Family 1. MARATTIACEAE 
By Luci—EN Marcus UNDERWOOD! 
Characters of the order. 
Rootstock horizontal; leaves dimorphic, once-pinnate or simple; synangia im- 
mersed, 20-co -locuiar, almost completely covering the backs of the pinnae. 1. DANAEA. 
Rootstock "erect ; leaves "alike, 2-4-pinnate ; synangia superficial, 6-18-locular, in a 
submarginal row. 2. MARATTIA. 
1. DANAEA Smith, Mém. Acad. Turin 5: 420. 1793. 
Coarse plants with creeping horizontal rhizomes, and dimorphic, once-pinnate or simple, 
stipulate leaves arranged in two rows along the upper portion of the rhizome. Leaf-axes 
swollen (nodose) at the insertion of the: opposite pinnae, the lower nodes often with 
reduced pinnae or pinnae wanting (‘‘ stipes nodose’’ ); venation free, simple or forking. 
Sporangia in two rows,opening by terminal pores, coalescent to form linear immersed, 
pluri-locular (20-100) synangia, borne along the veinlets, and almost completely covering 
the backs of the sporophyls. 
Type species, Acrostichum nodosum I. 
Leaves pinnate. 
Sterile pinnae 3 cm. or more broad. 
Stipes without nodes; pinnae 15 or more, acuminate. 
Fertile pinnae not more than 2 cm. broad; sterile pinnae rounded at 
the base. 1. D. nodosa. 
Fertile pinnae 2-2.5 cm. broad; sterile:‘pinnae more or less cuneate at 
the base. 2. D. grandifolia. 
Stipes with 1-5 nodes; pinnae 5-13, mostly acute. 3. D. elliptica. 
Sterile pinnae not more than 2.5 cm, broad, usually less. 
Terminal node without pinnae, the leaves even-pinnate. 4. D. Jenmani. 
Terminal pinna present, the leaves odd- pinnate. 
Leaves about 15 cm. high, the margins irregularly lacerate. 5. D. crispa. 
Leaves 40 cm. or more high, the margins merely serrate. 
Veinlets mostly simple. 
Veinlets not paired in origin, usually not less than 1 mm. apart 
(6-12 per cm.). 
Pinnae mostly straight, the base usually obtuse, even truncate 
or cordate. 6. D. alata. 
Pinnae mostly somewhat falcate, the base acute. . Fendleri. 
Veinlets distinctly paired in origin, 18-20 per cm. . cuspidata. 
Veinlets mostly forking, 12-15 per cm. 
Sterile pinnae merely acute ; fertile pinnae not more than 3.5 
em. long. 9. D. Wrightit. 
Sterile pinnae acute or acuminate ; fertile leaves with some 
pinnae 5 cm. or more in length. 
yom 
Sb 
Fertile pinnae not more than 7 cm. long. 10. D. jamaicensis. 
Fertile leaves with some pinnae 8 em. or more long (8-12 cm.). D. stenophylia. 
Leaves simple. . D. cariliensis, 
1. Danaea nodosa (I,.) Smith, Mém. Acad. Turin 5: 420. 1793. 
Acrostichum nodosum ¥,. Sp. Pl. 1070. 1753. 
Danaea longifolia Desv. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin Mag. 5: 307, 1811. 
A large species; leaves rather dull throughout, up to 2 meters long, the stipes without 
nodes, up to 1 m. long, brown, finely mottled, dotted with small purplish-brown dark-cen- 
tered scales; sterile lamina often as much as 1 m. long and 60 cm. broad, oblong, usually 
about half as broad as long, the rachis brown, finely mottled, darkest at the nodes; pinnae 
15-33, dull-green, oblong (elliptic in young fronds), slightly falcate, unequally rounded or 
sometimes cuneate below, acuminate, entire or sometimes undulate or faintly serrulate near 
the apex, 20-40 cm. long, 3-5 cm. broad; midveins sparsely scaly, the veinlets mostly 
1Completed by RaLPH CURTISS BENEDICT. 
VoLUME 16, Part 1, 1909] 17 
