THE ADULT SPOROPHYTE 89 



very rare. It has been collected in various parts of South America and in the West 

 Indies, and apparently the same species is knovs^n also from the Island of Bourbon 

 and from the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The specimens from which the 

 figures and descriptions given here were made were collected in the summer of 1908 

 in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, and were found in one place only, growing upon 

 a rotten tree stump. 



The rhizome in Ophioglossum palmatum is an almost globular tuber, which is 

 radially constructed and in this respect resembles that of Euophioglossum more 

 than that of Ophioderma. The leaf bases are covered with long brown hairs, which 

 give a characteristic appearance to the rhizome. The roots are numerous and more 

 slender than those of Ophioglossum pendulum. They are sparingly branched and 

 the branching may have the appearance of a true dichotomy, but the material 

 available did not allow of a critical investigation of this point. However, since 

 in Euophioglossum the branching of the roots is actually dichotomous, it is not 

 impossible that the same may be true in Cheiroglossa. The smaller roots, as in 

 0. pendulum, are diarch and, as in all of the other forms, a mycorrhiza is developed 

 in the cortical region. 



In sections of one of the largest roots available the bundle was triarch. This 

 root was rather young and the tracheary tissue was only partially lignified. The 

 mycorrhiza was also less evident than in the smaller roots taken from a younger 

 plant. Two young plants were found which probably had arisen from buds upon 

 the roots of the older sporophyte. One of these is shown in figure 70, A. It had 

 developed a single nearly lanceolate leaf very much like the early leaves of 0. 

 pendulum. A single root had developed near the base of the leaf and this was joined 

 to the small globular rhizome. A second root could be seen above this, but whether 

 this second root belonged to the leaf or was part of the root upon which the bud had 

 arisen could not be determined. 



The older leaves may reach a length of 60 centimeters or more (plate 5). They 

 are more or less deeply palmately cleft into narrow segments, which give the leaf a 

 curious superficial resemblance to certain kelps, such as Laminaria digitata. The 

 base of the fan-shaped lamina is abruptly narrowed into a nearly cylindrical petiole, 

 about equal in length to the lamina itself. The venation is rather of the type of 

 0. vulgatum, having numbers of free veins in addition to the elongated closed meshes. 



In some of the smaller leaves (plate 5, 3) there is present a single small median 

 spike, which, like that of O. pendulum, has a short peduncle, but it is inserted below 

 the lamina, in this respect again being more like Euophioglossum. In the larger leaves 

 there are several sporangial spikes arranged in a series on either side of the petiole, 

 usually below the insertion of the lamina, but sometimes some of them are inserted 

 above the junction of the lamina and the petiole. Bower (Bower 9, page 436) has 

 figured a series of specimens of this species showing the great variation in the number 

 and arrangement of the spikes. He emphasizes the fact that although these spikes 

 are apparently marginal, in reality they always arise from the adaxial side of the 

 leaf. He shows that in this species also there may be a branching of the individual 

 spikes similar to that which occurs in Ophioglossum pendulum and less frequently 

 in certain species of Euophioglossum. 



THE ANATOMY OF EUOPHIOGLOSSUM 



The stem apex of the adult plant has been repeatedly studied in the widespread 

 Ophioglossum vulgatum, but there is little information in regard to this point in 

 other species. From a somewhat careful examination of 0. moluccanum it is evident 

 that this species agrees closely with 0. vulgatum, and a study by one of my students, 



