5o6 



FILICALES 



The leaves are produced in the usual acropetal order, and show great 

 diversity of outline, though conforming to a common type. The leaf-base 

 in all cases bears stipular enlargements laterally, which are connected 

 across the adaxial face of the petiole by a transverse commissure (Fig. 276). 

 Though these are characteristic for all the Marattiaceae when mature, 

 they are absent from the first, and often from the second leaf of the 

 seedling. They remain persistent after the upper leaf decays, in close 

 relation to the smooth scar which marks its attachment. 



FIG. 274. 



Angiopleris Teysmanniana, de Vriese. A= habit of a small plant, reduced to one- 

 twentieth ; 5 = part of a pinna, natural size. (From Bitter, in Engler and Prantl, Nat. 

 PJlanzenfam.} 



The upper leaf of the living genera varies considerably. The base 

 of the leaf-stalk, and often the bases of the pinnae also, bear fleshy 

 swellings or pulvini : here the stalk breaks on decay, leaving a clean scar, 

 as above noted. The texture of the leaf is usually leathery, but Danaea 

 trichomanoides shows a thin and almost filmy character of the foliage, 

 in obvious adaptation to its moist habitat. The leaf may be simply 

 ovate, with marked midrib and acuminate apex, as in D. simplicifolia 

 (Fig. 277): or it may be simply pinnate, as in D. alata (Fig. 275), 

 or Archangiopteris : or the pinnation may be repeated, as in Angiopteris 

 (Fig. 274), or Marattia. In large plants the leaf may in the latter attain a 

 high complexity of branching, while its length may be as much as fifteen 

 feet. In Kaulfussia the outline of the leaf differs from all the rest : 



