extends above his utmost reach.
The stalks are seldom over a foot long: they are flattened, blackish, and
chaffy at the base, but above ground they are green, drying dull-brown,
somewhat four-sided, and deeply channelled in front, when dried furrowed
on the sides also. They contain two flattened fibro-vascular bundles. The
stalks of the sterile fronds are rather longer than the others, but more
rigid, and remain erect till the second year.
The sterile fronds are oblong-lanceolate in outline, gradually narrowed
to the base from near the middle and abruptly short acuminate. The pinnæ
are usually of nearly equal breadth from the base to beyond the middle.
They are pinnatifid to within a line of the midrib into numerous oblong
and obtuse segments, the veins of which are free, simple and pinnately
arranged on a midvein.
The fertile fronds are produced late in the summer, and are contracted,
much shorter than the others, and very rigid. The pinnæ are sometimes
nearly entire, and in other examples pinnately lobed. The margins are
very much recurved, so that the pinnæ are pod-like, and either
sub-cylindrical or somewhat moniliform. The venation is free, and the
sori are dorsal on the veins. Mr. Faxon writes: “The indusium can be
detected only when the fertile frond is very young, and appears as a very
delicate, lacerate membrane, attached at the base of the receptacle, and
serving to separate the sorus from its neighbors. I have not found it in
any case hood-like as in _O. sensibilis_. The sori are quickly confluent,
and all trace of the indusium is soon lost. The membranaceous edge of the
transformed fertile pinna is attached near the bases of the inferior sori
and a fold is usually found pressed against the sori as seen in the
drawing (Fig. 3). This is usually ruptured, so as to leave a portion
attached at the base of the sorus, and must not be mistaken for the true
indusium, which is within.”
The sporangia have twenty-six or twenty-eight articulations of the ring.
The spores are dark-colored and ovoid.
Imperfectly fertile fronds are often found, which are analogous to the
“_obtusilobata_” condition of _O. sensibilis_.
ALPINE BEECH-FERN.
FRAGRANT WOOD-FERN.
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PHEGOPTERIS ALPESTRIS, Mettenius.
Alpine Beech-Fern.
Phegopteris alpestris:—Root-stock short and thick, erect or oblique;
stalks sub-terminal, four to ten inches long, bearing a few brown
spreading scales near the base; fronds one to two feet long,
oblong-lanceolate, membranaceous, smooth, pinnate with delicately
bi-pinnatifid deltoid-lanceolate pinnæ, the lower ones distant, and
decreasing moderately; pinnules ovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, doubly
incised and toothed; sori small, rounded, naked, usually copious on all
or all but the lowest pinnæ.
_Phegopteris alpestris_, Mettenius, Fil. Hort. Lips., p. 83; Phegopteris,
p. 10.
_Polypodium alpestre_, Hoppe, “in Spreng. Syst. Veg., iv., par. ii., p.
320.”—Koch, Syn. Fl. Germ., “ed. 2, p. 974;” ed. 3, p. 731.—Moore,
Nat. Pr. Brit. Ferns, t. vii.—Hooker & Arnott, Brit. Fl., ed. 7, p.
582.—Hooker, Brit. Ferns, t. vi.; Sp. Fil., iv., p. 251.—Hooker &
Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 311.
_Aspidium alpestre_, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 421.—Schkuhr, Krypt. Gew., p.
58, t. 60.
_Asplenium alpestre_, Mettenius, Asplenium, p. 198, t. vi., figs. 1-6.
_Pseudathyrium alpestre_, Newman, “Phytologist, iv., p. 370;” Hist. Brit.
Ferns, ed. iii., p. 200.
_Athyrium alpestre_, “Nylander;” Milde, Fil. Eu. & Atl., p. 53.
_Polypodium rhæticum_, Linnæus, Sp. Pl., p. 1552, _fide_ Schkuhr, l. c.;
but Moore thinks the plant not the same.
_Aspidium rhæticum_, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 59.—Willdenow, Sp. Pl., v., p.
280.
Hab.—Among rocks at high elevations; on Lassen’s Peak, Mount Shasta,
Pyramid Peak, Mount Rose, and other high points in the Sierra of
California, Brewer, Lemmon, Muir; Cascade Mountains of British
Columbia, Lyall. In the Alps and the mountains of Northern Europe; also
in the Caucasus, and in Asia Minor.
Description.—The root-stock is rather short, but branching, and seems to
form great entangled masses. The fronds stand in a crown or circle,
rising from the end of the root-stock, which is made thick and heavy with
the chaffy bases of former stalks. Mr. Lemmon writes thus: “It grows in a
limited locality, so far as I know, near the summit of Mount Rose, near
Webber Lake, and say at an elevation of 7,000 feet; lat. 39½° N. Fronds
collected into a large mass four feet across, short at the circumference,
in the centre three feet high; most of them fertile, and densely so, as
in the specimen sent.”
The stalks are usually but a few (four to six) inches long, and in the
dried specimens of a brownish straw-color, becoming nearly black at the
base. They bear a few large ferruginous chaffy scales, and are deeply
channelled and furrowed. The fibro-vascular system of the stalk is
altered by contraction in drying, but apparently agrees with Dr. Milde’s
description of _Athyrium_: “There are two oblong peripheric bundles in
the _base_ of the stalk, which, at the base of the lamina, are united
into one of a horse-shoe shape by an arc parallel to the back of the
stalk.” In the middle of a stalk from one of the California specimens I
find two systems of ducts, one on each side of the stalk, and the two
united by a curved and contorted border of firm blackish tissue
(sclerenchyma).
The fronds are from one to two feet long, and from three to six inches
wide. In general shape they are oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, and
slightly narrowed at the base. The texture is softly membranaceous, and
both surfaces are smooth. The primary pinnæ are numerous, the lower ones
gradually farther apart: their shape is lanceolate from a broad base.
They are usually twice pinnatifid, the pinnules being connected by a very
narrow foliaceous border along the midribs. The ultimate segments are
sharply toothed. The fruit-dots are very abundant, and usually are found
on all the pinnæ. They are placed on the back of the free veinlets, and
are apparently devoid of indusium; though Dr. Mettenius has discovered on
young fronds an exceedingly delicate and fugitive indusium, resembling in
some degree that of _Asplenium § Athyrium_. Accordingly, in his later
work, he referred the species to the genus _Asplenium_, placing it next
to _A. Filix-fœmina_. Milde, in his work on the ferns of Europe and
Atlantis, sought to re-establish Athyrium as a genus, and placed this
fern in it, saying “sori ... rotundi, primum breviter oblongi indusio
fugaci minutissimo ciliato instructi.” The spores are ovoid, and
apparently covered with anastomosing raised lines. Those I have examined
are fuscous-brown, but Milde says “sub-nigræ verrucosæ.”
There is a European var. _flexilis_, with very narrow, nearly sessile
fronds, and the pinnæ often deflexed, which has not been observed in
America.
Undoubtedly the greatest resemblance of this fern is to the lady-fern,
_Asplenium Filix-fœmina_; but that species has a very well-developed
indusium, while the minute objects delineated by Mettenius scarcely
deserve the name.
The stalks are clearly continuous with the root-stock; and for this
reason the plant is plainly not a _Polypodium_, whatever else it may
finally be determined to be.
ASPIDIUM FRAGRANS, Swartz.
Fragrant Wood-Fern.
Aspidium fragrans:—Root-stock short and stout, very chaffy, with ample
bright-brown glossy scales, which also abound on the short clustered
stalks, and extend, diminishing in size, nearly to the top of the frond;
fronds rigid-membranaceous, glandular, aromatic, four to ten inches long,
six to twenty-four lines wide, lanceolate, acuminate, narrowed from the
middle to the base, bipinnate; pinnæ numerous, oblong-lanceolate;
pinnules many, one to two lines long, oblong, obtuse, adnate by a
decurrent base, pinnately incised with very minute crenated teeth, or in
smaller fronds nearly entire, the back nearly hidden by the large thin
imbricating indusia, which are orbicular with a narrow sinus, and more or
less toothed and glandular around the margin.
_Aspidium fragrans_, Swartz, Syn. Fil., p. 51.—Willdenow, Sp. Pl., v., p.
253.—Hooker, in “Parry’s 2d Voy., App., p. 410;” Fl. Bor. Am., p.
410.—Ruprecht, Distr. Crypt. Vasc. Imp. Ross., p. 35.—Mettenius,
Aspid., p. 56.—Gray, Manual, ed. 2, p. 598.—Milde, Fil. Eur. et
Atlant., p. 117.
_Polypodium fragrans_, Linnæus, Sp. Pl., p. 1550.
_Polystichum fragrans_, Ledebour, “Fl. Ross., iv., p. 514.”—Maximowicz,
Prim. Fl. Amur., p. 339.
_Dryopteris fragrans_, Schott, Gen. Fil., Observ. sub Polysticho.
_Nephrodium fragrans_, Richardson, “App. to Frankl. Journ., p.
753.”—Hooker & Greville, Ic. Fil., t. lxx.—Hooker, Sp. Fil., iv.,
p. 122.—Hooker & Baker, Syn. Fil., p. 275.
_Dryopteris rubum idæum spirans_, Ammann, “Ruth., p. 251.”
Hab.—In crevices of shaded cliffs, and on mossy rocks, especially near
cascades and rivulets, from Northern New England to Wisconsin, and
northward to Arctic America. Also in the Caucasus, and in Siberia,
Mantchooria, and Kamtschatka. Special American localities are Mount
Kineo, Maine, A. H. and C. E. Smith; at Berlin Falls, the “Alpine
Cascade,” and the “Gulch,” all near the White Mountains, H. Willey;
Mount Mansfield, Vermont, C. G. Pringle; Lake Avalanche, Adirondack
Mountains, New York, C. H. Peck; Falls of St. Croix, Wisconsin, C. C.
Parry, and on the Penokee Iron Range, in the same State, Lapham;
Saguenay River, Canada, D. A. Watt. It is apparently more common
farther north: Sitka, Iliuliuk, Unalaska, Arakamtchetchene, Kotzebue
Bay, Igloolik, Rittenbenk in Greenland, and several other places, are
recorded as stations for it.
Description.—The root-stock is rather stout, ascending or erect; and its
apparent thickness is much increased by the persistent bases of stalks,
which also give it a dense covering of broad bright-brown chaffy scales.
The fronds, frequently to the number of six or eight, besides old and
shrivelled ones, stand in a crown at the upper end of the root-stocks,
resting on stalks from one to four inches long, which are usually very
chaffy, the chaff continued along the rachis and midribs, though composed
of smaller scales than those lower down. The fronds are from three or
four to ten inches in length; and the greatest breadth, just above the
middle, is from one-fifth to one-sixth of the length. The outline is
exactly lanceolate, as the apex is acute, and the lower part gradually
tapering to a somewhat narrowed base. The fronds are delicately, but
densely, bipinnate. In a frond nine inches long there are about thirty
primary pinnæ on each side, and in one of the middle pinnæ about ten
oblong-ovate obtuse pinnately-incised pinnules on each side. The pinnules
are from a line to two lines long, and are adnate to the secondary rachis
by a more or less decurrent base. In large fronds the teeth of the
pinnules are again crenately toothed; but in small specimens the pinnules
themselves are entire, or but slightly toothed. Two sterile fronds
collected by Professor M. W. Harrington, in Iliuliuk, Alaska, are broadly
ovate-lanceolate in outline, and have acute primary pinnæ; and other
specimens, some from Eastern Canada, collected by Mr. Watt, and some from
Northern Wisconsin, collected by Mr. Lapham, are much slenderer and less
scaly than usual. This is the var. β of Hooker. Usually the fronds are
rather rigid, full-green above, a little paler beneath, and both
surfaces, together with the rachis, especially the canal along the upper
side of the rachis, are dotted with very minute pellucid pale
amber-colored glands. The fronds commonly fruit very fully, even the
lowest pinna bearing sporangia. The indusia are very large, thin,
orbicular, with a narrow sinus, more or less ragged or toothed and
gland-bearing at the margin, and are so dense as to overlap each other,
and nearly conceal the back of the pinnules. The spores are ovoid, and
have a minutely verrucose or warty surface.
The pleasant odor of the plant remains many years in the herbarium. The
early writers compare the fragrance to that of raspberries, and Milde
repeats the observation. Hooker and Greville thought it “not unlike that
of the common primrose.” Maximowicz states that the odor is sometimes
lacking. Milde quotes Redowsky as saying that the Yakoots of Siberia use
the plant in place of tea; and, having tried the experiment myself, I can
testify to the not unpleasant and very fragrant astringency of the
infusion.
The illustration is taken from a plant collected by Mr. D. A. Watt on
the Saguenay River, in Canada.