90 



VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS 



and the Marattiacece. The young leaves (in Osmunda cinnamomea, L., 

 and Todea superba, Col.) present the remarkable peculiarity of their 

 apex being occupied by a well-marked triangular-conical apical cell. 

 The family includes only a very small number of species, comprised 



in the two genera Osmunda (L.) and Todea 

 (Willd.). Osmunda regalis (L.), growing in 

 bogs, with remarkably coriaceous leaves, is 

 our ' royal fern ' or ' flowering fern.' 



Literature. 



Bower — Proc. Roy. Soc, xxxvii., 1884, p. 42; 



and Quart. Journ. Micr. Sc. , 1885, p. 75. 

 Gardiner and Ito — Annals of Botany, vol. i., 1887, 



p. 27. 



Order 6. — Schiz^ace^e. 



The ovoid or pear-shaped sessile spo- 

 ranges are not strictly epidermal in their 

 origin. The apex of the sporange is occu- 

 pied by a cap-like zone of cells of peculiar 

 form, and the dehiscence is vertical. In 

 the genera Aneimia (Sw.) and Schizaea 

 (Sm.) the fertile leaves have the paniculate 

 appearance of an Osmunda. In Schizaea and 

 Lygodium (Sw.) the sporanges are seated in 

 two rows on the under side of very narrow 

 pinnae ; and in Lygodium each sporange is 

 enclosed in a pocket-shaped indusium. In 

 Aneimia the two lowermost pinnae form a 

 long-stalked panicle, from which the meso- 

 phyll has disappeared. In Aneimia and 

 Lygodium the sporanges spring originally 

 from the margin of the leaf, but are eventu- 

 ally placed in the course of development 

 on its under side. In Mohria (Sw.) they are 

 placed on the back of the leaf, and are con- 

 cealed by its recurved margin. The differ- 

 entiation of tissues, both in the mesophyll 

 of the leaf and in the 'vascular' bundles, is very slight. The stem is 

 in general but feebly developed, and seldom branches ; the leaf-stalk is 

 penetrated by only a single ' vascular ' bundle. The peculiar position 

 of the stomates in some species of Aneimia has already been described. 



Fig. 69.- 



-Lygodhim pah7iaUivi Sw. 

 (reduced). 



