Family 1. OPHIOGLOSSACEAE 
By LUCIEN Marcus UNDERWOOD AND RALPH CURTISS BENEDICT 
Characters of the order. 
Lamina and sporophy! pinnately or ternately divided ; venation free; sporangia 
separate. 1. BOTRYCHIUM. 
Lamina and sporophyl simple or digitately lobed; venation reticulate; spo- 
rangia coalescent. 
Terrestrial ; sterile lamina entire, lanceolate to reniform ; sporophyls erect, 
single. : : _ 2. OPHIOGLOSSUM. 
Epiphytic; sterile lamina digitately lobed, obdeltoid ; sporophyls pendent, 
usually more than one. 3. CHEIROGLOSSA. 
1. BOTRYCHIUM Sw. Jour. Bot. Schrad. 1800’: 110. 1801. 
Boirypus Rich. in Marthe, Cat. Jard. Méd. Paris 120. 1801. 
Sceptridium Lyon, Bot. Gaz. 40: 457. 1905. 
Terrestrial plants. Rhizomes hypogean, small, mostly erect, the apex naked except for 
old persistent leaf-bases. Leaves herbaceous, solitary, the commonstalk erect, the lamina 
erect or inflexed in vernation, pinnately to ternately divided, the sporophyl solitary, erect, 
paniculate ; venation free, forking. Sporangia separate, globose, on the smaller divisions of 
the sporophyl. 
Type species, Osmunda Lunaria lL. 
Bud hairless. 
Commonstalk about one-half or more hypogean. 
Lamina straight in vernation, the segments usually separated; 
sporophy] long-stalked, often one-half to two-thirds the height 
of the plant. 1. B. simplex. 
Lamina with the tip bent down in vernation, the segments 
crowded ; sporophyl short-stalked, scarcely exceeding the lamina. 2. B. pumicola, 
Commonstalk nearly all epigean. 
Lamina oblong to ovate or narrowly deltoid, with only the tip or 
upper part bent down in vernation ; sporophyl erect or with 
the tip bent down. 
Lamina with the tip bent down in vernation, but not clasping 
the sporophyl, ovate to deltoid, acutish, sessile, usually onl, 
once pinnately divided, the segments rhombic to deltoid, 
acutish. 3. B. boreale. 
Lamina with the tip or upper part bent down in vernation and 
clasping the sporophyl. 
Lamina usually sessile or nearly so, only once pinnately 
divided with fan-shaped to lunulate segments. 
Plants usually stout; segments lunulate, often close and 
imbricate. 4. B. Lunaria. 
Plants usually slender ; segments fan-shaped, distant. 5. B. onondagense, 
Lamina usually stalked, entire to twice pinnately divided with 
cuneiform, oblong, or ovate segments. 
Segments mostly cuneiform ; sporophylerectin vernation. 6. B. fenebrosum. 
Segments mostly oblong or ovate ; sporophy] with the tip 
bent down in vernation. 7. B. neglectum, 
Lamina broadly deltoid, and, with the sporophyl, entirely bent 
down in vernation, sessile or nearly so. 8. B. lanceolatum, 
Bud hairy. 
Commonstalk mostly epigean ; bud only partly enclosed. 9. B. virginianum, 
Commonstalk hypogean ; bud entirely enclosed. 
Segments more or less deeply lacerate into linear often forked 
teeth. 11. B. dissectum, 
Segments entire, crenulate or serrulate, not deeply divided. 
Tips of the penultimate divisions elongate, much larger than 
the lateral segments. 10. B. obfiguum. 
Tips of the penultimate divisions ovate to deltoid or fan-shaped 
to reniform, usually about as broad as long, the lateral seg- 
ments mostly similar in shape and size. 
Segments mostly acute or acutish (northern and western 
North America). 
VoLuME 16, Part 1, 1909] 3 
