The stem is completely covered by the conspicuous, dark, 

 fleshy auricles (stipules) and leaf-bases. The petioles arise from 

 among the brownish or purplish auricles. After the fall of the 

 leaf the fleshy base remains ali\c and often gives rise to adven- 

 titious buds. Hooker, in descrii)ing the stipules of M. piirpur- 

 ascens De Vriesc states that they may become "leafy at the mar- 

 gin, lobcd and crestd, green, sometimes even becoming sorif- 

 erous pinnules." The leaf-bases of the pala have been well de- 

 scribed by Camptell •} 



"The leaves are furnished at the base with very conspicuous 

 fleshy stipules which remain adhering to the stem after the leaf 

 has fallen away, and these leaf-bases, with their attached stip- 

 ules, more or less completely cover the surface of the stem. As 

 the leaves fall away they leave a characteristic scar marked by 

 the remains of the vascular bundles. The leaf-base as well as 

 the stalks of the leaflets show a more or less marked enlarge- 

 ment, recalling the pulvinus which occurs so comm.only in the 

 Leguminosae. It is at this point that the leaf-stalk separates, 

 the smaller divisions of the leaf often breaking away from the 

 main or secondary rachis, in the same fashion as the main leaf- 

 stalk falls. In the large species of Marattia and Angiopteris 

 this enlarged leaf-base with the two thick, fleshy stipules curi- 

 ously resembles in shape and size the hoof of a horse," 



The present writer would suggest that the comparison with a 

 mule's hoof would be more apt, and proposes as the common 

 name, "Mule's-foot" Fern. 



The thick, fleshy auricles are richly supplied with starch and 

 mucilage, and were used by the primitive Hawaiians as an article 

 of food, when other food supplies were lacking. The "mule's 

 feet" were baked in hot ashes, whereupon they became very pal- 

 atable. The writer has frequently eaten baked pala, and can 

 testify to its excellence. The pala stipules were also used med- 

 icinally, for bronchial and intestinal catarrh. Slices soaked in 

 cold water soon impart their mucilage to the liquid, and form a 

 pleasant drink. 



In cross section the starchy, watery stem shows a complicated 

 system of steles, arranged in concentric circles. Sclerenchyma 

 is absent from its ground tissue. 



1 D. H. Campbell. The Eusporangiatae, 191 1, p. 118. 



