FERNS OF THE MALAY- ASIATIC REGION. 
17 
and 2 or 3 times as deep; veinlets mostly forked; otherwise like 0. 
bromelii folia. A form found in Benguet, has teeth 6 mm deep. 
Philippines, Moluccas and southern China, Japan ; Kamtchatka. 
8. Osmunda javanica Bl. 
Stipe and rachis very stout; frond sometimes 3 m high and 60 cm 
wide; larger pinnae 30 cm or more long, 2 to 3 cm broad, on stalks more 
than 1 cm long, acuminate, cuneate at base, sinuate or entire, coriaceous ; 
veins not pinnate but dichotomous, veinlets parallel, straight ; fertile frond 
irregularly lobed, but rarely to the costa, sporangia massed on the margin. 
Malay Islands. 
9. Osmunda vachelii Hooker. 
Stipes 15 to 30 cm high, stouter than in 0. bromeliifolia ; frond 40 to 
90 cm high; pinnae 10 to 15 cm, rarely more, long, not quite one-tenth 
as broad, on stalks 3 to 5 mm long, acute or acuminate, acute at base, 
subcoriaceous or coriaceous, entire or shallowly serrate with long, Hat 
teeth; fertile pinnae, reduced, pinnate with round or lobed pinnules. 
Entire and serrate pinnae can be found on the same fronds. 
China, India. 
Note.— The proper definition of the species of the § Plenasium has always 
been a puzzle. Various botanists have reduced them to a single one. If this 
can be done, its name must be O. bromeliifolia, but O. javanica is very different. 
I have not much fear of having made two species where I should have recognized 
but one; but do suspect that what I have called O. vachelii will some day be 
divided. 
6. SCHIZAEACE.dE 
Sporangia borne singly (not in sori), each derived from a single cell, 
opening by a lengthwise slit; annulus a complete transverse ring at or 
just below the apex of the sporangium; fertile teeth or segments of the 
frond very contracted ; stems terrestrial ; fronds erect or with scandent 
rachis. Beside the following two, there are two genera in America and 
in and near Africa. There are about 120 known species. 
Frond scandent 1. Lygodium 
Frond small, erect 2. Schizaea 
1. LYGODIUM Swartz. 
Bhizome underground ; leaves with scandent rachis of indefinite growth, 
constantly dichotomous, but alternate branches on the right and left 
almost dwarfed, and bearing a single pair of pinna?, while except at the 
base of young leaves the main rachis or preferred branch bears no 
pinnae; pinnae dichotomous or pinnate; sporangia borne on special teeth 
or spikes, each with only enough lamina to cover the sporangia; in each 
spike the veinlet is sympodially branched, the alternate branches bearing 
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