Botrychvum. | FILICES. 95 
Var. millefolium Prantl Syst. Ophiogl. (1883) 341.— Frond more slender ; 
sterile segment much more finely divided, the ultimate pinnules laciniately cut into 
narrow lobes and teeth.—B. biforme (ol. in Trans. N.Z, Inst. xviii (1886) 223. 
B. cicutarium var. dissectum Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) (not of Muhl.). 
NortH AND Sours Istanps, CuarHam Isuanps: The ordinary form abundant from 
the North Cape to the south of Otago; var. millefolium often local. Sea-level to 
3500 ft. 
Also in Australia, Tasmania, and extratropical South America, and very closely 
allied to the northern B. ternatum, with which it was united by Hooker and Baker in 
the ‘‘ Synopsis Filicum.”’ 
Family Il. MARSILEACEAE. 
Perennial plants, usually of small size, growing in marshes or in damp 
soil. Rhizome slender, creeping, rooting at the nodes. Leaves solitary 
or in tufts at the nodes of the rhizome, either filiform or of 4 leaflets borne 
at the top of a slender petiole. Sporocarps or conceptacles globose or 
oblong, on short peduncles which rise from the petioles or near their bases, 
each sporocarp containing numerous (Marsilea) or few (Pilularia) cavities 
or cells, and each cell containing a group or sorus composed of macro- 
sporangia and microsporangia. Macrosporangia containing a single macro- 
spore ; microsporangia containing numerous microspores. 
A small order of 2 genera and 50 or 60 species, found in most temperate and 
tropical countries. In germination a small female prothallium is developed within 
the macrospore, which eventually bursts, the prothallium protruding from the opening. 
A single archegonium is then formed on the prothallium, which is fertilized by 
spermatozoids set free by the bursting of the microspores, within which a rudimentary 
male prothallium bearing a single antheridium has been developed. 
1. PILULARIA Linn. 
Rhizome long, filiform, creeping and rooting. Leaves solitary at the 
nodes of the rhizome, circinate in vernation, filiform, erect. Sporocarps 
on short peduncles, globose, 2—4-celled, splitting at the top into as many 
valves as cells; each cell with a longitudinal parietal placenta bearing in 
the upper portion microsporangia containing numerous microspores, and 
below these few or many macrosporangia containing a solitary macrospore. 
A small genus of 6 species, found in the temperate or subtropical regions of both 
hemispheres. The New Zealand species is endemic. 
I. P. novae-zealandiae 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix (1877) 547, 
t. 29.—Very slender. Leaves distant, 2-2in. long. Peduncle about + in. 
long, erect. Sporocarp din. diam., globose, densely hairy, 2-celled and 
2-valved. Macrosporangia 10-12 to each cell, subglobose, not constricted 
at the middle.—Thoms. N.Z. Ferns (1882) 100; Bak. Fern Allies (1887) 
148 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 1030. 
Norra Istanp: Auckland—Lake Whangape, 7. Kirk. Sour Isuanp: Canterbury 
—lLake Lyndon, Lake Pearson, and other lakes in the Waimakariri district, 7. Kirk! 
Linys! Berggren, T. F. C. | | | 
Probably not an uncommon plant, but very easily overlooked. 
