FERNS OF THE MALAY-ASIATIC REGION. 21 



widely scattered, but chiefly in the tropics; there are a number of Bpecies 

 peculiar to New Guinea. 



Fertile spikes pinnately arranged. 

 Frond terete. 



Spikes 4 to G on each side 1. 8. malaccatia 



Spikes 10 to 20 on eacli side 2. S.ftstulosa 



Frond flattened 8 - *■ dichotoma 



Fertile spikes digitately arranged 4. 8. digitate 



1. Schizaea malaccana Baker. 



Stipes dense, not distinguishable from the frond, which is 10 to 20 

 cm long, weak, flexuose, subterete, simply channeled in front, not more 

 than 0.3 mm thick, the sterile and fertile ones similar; fertile segment 

 erect, often bilateral, 6 mm deep, with 3 to 6 slender spreading spikes 

 on each side, the lowest 4 to 5 mm long. 



Malaya to Birma; Philippines (T). 



2. Schizaea fistulosa Labill. 



Frond 10-30 cm high, rigid, rush-like; fertile segment suberect, about 

 20 mm long with 10 to 20 rather erect spikes on each side, the lowest 



3 mm long; otherwise like the preceding. 

 Borneo, teste Christ: Madagascar eastward to Chile. 



3. Schizaea dichotoma (L.) Smith. (Plate XIII, A.) 



Rhizome deep-seated; stipes very crowded, not distinct from blade of 

 frond, 10 to 30 cm up to the lowest fork, channeled in front, upper part 

 and branches narrowly winged, branches 1 to 2 mm wide, repeatedly 

 dichotomous ; fertile segment terminal, dense, with usually 5 to 8 spread- 

 ing hairy spikes on each side. A dwarfed form grows on the bases of 

 coconuts. 



Madagascar to Polynesia, northward to southern India and Luzon. 



4. Schizaea digitata (L.) Sw. (Plate XIII, B.) 



Stipes densely clustered brownish 2-5 cm high according to depth of 

 rhizome, merging into the green frond which is up to 40 cm high and 1 

 mm broad, unbranched, coriaceous, the costa very salient beneath ; fertile 

 segment apical, so short that the spikes appear whorled; spikes 2.5 to 



4 cm long, 1 mm broad, brown. 



Malaya to Fiji, the Bonin Islands and the Himalayas: Madagascar ( ?). 



7. GLEICHENIACE^K. 



Terrestrial ferns; last divisions of the axes of the fronds bearing pin- 

 nately arranged leaflets or segments; venation free; sori on the backs 

 of ordinary fronds, made of a few sporangia visible to the naked eye, 

 indusia wanting ; annulus transverse, not much above the middle ; dehis- 

 cence by a longitudinal slit. Two genera: Stromatoptcrk, with a single 

 New Caledonian species: and Ghichenia. 



