AUSTRALIAN EER^S. 81 



The fronds are glabrous, lanceolate, sub-bipinnate, sometimes ex- 

 ceeding three feet in length, and dilated at the base, where is 

 formed an erect caudiciform rhizome. The sori, which are pedi- 

 celled or stalked, are confined to the inferior pinnules of the 

 frond. This genus was named in honour of Henry Julius Tode, 

 of Mecklenburg, an experienced mycologist. Nearly allied to 

 Todea, is the beautiful species now called Leptopteris Fraseri, in 

 which the spore-cases are placed upon the veins without forming 

 distinct sori, and the fronds are beautifully translucent. This is 

 one of our most admired ferns, and the fronds, which are very 

 delicate and membranous, sometimes measure three feet. The 

 term Leptopteris is derived from leptos, slender, said, pteris, a fern, 

 and the specific name is in honour of the late Mr. Eraser. Miss 

 Atkinson found some fine plants of this species at the Kurrajong. 

 L. liymenopliylloides is a native of New Zealand, and differs but 

 little from an allied plant recently collected at Aneiteum. 



SUB-ORDER 14. Danceacece, 



This is a small group, and the few genera of it are so well 

 marked, that they may be recognised in almost every stage of 

 their growth. The fructification consists of large sessile or 

 pedicellate spore-cases, which are either horny, opaque, distinct 

 and unilocular, or laterally and oppositely connate, so becoming 

 multilocular. Marattia elegans, or M. salicina of this suborder, 

 is an ornamental plant with glabrous fronds, bi-tripinnate, six to 

 nine feet high and darkish green. This species was supposed to 

 be peculiar to Norfolk Island and New Zealand, but it was sub- 

 sequently found at the Island of Ascension, and now within the 

 last year, it has been discovered on the North-east coast of Aus- 

 tralia. M. cicutcefolia is from Brazil, and M. alata from Jamaica. 

 It is said that " if a bulb of M. alata be examined, the base will be 

 found composed of two or more imbricating concave scales, within 

 which the first frond is more or less completely enclosed by two 

 lobes arising on each side at the base. These are never circinate, 

 and cannot be regarded as inferior pinnae, but rather as appendages 

 of the rhizoma, as they grow beneath the point at which the stem 

 disarticulates. In. Ml. cristata, the edge at length becomes green 

 foliacequs, and variously lobed and crisped." (Berkeley's Crypto- 

 gamic Botany, p. 523). The large rhizoma of M. salicina is pre- 

 pared and eaten as food by the New Zealanders. Angiopteris 

 L 



