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94 
THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
I 
Fig. 21. 
Smith informs us that he has raised C. thalictroides from the spores of the 
present supposed species. 
Sub-order — PoLTPODiACEiE : Tribe — Acp.ostiche2e. 
Sect. I.— Orthophlebiea?, J. Smith. — Veins free. 
The species forming this extensive natural group are probably the 
easiest of all Ferns to recognize, from the sori being spread generally 
throughout the under surface of the frond. The species number more than 
one hundred, and were originally comprehended by authors under two or 
three genera; but they have latterly been subdivided into nearly twenty. 
They have distinct sterile and fertile fronds, similar to Lomaria in the tribe 
Pteride*, but are easily distinguished from that group by the absence 
of an indusium, with which the Lomarias are furnished. Their most 
obvious point of distinction from Polypodiea?, is in the sori being amor- 
phous, that is, not produced in round or linear masses, but closely 
occupying an irregular portion or the whole of the fertile disk, which in 
one or two genera is not confined to the inferior surface alone, the con- 
tracted rachiform segments being sporangiferous on both sides. 
ELAPHOGLOSSUM, Schott (Acrostichi, sp. of Authors).— 'Named 
from elaphos, a deer, and glossa, a tongue ; the small simple fertile 
fronds being supposed to resemble the tongue of the deer. In most 
modern catalogues the name is strangely enough derived from elephas, an 
elephant, and glossa, a tongue — elephant's tongue ! 
Sori amorphous, thickly covering the whole under surface. Veins 
simple, or forked, internal; venules parallel, their apices free and 
clavate, terminating within a thickened margin. Fronds simple, from a 
few inches to two feet long, linear-lanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous pilose 
or squamose. — This genus is readily distinguished from its congeners by 
having simple fronds, with forked free veins. Fig. 22 represents a 
*' ' sterile and fertile frond of E. conforme (med. size). 
1. E. conforme, Schott : Swartz. — An erect dwarf evergreen stove fern, from the Cape of Good Hope. Sterile 
fronds, glabrous, oblong-acuminate, attenuated at the base, from six to twelve inches high, coriaceous, deep green, 
Fertile fronds small, ovate or oblong-acuminate, from six to ten inches high. Both forms are articulated near the 
5^ 
f 
1. C. thalictroides, Brongniart (Ellobocarpus oleraceus, Kaulfuss). — A very singular annual aquatic stove fern, 
native of the tropics of both hemispheres. 
Fronds glabrous, of two kinds : sterile bipin- 
natifid, one to one and a half foot long, reclin- 
ing, with oblong obtuse segments ; fertile con- 
tracted, erect, three or four times pinnate, 
one and a half to two and a half feet high, 
with linear revolute segments ; both forms 
are viviparous, of a light green, with the 
stipes nearly quadrangular. 
C. Parkcri, J. Smith (Parkeria pteroides, 
Hooker et Bauer), was raised by Mr. H. 
Shepherd, of Liverpool, and so closely re- 
sembles the Ceratopteris thalictroides in all 
respects except the elastic ring of the spore 
case, that it is only to be discriminated by 
the aid of a very powerful microscope. Mr. 
