OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 
299 
empty ; exterior minute, coloured. Stichidia lanceolate, involute, scattered 
or tufted, containing a double row of tetraspores. Cystocarps globose, 
stalked, grouped terminally on the phyllodia. 
Osmundaria prolifera Lamouroux. 
= Polyphacum proliferum Agardh. 
Attachment or holdfast an expanded callus. Stem in old fronds 2 cm. 
to 5 cm. or more long, cylindrical below, rigid and ligneous, becoming 
Fig. 141 . — Osmundaria prolifera : a, plant; b, frag- 
ment of a leaf-bearing specimen; c, 
portion of a leaf; d , cross-section of 
leaf; e, portion of apex of fertile 
phyllodium, with tufts of stichidia; f, 
stichidium; g, tetraspore. (After 
Harvey.) 
compressed upwards and passing into the tapering base of a narrow-linear, 
thick, coriaceous, opaque, very obtuse phyllodium, which is 6 cm. to 15 cm. 
long and generally about 1 cm. wide. From the midrib, and often from 
the apex of the primary phyllodium, spring others of similar form and 
texture ; and these emit others similar to themselves but smaller ; and thus, 
at length, a proliferously much-branched frond, 25 cm. to 50 cm. in expan- 
sion, may be formed. All the phyllodia are very closely covered on both 
sides with minute, spiniferous processes, giving to the surface the rough 
G 
