CHAPTER XLIII 



ONOCLEOID FERNS 



This Family is represented only by two genera, comprising five species : 

 3ut they merit a separate treatment in virtue of the distinctive nature and 

 comparative value of the features which they show. They have been classed 

 by Diels in the Woodsieae, as a sub-tribe Onocleinae, parallel with the 

 Woodsiinae; but he wisely remarks that the relationship is exceedingly 

 doubtful. That there is some degree of affinity with these there can be no 

 doubt, but it reflects more clearly the common source from which they both 

 sprang, than any intimate and direct relation between them as they now 

 stand. Both may best be held as derivatives from a common Cyatheoid 

 ancestry. The two genera of Onocleoid Ferns are Matteuccia Todaro 

 (= Striithiopteris Willd.), with three older species, to which C. Christensen 

 has lately added a fourth : three are from Asia, the other is the Ostrich Fern 

 {M. striithiopteris (L.) Todaro), from Europe, Asia, and America: and 

 Onoclea L. with a single species from North America and Eastern Asia. They 

 inhabit northern or mountainous stations, with which their seasonal leaf- 

 fall is in accord. The family, though few in species, is of wide distribution: 

 this fact suggests antiquity of origin, but there is no very early palaeonto- 

 logical record, though Onoclea has been recognised from Lower Tertiary 

 rocks in America. (See Seward, Mem. Geol. Siirv. Scotland, 1924, Ch. IV, 

 P- 74-) 



Matteuccia Todaro 

 The best known species is M. striithiopteris (L.) Todaro, the Ostrich 

 Fern, which has been described in detail by Luerssen {Rab. Krypt. FI. Ill, 

 p. 482), and by Campbell {Mem. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. IV, 1887). It is illus- 

 trated in Fig. 678, A-F. M. orientalis (Hk.) Trev. and M. intermedia C. Chr. 

 are less familiar, and they will be more particularly described here, since 

 they present features important for comparison. M. orientalis is a coarse- 

 growing Fern of about the same dimensions as M. striithiopteris. It has an 

 obliquely ascending or upright stock completely covered by the bases of 

 densely tufted leaves. No runners have been observed like those which are 

 a marked feature in the Ostrich Fern, as also in certain Cyatheoids. The 

 leaf-bases are enlarged, and bear rough brownish outgrowths, recalling the 

 pneumatophores of Plagiogyria (Vol. II, Fig. 543). The leaf-bases are 

 covered by broad chaffy scales. The simply pinnate leaves are dimorphic: 

 the broad pinnae of the sterile leaves are deeply pinnatifid, with open 



