FLORA OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



This well-known term covers conveniently a number of Divisions in Engler's classifi- 

 cation dealing with plants which have no real flowers and whose most visible means of 

 reproduction are spores or reproductive cells. Cryptogams which are composed only of 

 cellular tissue include Algae (Seaweeds, &c), Fungi (Mushrooms, &c), Bryophyta (Mosses 

 and Liverworts), and Characeae (Stoneworts), all of which lie outside the scope of this 

 flora. Only the Vascular Cryptogams are here dealt with. 



Division 1— PTERIDOPHYTA. 



Plants without flowers, but with closed vascular bundles in the stems and leaves ; 

 reproduction effected by spores in the asexual generation (which is the conspicuous plant). 

 From the spore is developed a minute growth (the prothallus), which bears archegonia 

 (female organs) and antheridia (male organs) and is, therefore, the sexual generation 

 (the gametophyte) ; the fertilisation of the egg produced in the former by a sperm freed 

 from the latter results in an oospore (zygote) which develops into the asexual plant. The 

 asexual or embryonal generation (the sporophyte) is the only one here described. 



Class FILICALES. 

 Fructification consisting of small spore-cases (sporangia), arranged on the under surface 

 of the fertile leaves in clusters called sori, which are sometimes covered, when young, by 

 a thin membrane called the indusium, or by the recurved border of the leaf ; spores very 

 minute, numerous in each spore -case. Perennial plants, sometimes arborescent ; leaves 

 radical or alternate, usually rolled inwards like the head of a crozier before their develop- 

 ment and the petiole more or less covered with membraneous scales. 



Family 1— CYATHEACEAE. 



Spore-cases with a complete oblique ring and usually with an indusium. Tree ferns, 

 with divided leaves. 



1. DICKSONIA, L' Her. 



(After James Dickson, an English cryptogamic botanist). 

 I. D. antarctica, Labill. (1810). An arborescent fern with long rigid leaves twice 

 or thrice pinnatisect ; sori marginal on the concave lobes of the pinnules ; indusium 

 globular, about 1 mm. diam. D. Billardieri, F. v. M. (1874). 



Recorded by Bentham for " Mount Gambier, F. Mueller ; Lofty Ranges, Heyne" 

 Already in 1890 Tate wrote (Fl. 201), " Here probably extinct." I have seen no specimen. 

 Mueller's statement, published in 1874 (Fragm. viii., 175), is that a few specimens had been 

 found " at the waterfalls of Mount Lofty " by E. B. Heyne. 



Family 2.— POLYPODIACEAE. 



Spore -cases with an incomplete longitudinal ring, stalked and numerous in sori on the 

 under surface or margin of the leaves, with or without an indusium. Ferns. 

 A. Sori marginal. 



B. Sori covered by an indusium at least when young. 



C. Indusium opening outwards (towards the margin). . Lindsaya 1. 

 C. Indusium opening inwards (towards the midrib). 

 D. Sori short. 



Pinnules stalked Adiantum 2. 



Pinnules sessile Cheilanthes 3. 



D. Sori long and usually continuous. 

 Indusium single. 



Veins all free Pteris 4. 



Lower veins anastomosing Histiopteris 5. 



Indusium double Pteridium 6. 



B. Sori without indusium Notholaena 7. 



A. Sori distant from the margin, or covering the under- 

 surface. 



E. Indusium present. 



F. Sori long, linear or oblong. 



Sori on both sides of the midrib Blechnum 8. 



Sori on nerves diverging from midrib .... Asplenium 9. 



