1. LyCxOdium.] 5. 8CHIZMACEM. 



parallel forked veins, of which one veinlet enters each tooth, fertile 

 rather narrower (excluding the sporangial lobes), pectinately lobed 

 Avith the sporangial spikes which are • 15-" 25" long. 



Very common in the forests. Champaran ! Bhafjalpiir, Cid. Herb. ! Purneah ! 

 Santal Parg. ! Monghyr, Cal. Herb. ! All districts of Chota Nagpiir ! Angul ! 

 Doubtless, therefore, throughout the whole province. Fr. Aiig.-Pe^c. The fronds 

 are annnal. 



The leaves and rhachides are often sparsely hairy beneath. 



2. L. japonicum, Sw. 



A small form in which the secondary (divaricate) pinnae are not 

 more than 6" long in the mature plant, the pinnules never exceed 2" 

 in length or the terminal 2-5" and the sporangial spikes stand on 

 distinct lobes of the pinna ; which is usually much more deeply lobed 

 than in flexuosum. 



Purneah, frequent ! 



This plant, although it at once strikes one as distinct in the field, is probably 

 only a variety of flexuosum and is difficult to define. The fertile segments are 

 often more finely cut and frequently hairy beneath, and sometimes each pinna la 

 3-pinnate and also pinnatifid — ^a very pretty form. In some Cliinese specimens 

 the barren portion of the lamina is almost absent. 



3. L. raicrophyllum, R. Br. 



A very graceful fern with twining fronds as in the last but more 

 delicate. Main pinna ending in a tuft of golden hairs, lateral pinnae 

 3-6" with a delicate zigzag rhachis, simply pinnate only and with 

 more slender stalks to the pinnules. Pinnules broadly ovate to lanceo- 

 late-ovate, sometimes as broad as long, barren ones not exceeding 1" 

 or terminal 1-5" and bifurcate, margin minutely crenulate, texture 

 membranous, fertile orbicular or ovate • 5- • 7" long. Stalks of pinnules 

 •1--2", very slender. 



Often festooning bushes and other creepers near the sides of streams in 

 Punieah ! Fr. Nov.-Dec. 



FAM. 6. MARATTIACEiE. 



Usually very large ferns with erect rhizome or short stem, rarely 

 with creeping rhizome. Leaves circinate in bud and covered when 

 very young by the well-developed stiptiles, pinnately compound 

 (rarely entire or palmate outside our area), stipes or base of pinnae 

 with a swollen articulation. Sori dorsal on a round or elongate re- 

 ceptacle, usually on the more or less parallel free veins but sometimes 

 veins copiously anastomosing and sori on the anastomosis, either of 

 more or less free 2 -ranked sporangia or united into a chambered 

 " synangium." Synangium hollow in the middle or opening by 2 

 valves, or by pores to each chamber. Sporangia if free opening 

 introrsely by a slit. Indusium or slight. 



The Maruttiacece have several peculiar anatomical characters different from true 

 ferns. Moreover the sporangia proceed from a group of cells, and the arche- 

 sporium (cell from which the spores collectively develop) is the hypodermal terminal 

 cell of an axile row of the rudimentary sporangium {Eusporanqiate). In the tnie 

 ferns (also in Sulrimacece and Marsiliacece, Leptosporanc/iate Filicinece) the spor- 

 angia are formed from a single epidermal cell and have a peculiarly shaped, usually 

 tetrahedral archesporium. These characters are considered of so great importance 



1212 



