FILICES. 143 



GENUS XVI.— I* OMAKIA. Willd. 



Fronds produced from the apex of the caudex, which is frequently 

 elongated and woody, tufted, rarely solitary, dimorphous, the female 

 or fertile ones contracted. Stipes not articulated to the caudex, veins 

 of the sterile frond forked, free, those of the fertile frond anasto- 

 mosing so as to form a continuous flexuous vein on each side of the 

 midrib, and parallel to the margin of the segment. Sori linear, 

 continuous, attached to the inner side of the above-mentioned vein, 

 concealed by the reflexed margin of the frond. Indusium attached 

 along the vein which bears the sori, opening towards the midrib. 



Name from AS/xa (loma), a margin or border, from the reflexed margin of the frond. 



SPECIES L— L OMARIA SPICANT. Demaux. 



Plate 1885. 



Babenh. Crypt. Yasc. Europ. Exsicc. No. 91. 

 L. borealis, Link, Hort. Berol. Vol. II. p. 80. 

 Blechnum Spicant, Both. Moore, Nat. Print. Brit. Ferns, 8vo. ed. Vol. II. p. 211. 



Newm. Hist. Brit. Ferns, ed. iii. p. 17. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 83. Koch, 



Syn. FL Germ, et Helv. ed. ii. p. 981. Gren. & Godr. Fl. Fr. Vol. III. p. 639. 



Babenh. 1. c. No. 91. 

 B. boreale ; Sicartz. Sm. Eng. Bot. ed. i. No. 1159 ; Eng. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 316. Bab. 



Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vii. p. 453. 

 Osmunda Spicant, Linn. Spec. Plant. No. 1522. 



Caudex short, thick, divided into numerous short branches or scaly 

 crowns ; scales subulate, acuminated into long slender points, dentate. 

 Fronds of two kinds, many produced from each crown. Barren 

 fronds spreading. Stipes short, one- twelfth to one-third the length of 

 the lamina, with numerous scales at the base, and a few narrower de- 

 ciduous ones above, purplish-brown. Lamina strapshaped, attenuated 

 towards the base and apex or elliptical-linear, dark green above, paler 

 beneath, coriaceous, glabrous, evergreen, pinnatipartite ; segments 

 strapshaped or linear, falcate, contiguous, adherent by their whole 

 base, obtuse and apiculate, each with a midrib giving off veins which 

 are once-forked and do not anastomose. Rachis green and channelled 

 above, brown in the lower portion beneath. Fertile fronds longer than 

 the barren ones from the same caudex, erect, with a stipes from one- 

 third the length of to as long as the lamina. Lamina strapshaped, 

 attenuated towards the base and apex, coriaceous, perishing in 

 autumn, pectinate-pinnate or pectinate-pinnatipartite : segments 

 distant, linear, contracted, with dilated bases adnate to the rachis, 



