Ophioglossum. | FILICES. 1027 
two portions: one a leafy more or less expanded sterile lamina, 
with reticulated venation ; the other a narrow and much-contracted 
spike-like fertile part, which is inserted on the petiole or lamina of 
the sterile portion by a peduncle of variable length. Sporangia 
closely packed in 2 rows on the fertile spike and partly im- 
bedded in its tissue, globose, not annulate, dehiscing by a trans- 
verse slit ; spores numerous, tetrahedral. 
A small genus, widely spread in both temperate and tropical regions. 
There is much uncertainty as to the limits of the species, which are estimated 
by some authors at 8-10, and by others at 30 or more. In the present work I 
have followed Mr. Baker in treating the New Zealand species as forms only of 
the northern O. lusitanicuwm and O. vulgatwm; but in Prantl’s revision of the 
genus, given in the Jahrbuch of the Botanical Garden of Berlin for 1884, an 
arrangement which is now largely followed by Huropean botanists, they are 
considered to be distinct. Prantl’s classification depends largely on characters 
drawn from the rhizome, the venation of the sterile frond, and the size of 
the spores, and is somewhat difficult to use in the absence of authenticated 
specimens. 
Fronds 34-5in.; sterile lamina }-2in. x }-4in., linear- 
lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, attenuated at the base. 
Fertile spike +-# in. “a or 56 2: 
Fronds 4-10in.; sterile lamina }-3in. x 4-1} in., ovate, 
shortly cuneate at the base. Fertile spike #-ldin. .. 2. O. vulgatwm. 
1. O. lusitanicum. 
1. O. lusitanicum, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1518.—Rhizome cylindric, 
suberect, slightly tuberous ; roots fleshy. Fronds 1-3 from the rhi- 
zome, 4—9 in. long including the petiole and fertile spike ; the sterile 
lamina usually placed below the middle and often conspicuously 
so, ¢-2in. long, 4-4in. broad, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or 
oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, narrowed into a long cuneate 
base, fleshy and coriaceous. Veins indistinct, reticulated in narrow 
areoles. Fertile spike +-in. long, on a long slender peduncle 
inserted at the base of the sterile lamina and much exceeding it 
when mature. Sporangia 6-15 in each row.—Hook. and Bak. Syn. 
Fil. 445; Thoms. N.Z. Ferns, 98; Field, N.Z. Ferns, 155, t. 21, 
f. 7. O. vulgatum, var. gramineum, lusitanicum, and minimum, 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 50; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 386. O. coria- 
ceum, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 161. O. minimum, Col. ex Hook. and 
Bak. Syn. Fil. 445. O. minimum, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii- 
(1881) 342. 
KermMapec Isnanps, NorrH AND SovurH Isnanps: Not uncommon 
throughout, ascending to 3500 ft. 
This, so far as New Zealand is concerned, consists of the varieties 
gramineum, lusitanicum, and minimum of the O. vulgatum of the Flora and 
the Handbook. Prantl considered the first two to form a distinct species, for 
which he retained Cunningham’s name of O. coriacewm. He further suggested 
that var. minimum might be identical with his O. lanceolatwm, from northern 
Queensland, but without access to the original specimens it is impossible to 
decide. O. coriacewm is also found in Australia and South America. 
