302 FERN FAMILY. 



9. Fruit-dots separate or laterally confluent at or near the margin of (he frond, 

 borne on the ends of the veins, or on the tnd* of very short side-vtinlets : the 

 indusium attached at ilie base or base and sidts, and opening toward the mar- 

 gin of the fi-uitful portion of the frond. 



80. DAVALLIA. Indnsium of a single piece, flattish or often convex and shaped 

 like half a goblet cut lengtliwi.se. Exotic Fern?, mostly decompound. 



21. DICKSOXIA. Indusium united by its sides with a little lobe or tooth of the 



frond, forming a minute 2-lipped cup, at first nearly or quite closed, opening 

 as the spore-cases ripen. Large Ferns, native or exotic, some of the latter 

 arborescent. 



II. CYATHEACE^or TREE FERNS: with erect and tree- 

 like stems, often many feet high. Fruit-dots round, not marginal, 

 naked, or with an involucre placed beneath the stalked spore-cases, 

 which are seated on a globose or elevated receptacle, have a some- 

 what oblique complete ring, and burst open transversely. 



22. CYATHEA. Fruit-dots on a vein or in the forking of a vein, at first enclosed 



in a globose involucre, which opens at the top, and remains cup-shaped with 

 an entire or broken edge. 



23. ALSOPHILA. Fruit-dots as on the last, but entirely naked, or with a rudi- 



mentary indusium consisting of a minute scale beneath the spore-cases: 

 veins free. 



III. HYMENOPHYLLACE^E, or FILMY FERNS: these 

 have very delicate and tran.-lucent fronds, the short-pedicelled spore- 

 cases growing on a short or long thread-like receptacle, included in 

 a goblet-shaped or 2-lipped involucre, and furnished with a complete 

 transverse or slightly oblique ring. 



24. TRICHOMANES. Fruit-dots marginal, at the end of a vein, which extends 



through the funnel-form or goblet-shaped involucre, as a thread-like recepta- 

 cle bearing the spore-cases ; involucres sunken more or less in the frond, and 

 of the same pellucid texture. 



IV. SCHIZ^SACE^: : mostly small Ferns, or else with climb 

 ing fronds. Spore-cases ovate, sessile, having a complete transverse, 

 articulated ring or cap at the apex, and opening by a longitudinal 

 slit. 



* Ferns with elegant climbing fronds, rising from slender creeping rootstocks: spore- 

 cases fxed by their side. 



25. LYGODIUM. Pinnae, or fron diets in pairs. Spore-cases covered bv imbri- 



cating scale-like indusia in a double row on narrow lobes of the froncl. 

 # Not climbing : rootstock short : fronds clustered : spore-casts fxed by their base : 

 no indvsnun. 



26. ANEIMIA. Spore-cases on the narrow panic-led branches of the lowest pair of 



pinnae of the 1-3 pinnate frond, or on separate fronds. 



27. SCHI/.KA. Spore-case* in : \ double row on the narrow divisions of a pinnate 



or rarely pedate special appendage to the simple and linear, or fan-shaped, 

 and sometimes many-forked frond. 



V. OSMUNDACE^E, or FLOWERING FERNS: raiher large 

 Ferns; the spore-cases covered with reticulated ridge-, opening 

 longitudinally info two valves, and with no ring, or a mnv vestige 

 of a transverse ring at the back. 



2. OSMUNDA. RooNtoek very thick, creeping, the growing end producing a 

 crown of tall showy fronds. Fertile fronds or parts of fronds contracted. 

 pinnately compound, the narrow often thread-like divisions densely covered 

 with nearly sessile spore-cases. 



