Abstract
The ferns that have been called Dryopteris in most treatments of ferns in California, as for example those by Maxon, in Abrams, Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States, and by Munz, in his A Manual of Southern California Botany, or, erroneously, Aspidium, as by Jepson, in his Manual of the California Flora, have been shown by various authors to belong to two phyletic lines that are now considered to be rather unrelated; extremists even place them in two families-the Aspidiaceae and the Thelypteridaceae. There do not seem sufficient grounds for regarding these species as belonging to different families or perhaps even subfamilies, but it is evident that two distinct groups have been wrongly united under the name Dryopteris. True Dryopteris is represented in California by the species D. argyeta, D. Filix-mas, and D. austriaca.1 The other species-those called by Maxon D. Feei, D. oreopteris, and D. oregana belong to the genus Thelypteris.2 In an article that I published some time ago in the American Fern Journal3 I pointed out some of the distinguishing characters. I reproduce below the key that was given at that time:
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