FERNS. 139 
leave merely a small opening or hollow for the reception of the 
solitary or two or three sporecases. (Gleichenia flabellata might 
be compared to a miniature-palm in habit, and differs widely 
from the two others by the long segments of the pinne, and besides 
in the more copious fruitlets. Gleichenia was dedicated to Colonel 
Baron von Gleichen, a microscopic investigator of cryptogamic 
plants in Germany last century. The fruitlets of the Gleicheni- 
aceee are not of the transparency usual in polypodiaceous Ferns. 
Our only osmundaceous plant is one of the most remarkable 
productions of the whole vegetable empire, the Todea Africana 
(or Osmunda barbara). Its stems are often as broad as high 
and those of colossal specimens may be crowned by a hundred 
fronds or more. Instances are on record of stems without fronds 
having exceeded the weight of one ton, by accumulated growth 
_ during half a century or perhaps longer periods. These huge 
massive and bulky stem-blocks can be transferred from the 
deep boggy irrigated valleys of our forests to wide distances in 
full vitality, as first shown by the writer, and they thus adorn 
many a conservatory now in Britain and other countries. Our 
species is confined to South Africa, South and Hast Australia 
and New Zealand. The genus Todea bears the name of a North 
German divine of the last century in commemoration of his study 
and descriptions of many fungi and other acotyledonous plants. 
It differs merely from Osmunda in fruits not forming terminal 
masses distinct from the broader sterile portions of the fronds. 
Our two Schizeeas are meager plants without leafy fronds, and 
are not likely to attract the attention of Fern-collectors. Schizea 
jistulosa has usually quite undivided stems, while the narrow 
segments of the sterile fronds of Schiz@a dichotoma (or 8. bifida) 
are dichotomously arranged. Finally allusion remains to be 
made to the Addertongue-Fern, Ophioglossum vulgatum, a small 
plantlet, the frond of which consists of a single oval or lanceolar 
blade, while the terminal fruit spike has given rise to the generic 
appellation. 
Among Lycopodiaceze we have representatives of Phylloglos- 
sum, Lycopodium, Selaginella and Tmesipteris. Phylloglossum 
Drummondi is a minute plant, easily overlooked, with narrow 
