Notes on the Morphology of Ophioglossum 
(Cheiroglossa) palmatum, L. 
BY 
F. O. BOWER, F.R.S. 
Regius Professor of Botany in the University oj Glasgow* 
With Plates XXII-XXIV. 
\PHIOGLOSSUM PALMATUM is the most outstanding type 
KM among the remarkable family to which it belongs. At the same 
time it is one of the least fully investigated. Its habitat on rotting tree- 
trunks suggests a saprophytic tendency. Its swollen stock provides storage 
capacity beyond that of any other member of its genus. Its leafage, with 
its irregularly lobed sterile region and its varying number of fertile spikes, 
readily earns for it a position in a distinct section of the genus Ophioglossum , 
which has been styled § Cheiroglossa . Up to the present time little is 
known of its methods of propagation, while its gametophyte has never been 
observed. It was, then, with special interest that efforts were made to secure 
material of this peculiar plant on a recent visit to Jamaica. Certain decay- 
ing tree-trunks in the Blue Mountains on which it was known to have 
grown were visited. But the plant was only found in small quantity, and 
one plant 'done was retained whole as a herbarium specimen. It is repre- 
sented in PI. XXII, Fig. i, A, kindly drawn for me by Dr. A. A. Lawson, 
who took the specimen himself in the living state. It shows a medium, well- 
grown plant, with the tuberous stock characteristic of the species, supported 
by numerous fleshy roots. The upper part of the stock is covered by a dense 
mat of pale-coloured hairs, from which emerge the two leaves. One of 
these is simple in form, and barren. The other is larger, and is divided 
into two divergent lobes, one of which shows a rudimentary third lobe. 
Upon the adaxial face are three fertile spikes, of which the lower two are 
seated as a pair side by side ; the third is inserted rather higher up, and in 
a lateral position from the median line. A second larger specimen had a 
very broad leaf divided distally into three large lobes, and imperfectly sub- 
divided again into eight minor lobes, while six fertile spikes were borne on 
the adaxial face. From external observation the lowest of these is approxi- 
mately median ; those which follow upwards are disposed right and left, 
Annals of Botany, Vol. XXV. No. XCVIII. April, 1911.] 
