1. Schizaea. 



SCHJZAEACEAE. 



41 



slit. 



Family 4— SCHIZAEACEAE. 



Spore-cases sessile, with a small complete ring at the summit, opening by a longitudinal 



(Greek skhizo, I cut ; alluding to the contiguous segments of the fertile leaves.) 



1. SCHIZAEA Sm. 



1. Sch. fistulosa, Labill. Comb Fern. A small fern 

 about 15 cm. high, with slender usually undivided 

 wiry leaves, the sterile ones without any lamina, the 

 fertile ones longer and bearing at the summit 6-20 

 pairs of closely contiguous linear fringed segments, 3-5 

 mm. long ; spore-cases in 2 rows covering the inner 

 surface of the segments and in 5-10 pairs. 



Peaty soil at Square Waterhole ; Clarendon. A 

 specimen from Mount Compass has the leaf once 

 forked below the middle, which brings it near to Sch. 

 bifida, Swartz, but in other respects it agrees with Sch. 

 fistulosa. 



Fig. 15. — Schizaea fistulosa. 



Family 



OSMUNDACEAE. 



Spore-cases with short thick stalks and a unilateral group of thickened cells at the 

 summit, opening by a longitudinal slit ; ferns with thick trunks. 



1. TODEA, Willd. 

 (After H. J. Tode, a German cryptogamic botanist.) 



1. T. barbara (L.), T. Moore. King Fern. Trunk thick, often more than 1 m. high; 

 leaves to 2 m. long, bipinnatisect ; pinnae numerous ; ultimate segments numerous, 

 lanceolate, serrate, the upper ones confluent at base ; sori crowded on the forked veins 

 of the lower segments of the lower pinnae, finally covering the undersurface. — Osmunda 

 barbara, Thunb. 



Gullies in Mount Lofty Range. 



Fig. 16. — Todea barbara. 



Family 6— OPHIOGLOSSACEAE. 



Differs from the other fern families in the young leaves not rolled inwards at the summit 

 in the shaps of a crozier; spore-cases comparatively large, marginal, more or less united, 

 without ring or indusium, opening in a slit which is longitudinal as to the spore-case, but 

 transverse to the rhachis of the spike, sessile in 2 rows along the spike-like fertile leaf, 

 which may be simple or branched. 



Leaves undivided Ophioglossum 1. 



Leaves divided Botrychium 2. 



