Ophioglossum simplex, Ridley. 
BY 
F. O. BOWER, F.R.S., 
Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow. 
With Plate XV. 
I N May, 1900, I received from Professor Groom, to whom my grateful 
thanks are due, a specimen of a plant which had been collected in 
Sumatra, in 1897, by Mr. Ridley ; his description of it is as follows: — 
‘A New Species of Ophioglossum. 
‘The very remarkable little species of Ophioglossum I am about to 
describe was found by me in a dense wet forest on the banks of the 
Kelantan River, near Siak, in Sumatra, in December, 1897. I was only 
able to find three plants, for it is very inconspicuous, and as I was still far 
from camp, and it was very late when I perceived the plants, there was not 
sufficient time to search thoroughly the locality, which is one by no means 
easy of access. I would describe it as follows : — 
‘ Ophioglossum simplex, n. sp. 1 Terrestrial, rhizome short, and tuberous, 
with few roots. Fertile fronds solitary, or two together, slender flattened, 
with a blunt apex, 4 to 6 inches long, |th inch wide, dark green, sterile 
division represented by a very small lateral process, or quite absent. 
Fertile portion about an inch long. 
‘ Hab. — Dense wet forests on the Kelantan River, Siak, Eastern 
Sumatra. 
‘ The affinity of this curious plant is with O. Bergiana , Schlecht, of 
South Africa, and with O. pendulum , L., an epiphytic plant common in 
Eastern Asia. The almost complete suppression of any trace of a sterile 
portion of the frond, and the consequent reduction of the plant to the very 
simplest elements, is the most peculiar feature in this species. Its habitat 
is very peculiar for the genus, for though there are two indigenous species 
of terrestrial Ophioglossum , viz. O. nudicaule and O. reticulatum , to be found 
1 This name has already been used by Rumphius in 1750 (Herb. Amb. vi, p. 152, Tab. 68, 
Fig. 1), but the plant so described falls under 0 . pedunculosum (Prantl, Beitrage z. Syst. d. Ophio- 
glosseen, p. 329). 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVIII. No. LXX. April, 1904.] 
