CHAPTER XXX. 



KAULFUSSIA, Blume. 

 (Kaul-fus'-si-a.) 



VERY distinct division of the sub-order MarattiacecB, named 

 in commemoration of Dr. G-. F. Kaulfuss, a Professor of 

 Botany at Halle, who died in 1830. It is composed of a 

 single species only, and forms in Hooker and Baker's 

 " Synopsis Filicum " Genus 72. It is distinguished from the 

 closely-allied species by its sporangia (spore capsules), ten to fifteen, being 

 sessile (stalkless) and arranged in concrete, raised, circular masses, which are 

 hollow in the centre, with the oblong apertures in the inner face. 



There is in commerce another plant known as Kaulfussia amelloides, 

 a name for which we cannot find any authority. It is totally ditferent from 

 the present one, inasmuch as it is a flowering plant of the order Compositw. 

 It is the Charieis heterophylla of Cassini, an ornamental hardy annual, native 

 of South Africa. 



K. eesculifolia — a3s-cul-if-or-i-?i (Chestnut-leaved), Blume. 



. This very curious plant, described also as Kaulfussia assamica by Griffith, 

 has peculiarly- shaped, coarse, trifoliate fronds in the shape of a Chestnut-leaf, 

 with the leaflets sessile (stalkless) and their under- surface, when fertile, 

 copiously furnished with cavities or stomata-like pores, which are probably 

 secretory organs. It is a native of Assam and the Phihppine and Malayan 

 Islands, and requires stove treatment. The stalks are 1ft. to IJft. long and 



