| GROUP III | FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, |
19. NET-VEINED CHAIN FERN
Woodwardia angustifolia
Swampy places from Maine to Florida, in wet woods near the coast.
Sterile fronds.—Twelve to eighteen inches high, pinnatifid with minutely toothed divisions united by a broad wing.
Fertile fronds.—Taller than the sterile, once-pinnate; pinnæ much contracted; fruit-dots in a single row each side of the secondary midribs; indusium fixed by its outer margin, opening on the side next the midrib.
The Woodwardias are associated in my mind with sea-air, pine-trees, and the flat, sandy country near Buzzard's Bay, Mass. Both species were met with in one walk not far from the shore.
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A little stream, scarcely more than a ditch, divided an open, sunny meadow from a bit of evergreen wood, and on the steep banks of this runlet grew the bright fronds of Woodwardia augustifolia, giving at first glance somewhat the impression of Onoclea sensibilis. The fronds of both are described as pinnatifid, and in this Woodwardia we find the divisions minutely toothed (a), giving them a rough outline which is wanting in Onoclea sensibilis. These are the sterile fronds. Among them and taller than they are the fertile fronds with very narrow divisions, covered on the lower side with the chains of fruit-dots (b).
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