436 



OPHIOGLOSSALES 



and insertion of the parts could be accurately drawn. Now it is to be 

 noted that not one of its spikes is actually marginal, but each is inserted 

 upon the upper surface, just within the margin ; that is most clearly 

 so in the lower spikes, while the two lowest are seated near to the 

 median line, and with their stalks so near to one another as to be even 

 slightly united at the base. From the above specimens it will be sufficiently 



II G 





FIG. 238. 



Ophioglossum palmatum, L. Drawings, slightly reduced, of specimens in the Kew 

 Herbarium (excepting B, which is in the British Museum), showing the various arrange- 

 ments of fertile spikes, and their insertion as a rule intra-marginal. 



clear that though the fertile spikes may occasionally be marginal, the 

 large majority of them are inserted upon the upper surface of the sterile 

 frond, while the lowest are commonly most near to the median line. 



There is a rough, though not exact, parallelism between the number of 

 fertile spikes on a frond and the number of lobes of the sterile portion. 

 In Fig. 238 c there are two lobes of the latter, and a single fertile spike; 

 in Fig. 238 D, four lobes of the sterile (two incompletely separate), and 

 two fertile spikes ; in Fig. 238 E, two lobes of the sterile frond, and 

 three fertile spikes ; in Fig. 238 F, seven ill-defined lobes of the sterile 

 and eight fertile spikes ; in Fig. 238 G, eight lobes of the sterile frond, 



