FILICES. 
517 
31. ANGIOPTERIS, Hoffm. 
Capsules sessile, slit down the side, without any ring, forming oblong 
sori decurrent on the veins, not connate into a mass, as they are in 
the other genera of Marattiacece , furnished with an obscure plate- 
shaped inferior involucre. The only species. 
1. A. evecta, Hoffm. ; Hoolc. and Baker , Syn. Ml. 440. Rootstock 
erect, reaching a height of several feet. Stipes and pinnae swollen at 
the base. Frond deltoid, bipinnate, 6-15 feet or more long, bright 
green, glabrous, rather fleshy in texture. Pinnae oblong-lanceolate, 
2-3 feet long ; pinnules sessile, lanceolate, acuminate, 5-6 in. long, 
f-1 in. broad, serrated at the tip. Veins fine, distinct, free, spreading, 
simple or forked. Sori small, oblong, crowded, consisting each of 6-10 
capsules, placed on each vein near the margin of the pinnules. 
Mauritius, Bojer ! Seychelles, common in the shady woods of Mahe on the 
hanks of streams, Home , 199 ! 650 ! Spread through the tropics of the Old 
World. 
32. OPHIOGLOSSUM, Linn. 
Capsules 2-valved, splitting down the side, without any ring or 
involucre, confluent into distichous spikes. — Rootstock cylindrical or 
tuberous ; fronds rather fleshy in texture, consisting usually of a 
sterile simple leafy segment, with a peduncled simple spike arising 
from its base or surface. Veins fine, anastomosing copiously. Verna- 
tion not circinate, as it is in all the other genera of Mauritian Filices. 
Distrib. Cosmopolitan. Species 10. 
Fertile spike slender, arising from the base of the sterile 
segment 1.0. reticulatum. 
Fertile spike stout, arising from the surface of the sterile 
segment 2. 0. pendulum. 
1. O. reticulatum, Linn.; Hook, and Baker , Syn. Ml. 446. 
Rootstock suberect, not tuberous. Stipe slender, 3-6 in. long. Sterile 
segment cordate-ovate, 2-3 in. long, membranous in texture, with 
distinct fine veius forming minute hexagonal areoles with free included 
veinlets. Fertile spikes slender, erect, 1-2 in. long, with a slender 
peduncle much longer than itself, arising from the base of the sterile 
segment. 
Mauritius, and Rodriguez, in grassy places. Warmer zones of both hemispheres. 
0. ovatum , Bory ; Bojer, Hort. Maur. 422, is a variety with the sterile segment ovate, 
but not cordate at the base. 
2. O. pendulum, Linn. ; Hook, and Baker , Syn. Ml. 446. Sterile 
segment riband-shaped, often several feet long, narrowed gradually to 
a short obscure stout stipe, simple or shallowly forked upwards, stouter 
