I8f 



FERNS : SYNOPTICAL LIST— LIII. 



Synoptical List, with descriptions y of the Ferns and Fern-Allies of Ja- 

 maica. By G. S. Jenman, Superintendent Botanical Garden 

 Demerara. 



Sub-Order II. Marattiaceje. 



Sporangia destitute of a ring or crown, biserial, free, or fused into 

 concrete linear, oblong, boat-shaped or circular masses (synangia), 

 superficial or immersed in moulds, or with an inferior fimbriated invo- 

 lucral membrane, and opening by slits or small round pores ; vernation 

 circinnate ; stipites enlarged and articulated at the base which is en- 

 closed by a pair of projecting stipuliform gills ; fronds varying from 

 simple to decompound ; veins free or united. 



There are four well marked genera in this sub-order. In one, 

 Angiopteris, the sporangia are quite free, but in the others they are 

 combined into concrete synangia. Two, Angiupteris and Kaul/ussia, 

 are exclusively Eastern and Australian ; one, Dancea, is exclusively 

 Western ; and the other, Maratiia, is widely spread in the tropical re- 

 gions of both worlds, extending south to ISew Caledonia and New 

 Zealand. The individual sporangia are more or less oblong or oval in 

 shape, but variable as the blocks into which they are fused. All 

 the species occupy wet forests, are of a dark dull colour and have fleshy 

 root-stocks bearing large scars, the articulations of past stipites, with 

 thickish cord-like roots. 



JSynangia sessile or stipitate, oval or roundish before dehiscence, after- 

 wards boat- shaped, sporangia opening by short slits. 1. Marattia. 



Synangia linear, reaching from midrib to margin, sporangia opening 

 by pores. 2. Dansea. 



Genus I. Marattia, Swartz. 



Synangia dorsal on the veins, small elliptical or roundish, sessile or 

 pedicilate, bivalved, opening medially across the top at maturity into a 

 boat- shaped form, the apertures in the 2-aerial sporangia transverse to 

 the line of dehiscence, ana about six to a side ; frond large, decompound, 

 petioles without nodes, but articulated at the auricled base ; veins free. 



The members of this genus occupy damp forests and are usually 

 gregarious. The swollen caudicular joints, common to all the 

 species which remain for a time on the rootstock after the fronds have 

 perished, produce a meal, which is used as food by some of the tribes of 

 the i:*acifiQ islands, and is frequently to be seen on the rootstocks of M, 

 alata. 



Synangia sessile, 

 i'ronds tripinnate. 



1. M. alata. 



1. alata, Smith.— Rootstock large and cone-like, marked with 

 the scars of the joint like bases of past stipites ; stipites 3-5 ft. 1. 2 in., 

 thick at the articulated base, cylindrical, early clothed with small, 

 very deciduous, scales ; fronds nearly deltoid, 3-5 ft. L, and nearly 

 as w., tripinnate, chartaceo-herbaceous, dark green, paler beneath witn 

 a few deciduous scales : pinnae spreading, opposite or sub-opposite, the 

 lowest pair largest or hardly so, 2-3 ft. 1., 1-1^ ft. w. petioled and with 

 a fleshy swelling at the base j abruptly acuminate at the apex , pin- 



