V A
r i i
jIr » ; Î' :
f e V !
F - ' V
I i <r »
I»
m ;
i> ♦!
'■*
I » I
vi'
l■ k 4 *
I r •
p1
» ' i
¡f: ^
most pinnæ are usually entirely foliaceous and sterile, and the
frond is an example of the var. interrupta of Milde. But in
Japan and India a plant is found, the O. yaponica of Thunberg,
and O. speciosa of Wallich, in which the fertile frond is
fertile throughout its whole length. But this complete separation
of sterile and fertile fronds does not seem to be absolutely
constant ; and while the plant may properly be called
var. Japónica, as by Milde, or var. biforniis, as by Bentham
(in the Flora of Flongkong), the distinction is not now considered
to be of specific importance. The same form occurs also
in China and in Natal. The sporangia, as of all the Osmtin-
daceæ, are much larger than in polypodiaceous ferns, and the
ring is reduced to a mere patch of cellules slightly different
from the rest of the cellules of which the sporangium is composed.
The sporangia are short-pedicelled, and obovate-spheri-
cal in shape. They open by a longitudinal cleft along the front,
the opening extending over the top to the vestige of the ring,
thus dividing into two equal hemispherical valves. The spores
are tetrahedric-spherical, with three vittæ which meet at the
angular side of the spore. The surface is granulóse, and the
color a very pale green.
Milde describes no less than fourteen varieties of the royal
fern, giving to North America his var. spectabilis, which he
makes identical with O. glaucescens, and crediting us also with
an occasional plant of var. palustris, and even of the commonest
European form, which he calls “ Forma obtusiuscula." But
it seems more reasonable to recognize only the species O. regalis,
and possibly the diplotaxic var. Japoziica.
The genus Osmunda comprises six or seven species ; one
of them is found in Europe, the same one in Africa, three in
America, and all in Asia. Two other genera are associated in
the same sub-order; viz., Todea, represented by a single species
which occurs in South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand;
and Leptopteris, which has two species in Netv Zealand, and
one in Australia, New Caledonia, the Feejee Islands, etc. In
Osmunda the sporangia are borne normally on contracted branchlets
destitute of green leaf-tissue. Todea has the sporangia on
the back of the green sub-coriaceous frond; and Leptopteris
has the sporangia similarly placed on the back of the frond,
but the frond is delicately pellucid like the Hymenophyllacea.
All the genera have the stalk winged at the base, much as in
O. regalis.
The name Osmunda is of uncertain origin. Dr. Gray says
that Osmunder was a Saxon name of the divinity Thor. Sir
W. J . Hooker {British Ferns, at t. 45) refers to Sir James Edward
Smith’s conjecture that the word comes from the Saxon
Osmund, meaning “ domestic peace.” He also quotes from
Gerarde that “ in olden time it was called Osmund the Waterman,
and the whitish portion of the root-stock (which, boiled,
or else stamped, and taken with some kind of liquor, is thought
to be good for those that are wounded, dry-beaten, and bruised,
or that have fallen from some high place) is called the heart
o f Osmund the Watermani' Another old name was St. Christopher's
Herb. Hooker says further; “ Now, as we know St.
Christopher was the patron saint of watermen, and probably
iG
I I
, i'
I ' f
. {
! I ' l
' ‘ri