78 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [august 



90°, which means that the blades were closely appressed and the 

 cone very slender in consequence, while in other species {lineari- 

 folius, grandis) this angle is nearly or quite 180°, which is to say 

 that the blade is in practical alignment with the pedicel, with a 

 result that we have a very loose bristling cone, in one species 

 (linearifolius) as much as 10 inches in diameter, a striking object! 

 In certain species, particularly those with triangular blades, the 

 blade for nearly or quite its entire length may be folded sharply 

 backward, lengthwise along two parallel lines where the lateral 

 stomatiferous furrows have weakened the lamina. These two 

 furrows upon the underside of the blade are usually separated by 

 the space of a millimeter or less, and the angle which the lateral 

 portions of the blade make with one another ranges from 0°, where 

 they are parallel, to 180°, where the blade is not at all reflexed or 

 reduplicate lengthwise. In some cases (this is particularly notice- 

 able in linearifolius) these two lines share the plication unequally, 

 one of them sometimes indeed taking all of it. In some of the 

 species {sicatus, pugialus) the blade is folded back only throughout 

 the proximal half, beyond which it flattens out or becomes actually 

 concave above. Sometimes a faint longitudinal line may be seen 

 upon each half of the blade, roughly midway between the stomatif- 

 erous furrow and the lateral margin. In one species {novaculatus) , 

 in which the blade is reduplicate only at the very base, we have 

 noted with much interest a slight torsion which is always dextrorse 

 in passing from the base outward, this without a single exception 

 among over 100 examples observed. At the base the blades in 

 some species (ensifer, cultriformis, sicatus) are abruptly cut across, 

 with the lateral basal angles either sharply rectangular or rounded 

 subangular, while in other specie^ (novaculatus) the lateral basal 

 portions of the blades are prolonged downward for 1-2 mm. into 

 auricular processes. 



Borne upon the superior, ventral, or adaxial face of the pedicel, 

 in the angle made by the pedicel and the toe, is a large platelike 

 structure, the sporangiophore, somewhat oblong-elliptical in shape; 

 in length only slightly in excess of that of the pedicel, bearing 2 

 large elongate sporangia, one upon each side of it, attached at a 

 point well forward, a short distance above the junction of the 



