IX. M^RATTIA.OEAE. 



Sori on the under surface of normal fronds, round or oblong, con- 

 sisting of + 6—24 free or connected capsules placed in a whorl or in 2 

 close rows ; indusium wanting or minute, consisting of 2 opposite, flat, entire, 

 or deeply fimbriate, inconspicuous, inferior scales, adpressed to the parenchy- 

 ma; annulus wanting; sporangia opening by a slit down the inner side or 

 by a pore at the apex. 



Rhizome erect or creeping. Stipes with 2 large, stout stipules. Fronds 

 either large and pinnately divided or small and simple or digitate; leaflets 

 often articulate; veins free or anastomosing. 



Tropical, and extra-tropical in the southern hemisphere. 



Key to the genera. 



a. Sporangia 2-serial, contiguous but not concrete. Fronds large, pinnately 

 divided; veins free. No. 90. Aiigiopteris. 



a.a. Sporangia concrete, joined in 2-valved or circular synangia. 



b. Synangia 2-vaIved. Fronds large, pinnately divided; veins free. 



No. 91. Marattia. 



6.6. Synangia circular. Fronds small, simple, ternate or quinate ; veins 



anastomosing. No. 92. Christensenia. 



Q(>. J^IVGHOPTERIS, Hofftnanu. 



Capsules sessile, not concrete, closely placed in 2 contiguous rows, 2 — 10 

 in a row, forming roundish or oblong, submarginal sori, opening by a 

 slit down the inner side. Indusium minute, squamiform or deeply fimbriate. 



Caudex short, thick, often semiglobose. Stipes flanked by 2 large, firm 

 stipulae at the base. Fronds 'large, 2— 3-pinnate; veins free, simple or forked' 

 not rarely accompanied by intermediate spurious veins (recurrent veinlets) 

 running from the margin in the direction of the costa. Hk. Bk., Syn. Pil., 

 tab. IX,i fig. 69; Diets, in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pfl.Fatn., I*, fig. 238, A & 

 239, A— B. 



