24. C e ra to p te r is . Fertile fronds having the segments with strongly revolute or recurved
margins; sterile fronds with-broader segments ; veins closely reticulated.
SU BO RD E R III. C Y A T H E A C E ^ .
Sporangia roundish or obovateor irregularly cuneate, borne on raised receptacles and
forming rounded sori ; ring more or less oblique, commonly complete ; indusium various,
usually cup-like, or wanting.—Mostly tree F erns; none growing naturally within our limits.
(The genera are Cyafhca, Alsophila, Hemitdia, Afaionia and Diacalpe.
SU BO RD E R IV . . G L E IC H E N IA C E ^ .
Sporangia sessile, few in a sorus, provided with a broad transverse complete ring.
Fronds rigid, often dichotomously branched and producing axillary buds. (Tropical ferns,
the genera being Platyzoma and Gleichenia, from which Mertejisia is not different.)
SU BO RD E R V. H YM ENO PH Y L LA C EA i.
Sporangia sessile on abristle-like receptacle; the ring transverse and complete. Involucres
marginal, at the ends of the veins, cup-shaped or two-valved. Mostly small ferns
with delicately membranaceous fronds.
25. T r ichomane s . Involucres cup-shaped or funnel-form.
SU BO RD E R VI. SCH IZ /EA C EA i.
Sporangia variously placed, globose or acorn-shaped, opening longitudinally : the ring
an apical cap of cells radiating from a central point or minute circular space.
T r ib e I. L YGO D IE /E . Sporangia attached laterally; the cells of the
from a central point.
radiating
Climbing 26. L y g o d ium . Sporangia each with a special indusiu ferns, the fruit on
narrow lobes of the upper pinnte.
T r ib e I I . SCHIZzEEzE. Sporangia attached basaily ; the cells of the ring radiating
from a circular space.
27. Sch iz se a . Sporangia in two or four rows on the narrow divisions of little pinnate
(rarely digitate) terminal appendages of the simple or dichotomous fronds.
82. A n e im ia . Sporangia in two rows on the narrow divisions of the paniclecl and long-
stalked lowest pinniE, or on separate pan'culate fronds. Fronds pinnately divided.
SU BO RD E R V II. OSMUNDACE.E.
Sporangia naked, globose, short-pedicelled, reticulated, opening into two valves b y a
longitudinal slit and having only a vestige of a transverse ring near the apex.— Large ferns, '
the bases of the stalks dilated into stipuliform appendages. ’
29. Osmunda . Sporangia borne on the thread-like divisions of a separate frond or of a
special part of a frond ; the fruit-bearing portion normally destitute of green coloring
matter.
O RD ER OPH IO C LO S SA C E .E.
Leafy plants; the leaves (Jronds) simple or branched, often fern-like, erect in vernation,
developed from underground buds formed from one to three years in advance cither
within the base of the stalk of the old frond or by the side o f it, bearing in special spikes or
panicles subcoriaceous exannulate bivalviilar sporangia formed from the main tissue of the
fruiting segments of the frond. Prothallus underground, destitute of chlorophyll, monmcious.
1 . B o try c iu um . Frond with a posterior pinnatifid or compound sterile feru-like se<rment
and an anterior panicled fertile segment, the separate sporangia in a double row on
the branches of the panicle. Bud enclosed in the base of the stalk. Veins free.
2. Op hio glo ssum. Frond with a posterior simple or forked or palmatcd sterile segment
and one or more anterior or lateral simple spikes of fructification ; the connate sporangia
in a row along each side of the spike. Buds exterior to the base of the stalk
Synopsis of the Species.
F IL IC E S .
1. ACROSTICHUM. L.
_ r. A . au reum , L . Tall, evergreen: fronds simply pinnate with elliptical or oblono-
pimiEC, having finely reticulated veins ; sporangia covering the back o f all the pinnae or the
upper ones only.— Vol. I I . t. Iviii. p. 93.— Florida.
2. POLYPODIUM. L.
§ I . Eupolypodium. Veins free.
I. P. P lum u la , H. B. K . Frond linear lanceolate, 3 to 15 inches long; pinnatifid
with very numerous segments scarcely one line wide ; veins mostly once forked.— Vol. I I .
t. Ixiii. p. 13 5 .—Florida.
. 1^’ L. Frond lanceolate, i to 3 feet long, much narrowed at the base,
pmnatihd with numerous segments 2 to 4 lines wide ; veins more than once fo rk e d .-V o l I.
t. xlii. p. 3 17 .— Florida.
3 . P . vu lg a re , L. Fronds evergreen, subcoriaceous, 2 to to inches long, ovate-
oblong to oblong-linear, pinnatifid into linear-oblong obtuse or acute segments, the lowest
ones rarely diminished; veins branched into 3 or 4 veinlets.—Vol. I. t. xxxi. p. 2-?7—
Alaska to North Carolina.
, .......— . ------- 00- Fronds evergreen, thinnish, 9 to 15 inches long, broadly
lanceolate, pinnatifid into long-acuminate serrate segments; veins with 3 or 4 veinlets.—
vol. I. t. xxvi. p. 2 0 I - - Oregon and California.
§ 2 . G o n io p h i- e b ium . Veinlets more or less reticulated, forming one or jnore rows of
areoles each side o f the midvein, the areoles often enclosing a fr e e soriferous veinlet.
* Fronds smooth.
5. P . C alifo rn icum , Kaulf. Fronds thin or thickish in texture, 3 to 12 inches long,
ovate or ovate-oblong, pinnatifid into oblong-linear obtuse or acute, more or less serrate,
segments; veins sometimes mostly free, but commonly forming a few areoles along the
midveins; sori often oval.— Vol. I . t. xxxi. p. 243.— California.