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these beautiful forms of vegetation so much has been written that it 
is almost superfluous to mention anything about them ; but, as the few- 
natural orders composing the vascular cryptogams of Queensland are at 
times misunderstood, it may be well to give a few of the leading 
distinguishing characters of three of them — viz., LycopodiaeejB, 
Marsileacesc, and I'ilices. In Lycopodiaceae the spore-cases are sessile 
— that is to say, stalkless — and situated in the upper angle formed by 
the leaf or bract and the stem. Leaves radical, proceeding from the 
root or rhizome, or placed upon the stems or branches. The best 
known of these plants by Queenslanders are the Lycopodiums, 
whose spore-cases are all similar ; and the idelaymellas, whose 
spore-cases are of two kinds— the small ones are filled with minute 
po'wdery spores called inicrospores, the larger contain from 1 to 6 
large spores called macrospores. The floating red moss so often seen 
upon still water, AzoUa rubra, belongs to this order ; and so does 
that leafless epiphyte, PsiJoUim iriqtiefrmn, which has pendulous 
forked branches and numerous globular spore-cases. Marsileacese has 
no true leaves. The fronds are circiuate in vernation — that is, in the 
young state they are rolled inward, the baiTen ones often open at the 
top into leaflets resembling those of the Clover plant. The fertile 
ones are on much shorter stalks or the stalks are wanting, and the 
leaflets are recurved, their margins united, and thus form the so-called 
involucre spore-eases of two kinds, as in some Lyeopodiaccie, but 
arranged, as in ferns, in sori inside the involucre {i.e,, on the under 
surface of the recurved frond). The Nardoo is a good example. Now 
we come to Filices, or the Ferns. These have no true loaves ; their 
leaf -like expansions are termed fronds, and consist of the stalk or 
stipes, in the young state; except in one tribe these are rolled inwards — 
circinate. The leafy expansion is simple or more or less compound. The 
spore-cases are usually small and collected into clusters or patches, 
called sori, on the under surface or margins of the fertile fronds, 
which are either nearly similar to the barren ones or very narrow, 
resembling simple or branched spikes. The sori is either naked 
or covered by a membrane called the indusium or involucre. The 
Australian tribes of these plants are — 
Tribe OpHiooLOssEiE. — Fronds not circinate. The fertile portion 
spikelike or more or less branched. The spore-cases globular, opening 
by a transverse slit, in 2 rows or small clusters on the spike or its 
branches without any ring. Examples : Adder-tongue, Grape Fern, &c. 
Tribe Mahattiejs. — Fronds circinate. The spore-cases also with- 
out any perfect ring, opening by a longitudinal slit, distinct, sessile or 
united in 2 rows, in sori forming marginal lobes to the rhachis or 
segment, or placed on their under surface. Examples : Snake Ferns. 
Tribe Osxiundeje. — Spore-cases globular or nearly so, without 
any or with an imperfect or transverse ring, opening in 2 valves or 
irregularly, few or solitary, rarely numerous and clustered in sori on 
the under surface of the segments or pinnules. Examples: Water 
Fern, Braid Fern, Parasol Fern, Swamp Tree Fern, &c. 
Tribe llxMENOpHTLLEiE. — Spore-cases depressed, with a trans- 
verse ring on a columnar receptacle within a enp-shaped or 2-lobed 
indusium, embedded in or protruding from the frond’s margin. 
Examples : The Bristle and Film Ferns. 
