144 
THE GENERA AND SPECIES OF CULTIVATED FERNS. 
Sterile fronds hairy, pinnate, deep green, one foot long; pinnae oblong-lanceolate, petiolulate, acute at the apex, 
and slightly cordate at the base. Fertile fronds hairy, tripartite, one to one and half foot high; sterile portion 
spreading, pinnate, eight or ten inches long. Frond terminal, adherent to a fasciculate-erect rhizome. 
M OIIEIA, Swartz .—Name commemorative of Mohr, a German eryptogamist. 
Sori marginal, attached on or near the apices of the venules, with the margin of the segments indexed. 
Spore-cases ovate-globose, rarely globose, sessile, naked, vertical. Yeins forked direct, free. Fronds of two 
kinds, sterile and fertile ; the fertile erect, uniform, contracted, 
from six inches to one foot high, bi-tripinnatifid, usually con¬ 
stituting a rachiform unilateral sporangiferous panicle; the 
sterile spreading, reclining or semi-erect, bi-tripinnatifid, 
pinnae entire, laciniate or multifid, with segments linear and 
dichotomous. Ehizome csespitose, creeping.—One solitary 
species constitutes this genus, which has a considerable 
affinity to Aneimia, though readily distinguished from it by 
having distinct fertile fronds, which are less contracted, and 
by not being tripartite. Fig. 89 represents a portion of the 
sterile, and a pinnule of the fertile frond of M. thurifraga 
(nat. size) with a small portion (magn.) showing the venation. 
1. M. thurifraga , Swartz.—A very elegant evergreen, 
warm greenhouse Fern, from the Cape of Good Hope, Mada¬ 
gascar, and the Mauritius. Fronds of two kinds, sterile and 
fertile. Fertile fronds lanceolate, erect, sub-tripinnate, from 
eight inches to a foot high, scaly beneath; pinnules sub- 
cordate, with two or three lobed segments. Sterile fronds 
lanceolate, semi-erect, six to nine inches long, yellowish green, 
tripinnatifid; pinnules sub-cordate, round at the apex, inciso-serrate, with linear and dichotomous segments. 
Stipes and rachis scaly, of a light brown ; lateral, adherent to a short caespitose creeping rhizome, forming thick 
tufts. 
Fig. 89 . 
Sub-order — 
-OSMTJNDACEJS. 
As this group originally stood, it contained a very heterogeneous mass of species, widely differing in habit and 
venation, and in the structure of the sori; but being divested of those forms whose spore-cases have a radiated 
apex, it is now reduced to two genera, containing about a dozen species, which have a great uniformity of habit, 
and are recognized by their spore-cases being sub-globose, pedicellate, 
reticulated, unilocular, opening by a vertical fissure (bivalved), with an 
oblique gibbose pellucid apex, and destitute of a ring. They are borne either 
on the same or on separate contracted fronds. Their spore-cases dividing 
vertically into two halves, and being destitute of the radiate apex, are the 
primary characters that distinguish them from Schizseacese, 
C VSMUNDA, linncms .—Name of uncertain derivation. 
) Sori naked, and densely clustered on contracted fronds, or on some 
portion of the segments only, which are contracted, rachiform, simple, or 
paniculate. Spore-cases large, sub-globose, pedicellate, bivalved. Yeins 
forked; venules direct, free. Fronds from one to ten or more feet high, 
pinnate or bipinnate. Ehizome thick, caudiciform, or tufted.—All the 
cultivated species of Osmunda are perfectly hardy, and are natives of North 
America, one of them being likewise indigenous to Britain. The genus 
contains but few species, chiefly inhabitants of temperate climes; only 
one or two are recorded as being found within the tropics. They are the 
most ornamental of all our hardy Ferns; but not being easily propagated, 
are not very common in collections. The sub-globose, pedicellate, bivalved 
spore-cases readily distinguish them from all other kinds except Todea, 
from which they are chiefly known by their fertile portions being so 
contracted as to have no evident venules. Fig. 90 represents a portion 
of the fertile frond, and a pinnule of the sterile one, of 0. interrupta (nat. 
size). 
