THE FERN WORLD OF AUSTRALIA. 
19 
AUSTRALIAN FERNS 
SYSTEMATICALLY ARRANGED. 
If we give our cHldren nothing but an amusing employment, we lose 
the best half of our design ; which is, at the same time that we amuse 
them, to exercise their understanding, and to accustom them to 
attention. Before we teach them to name what they see, let us begin 
by teaching them how to see. Suffer them not to think they know 
anything of what is merely laid up in their memory." Rousseau's 
Letters on Botany. 
Following the arrangement of the Filices or Ferns in the Flora 
Australiensis we find them divided into six (6) tribes, the last of 
which is again divided into two (2) sections, the one with, the other 
without indusium, or covering to the sori, or seed-patches. 
Tribe I. — OpHioGLOSsEiE. This is the only tribe whose frond in 
a young state are not rolled inwards (circinate). The barren frond 
or portion of frond leaf-like, the fertile portion spike-hke, simple or 
branched, the stalks most frequently combined at the base. Spore- 
oases globular, two-celled, without any ring, sessile (stalkless) in two 
rows or in small clusters on the spike or its branches. Genera 3. 
I. — Ophioglossum Linn, or Adders-tongue. 
Fronds two-branched, the barren portion spreading leaf-like 
entire or forked at the end, reticulated veins forming elongated 
areoles, fertile portion spike-like simple stalked. Spore-cases sessile 
(stalkless) and more or less combined back to back in two rows 
along the rib, opening in a fissure transverse as to the spike, 
longitudinal as to the spore-case. The name literally means the 
same as the English, and is derived from the supposed resemblance 
of the fertile spike to a serpent's tongue. There are two species of 
this in Australia. 
O. vulgatum, Linn. Common Adders-tongue. There are several 
forms all having the same short fleshy rootstock which might be 
compared to a miniature Dahlia root, but varying much in the size 
and form of the frond. The combined frond usually solitary, but 
occasionally sending up several fronds from the same rootstock, 
from one to nine inches high, the barren leaf-like- portion stalkless 
(sessile) at or below the middle of the stipes (stalk), varying from 
broadly ovate or oblong-lanceolate and a few inches long, to 
roundish and not over a ;i or i inch, or very narrow-lanceolate or 
linear, and one inch or more long. The veins when broad 
copiously netted but in the narrow forms more longitudinal and but 
slightly anastomosing, the fertile portion or tongue varying in size 
with the plant as is the case with the spore-cases, sometimes there 
