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TWO NEW FERN GENERA 



NEMATOPTERIS, v.A.v.R. 



Scleroglosso affinis. — Frondes cum rhizomate non articulatae, rigidae, 

 proportione crassae, steriles (cum parte sterili îrondium fertilium) non 

 applanatae; venae laterales desunt. Sori lineares, utrinque 1, costae parallel!, 

 in sulcis dorsalibus immersi, parenchymate costali producto separati; 

 paraphyses desunt. 



Scleroglossum differs in having the barren fronds and the barren portions 

 of the fertile fronds flattened, the soriferous portions of the fertile fronds 

 proportionally thick, and by the presence of simple or forked lateral veins, 



Nematopteris pyxidata, v.A.v.R.; Scleroglossum pyxidatum, v.A.v.R., 

 Bull. Btz., 1914, XVI, 37, tab. IX. 



The defoliate stipes of the two specimens of this species occurring in 

 the Buitenzorg Herbarium were all originally considered by me as to be the 

 stipes of fallen fertile fronds since 1 could find nothing resembling a sterile 

 frond, as, in all of them formerly examined by me, 1 found a shallow though 

 distinct groove on the upper side and two still shallower, less distinct 

 grooves on the lower side, which grooves are unmistakably the continuations 

 of those of the fertile fronds, also continued even to the apex of the rather long 

 rostrum (drawn too short in my plate); also the fracture at the apex of the 

 said stipes was easily recognizable. The fertile fronds are, like the fertile 

 portions of those in true Scleroglossum, very thick, even thicker than broad and 

 gradually attenuated (not angustated) towards the base and into the rostrum but 

 so, that the subsemiterete shape of the central portion of the frond is retained. 



On only one stipe I found a sound, undamaged, smoothly rounded^ 

 terete apical portion about 2 mm. long, without any trace of a fracture and 

 without grooves. Of this portion 1 have made several transversal sections, 

 which, examined in a saturate chloral-hydrate solution, were all perfectly 

 round. The said tip, hardly thicker than the stipe, was very probably the 

 sole remained barren frond of the two specimens. In true Scleroglossum 

 the barren fronds and the barren portions of the fertile fronds are flat, 

 sometimes apparently terete when in dried material the edges of the fronds 

 are much recurved. 



When taking off the produced costal parenchyma which separates the 

 sori, distinct lateral veins may be found in the marginal parenchyma of 

 true Scleroglossum but in 5. pyxidatum they are absolutely wanting. 



Seeing the circumstances quoted above, S. pyxidatum can not be main- 

 tained as a Scleroglossum, and, as being not referrible to any other known 

 genus, it was inevitable to found on it the new genus Nematopteris. 



