72 MATONINE^. 



A. Genera assigned to ^existing families. 



FamUy MATONINE^. 



Sori borne on the under surface of ordinary fronds, composed of 

 a few comparatively large sporangia, witli tetrahedral spores, sessile 

 on a central columnar receptacle, which in the recent genus 

 Matonia spreads out into an umbrella - like indusium, with the 

 recurved margin tucked in below the ring of sporangia. Sporangia 

 characterized by an obliquely vertical incomplete annulus. 



The recent Malayan fern Matonia pectinata, E. Br., first described 

 by Eobert Brown ' in "WaUich's Plantm Asiatics rariores has long 

 been recognized as a species which shares certain characters with 

 the Cyatheacese and other families, but differs in some of its features 

 from other members of the PUices. Moore' referred this species 

 to a special tribe, Matonineae, and in recent years Baker, Christ, 

 and others have treated the genus Matonia as the type of a distinct 

 family, exhibiting points of contact with both the Cyatheacese 

 and Gleicheniacese. In 1888' a second species, Matonia sarmentosa, 

 Baker, was discovered by Mr. Charles Hose at Mah, Sarawak, in 

 Borneo ; this fern agrees in the structure of the sori with the 

 older species, but is strikingly unlike it in the form of the fronds. 

 It is of interest to note that the anatomical structure ' of Matonia 

 pectinata entirely confirms the conclusions as to the isolated position 

 of this species among existing ferns, which were based entirely on 

 external characters. Comparisons have often been made between 

 Matonia pectinata and various Mesozoic species ; these rest not 

 merely on a similarity or identity of habit, but on the more 

 trustworthy resemblance of the sori and sporangia. Solms-Laubach* 

 cites the genera Laccopteris, Selenocarpus, Andriania, Clathropteris, 

 and BictyopTiyllum as leptosporangiate ferns which agree in certain 



1 Brown, in Wallich (30), vol. i. p. 16. 



2 Moore (57), p. 106. 



3 Baker (88), p. 256. 

 * Seward (99). 



' Solms-Lautach (91), p. 154. 



