CHAPTER XXXIIL 



L O M A R I A, Wn.ldeno ic. 



(Lo-ma'-ri-a.) 



HIS genus, which derives its name from loma^ an edge, in 

 reference to the position of the spore masses on the fronds, 

 is an important group of stove, greenhouse, and hardy Ferns 

 of world-wide distribution, though its headquarters are situated 

 in the South Temperate zone. There is but one British 

 example, L. Spicant of Desvaux (or, as it is most commonly called, Bleehnum 

 Spicant), but this has produced many variations, some of which are quite 

 distinct from the typical plant. An idea of the extension of the area in 

 which certain species are found in their wild habitats may be formed from the 

 geographical distribution of L. Spicant, which, besides being found in Europe 

 from the extreme North to the islands of the Mediterranean and Madeira, and 

 in America from California to Oregon and British Columbia, is also abundant 

 in the Caucasus, Kamtschatka, and Japan. In Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis 

 Filicum " Lomaria forms Grenus 33, immediately preceding the genus Bleehnum, 

 with which it is closely related. 



Some of the Lomarias are widely distinct from one another in habit and 

 general appearance, for, while a few have simple (undivided) fronds, these 

 organs in others are pinnatifid (divided nearly to the midrib), pinnate (once 

 divided to the midrib), or even bipinnatifid (twice divided nearly to the 

 midrib). The distinctive characters of the genus reside in the dimorphous 

 (two-formed) character of the fronds, as the barren and the fertile ones are 



