BRANCH PTERIDOPHYTA. 



Plant containing woody tissue and vessels in the stem and pro- 

 ducing spores asexually, which, on germination, develop very 

 small flat mostly green structures called prothallia, on which are 

 borne the sexual reproductive organs from which the asexual 

 plant is developed. The sexual plant is rarely collected, and the 

 classification is based mainly on the characters of the asexual plant. 



Class i. FIUCINEAE. 



Plant highly organized, vascular, with green, usually large 

 leaves: spores borne within the tissue of, or in modified hairs on, 

 modified or unmodified foliage leaves: stem solid, underground (in 

 ours). 



Order i. OPHIOGEOSSEAE. 



Plant consisting of an underground stem bearing one or more 

 leaves which rise above ground and are divided usually into two 

 parts, a fertile portion and a sterile portion, the latter being the foliage 

 part of the leaf; frequently the fertile portion lacking in some of the 

 leaves: sporangia borne within the tissue of the fertile portion, 

 ring-less, opening by a transverse slit. 



Family i. OPHIOGEOSSACEAE. 

 Characters of the Order. 



i. BOTRYCHIUM. 



Rootstock very short, with clustered fleshy roots: sterile part of 

 the leaf ternately or pinnately divided or compound; veins free: 

 fertile segment 1-3-pinnate, each pinnule bearing a double row of 

 sessile sporangia; spores numerous, sulphur-yellow. 



B. COlllteri Underwood. Stout, fleshy, 12-18 cm. high: stem very short 

 and stout, swollen with the contained hud of the succeeding season : leaves 

 one or two, their petioles stout, 2-5 cm. long; sterile blades 10-15 cm. wide, 

 scarcely as long, ternate, the primary divisions tripinnate or quadripinnati- 

 fid; ultimate segments obliquely ovate, 1-1.5 cm - l° n g> thick, entire or 

 nearly so, the veins few, obscure: sporophyll erect, the petiole stout, the 



