60 A FLORA OF MANILA 
1. CERATOPTERIS Brongniart 
Characters of the Family as given above. (Greek “horn” and “fern” 
allusion to the antler-like form of the fertile fronds.) 
1. C. thalictroides (L.) Brongn. 
Stipes tufted, thick, fleshy, filled with large air-cells, naked, 5 to 30 cm 
long. Sterile fronds floating or more often erect, glabrous, thin and 
flaccid in texture, 15 to 60 cm long, 2- or 3-pinnatisect, the ultimate segments 
linear to lanceolate, rarely oblong-ovate, 1 to 6 cm long, the fronds of 
young plants simple or more or less incised. Fertile fronds about as large 
as the sterile ones, the ultimate segments linear, 1 to 5 em long, 2 mm’. 
wide or less, pod-like. 
In open wet places, in mud and shallow water, occasional; widely dis- 
tributed in the Philippines. All tropical countries. 
3. SCHIZAEACEAE (CLIMBING FERN OR NITO FAMILY) 
Erect or twining terrestrial ferns from erect or horizontal rootstocks. 
Sporangia 1 or 2, or numerous, in the axils of imbricating, clasping indusia 
forming spikes along the margins of the fertile segments or arranged in 
2 to 4 regular, close rows, covering one side of close distichous spikes at 
the apex of the fertile fronds or segments. Annulus a complete trans- 
verse ring at or just below the apex of the sporangium. Fertile teeth or 
segments of the frond much contracted, the sterile ones larger. 
Genera 4, species 120 in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, 2 genera 
and about 10 species in the Philippines. 
‘ 
ili. LYGODIUM Swartz 
Much elongated, slender, terrestrial ferns, the rachis twining, the pinnae 
stalked, opposite, the pairs on very short, alternate, primary petioles 
(really dwarfed branches), which are often inconspicuous or wanting, the 
pinnae pinnate, bipinnate, or dichotomous and somewhat radiate, the veins 
free or anastomosing. Sporangia borne on special teeth or spikes arranged 
in rows either on the margins of normal pinnae or on reduced fertile 
pinnae. 
Species about 30 in the warmer parts of both hemispheres, 8 in the 
Philippines. (Greek “twining.”’) 
Fertile pinnate more compound than the sterile ones; very slender ferns, 
the sterile segments mostly 3 to 8 mm wide...................- 1. L. japonicum 
Fertile pinnae not more compound than the sterile, the latter with segments 
mostly exceeding 1-cm)in width...........21..21..22208_t 2. L. flecuosum 
1. L. japonicum (Thunb.) Sw. Nito, Nitong-puti (Tag.). 
A very slender twining fern, 1 to 3 m in length, somewhat pubescent or 
nearly glabrous, the dwarfed branches 2 to 4 mm long. Sterile pinnae 
8 to 15 cm long, rarely longer, the rachis very narrowly winged, pinnate, 
the pinnules 2 to 5 on each side, the upper ones simple, sessile, often sub- 
confluent, entire, the intermediate ones somewhat hastate, and the lowest 
ones stalked, pinnate or 2-pinnate, all oblong to linear, 1.5 to 8 cm long, 
3 to 8 mm wide. Fertile pinnae smaller than the sterile ones, sometimes 
tripinnate, the segments relatively broader and shorter. 
