4 io MARA NT A CEA E 



of Canna g.v.}. G (3), typically 3-loc. 3 ovuled, but commonly 2 of 

 the loc. are abortive (as in fig.) and the third contains one ovule ; ovule 

 ana-campylo-tropous : style curved and at first enclosed in the ' Kapu- 

 zenblatt ' or hood. The fl. often has an explosive mechanism. The 

 pollen is shed upon the style, which remains held in the hood. Insects 

 enter upon the staminode a, and in sucking honey (secreted by glands in 

 the septa of the ovary) set free the style, which descends with a 

 sudden shock, touching the insect's back and at the same time 

 showering the pollen upon it (</. Genista). Fr. u&u. a loculic. caps. 

 Embryo curved, in perisperm. Seed often arillate. Maranta and 

 others furnish arrowroot, &c. Chief genera: Calathea, Maranta, 

 Thalia. 



Marantochloa Brong. ex Gris. Marantaceae. i Reunion. 



Marasmodes DC. Compositae (7). 3 Cape Colony. 



Marathrum Humb. et Bonpl. Podostemaceae. 8 trop. Am. 



Marattia Sw. Marattiaceae (2). 30 trop. and N.Z. The synangium 

 is oval and the compartments open by slits into a central space. 



Marattiaceae. Marattiales. 5 gen., 50 sp., trop. and subtrop. Large 

 ferns, with a stout stem rarely more than a couple of feet long, not 

 branched (exc. Danaea), and large pinnate 1. (palmate in Kaulfussia). 

 At the base of the 1., which shows circinate vernation, occur a pair 

 of stipules, which aid in bud-protection. The roots arise at the 

 growing point, one or more to each 1. ; tliey burrow obliquely out- 

 wards, emerging some distance from the apex. 



Sporangia oo upon the veins on the lower side of ordinary foliage 

 1. The sorus stands on a swollen placenta ; in Angiopteris the com- 

 ponent sporangia are free from one another, in the other gen. they 

 combine to form a synangium, with as many chambers as sporangia. 

 The mode of opening varies (see classification, below). The spores 

 are all of one kind (except that they vary in shape), and give rise to 

 monoecious prothalli, resembling those of the ordinary ferns. These 

 are large and may live for some years. 

 Classification and genera : 



i. Angiopterideae (sporangia free): Angiopteris (sori of 10 20 

 sporangia), Archangiopteris (sori linear, of 80 160 sporangia). 

 i. A/arattieae (synangia oval) : Marattia (leaf pinnate) ; Kaulfussia 



(leaf palmate with curious chambers on lower side). 

 3. Danaeeae (synangia long, opening by terminal pore) : Danaea. 



Marattiales, one of the chief groups of Pteridophyta (</.?'.). Only fam. 

 Marattiaceae. 



Marcellia Baill. Amarantaceae (2). 2 trop. W. Afr. 



Marcescent (P), one persisting withered round the fr. 



Marcetia DC. Melastomaceae (i). 20 S. Am. 



Marcgravia Plum, ex L. Marcgraviaceae. 20 trop. Am., climbing 

 epiphytic shrubs, with two kinds of shoots veg. with two-ranked 

 sessile 1. and clasping roots, and fig., with stalked 1., spirally arranged, 

 and ending in a cymose umbel of fls. The central fls. are abortive 

 and their bracts are transformed into pocket-like coloured nectaries 

 with stalks. The fertile fls. stand upside down, the infl. being pen- 

 dulous, and humming-birds rub against them with their backs, while 

 drinking honey. 



