TORREYA 



Vol. 19 No. I 



January, 1919 



THE PALA OR MULE'S-FOOT FERN {Marattia Doug- 



lasii (Presl.) Baker) IN THE HAWAHAN 



ARCHIPELAGO 



By Vaughan MacCaughey 

 College of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 



The Hawaiian ferns have constituted an interesting subject 

 of botanical investigation for over a century. There have been 

 few studies, however, of specific ferns or fern groups.^ The 

 present paper aims to give a concise account of the "mule's-foot" 

 fern or pala {Marattia Douglasii (Presl.) Baker). This species 

 is of particular interest because it is the sole representative, in 

 the present Hawaiian flora, of an extremely important group of 

 pteridophytes, namely, the Marattiales. Moreover, it also oc- 

 curs in the Fiji Islands, and this fact raises some interesting ques- 

 tions as to its geographic dissemination. The pala was also used 

 as food and medicine by the primitive Hawaiians. Finally, 

 Campbell's^ studies of the gametophyte stage have given local 

 workers a special interest in this fern. 



In early geologic periods Marattiaceous ferns abounded, and 

 comprised an important element in the luxuriant fern jungles of 

 those times. They were very abundant in the Pennsylvanian 

 (Upper Carboniferous), in the Triassic (Rhetic), and in the Meso- 

 zoic of India. A survey of the geological record shows that the 

 present-day Marattiales are but scant and skrunken remnants 

 of a magnificent vanished flora. 



The ancient and primitive family Marattiaceae is represented 



' MacCaughey, V. Genus Gleichenia in the Hawaiian Islands. Torreya i8: 

 41-52. 1918. 



2 Campbell, D. H. Observations on the development of Marattia douglasii 

 Baker. Ann. Hot. 8: i. 1894. 



[No. 12, Vol.18 of Torreya, comprising pp. 231-258, was issued 21 January 1919I 



1 



