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| | British Ferns - Pilularia globulifera L. |
 | | The sporangia in tiny, 4-compartmented, hairy, pill-like sporocarps at the base of the petiole, the compartments each containing one sorus which splits longitudinally at maturity to release the sporangia in a mass of mucilage (the one-spored megasporangia borne below the many-spored microsporangia in the same sorus). |
 | | The fertile leaves in the form of tiny, globose sporocarps, these about 3 mm in diameter, brown and hairy, on stalks up to about 1 mm long, and divided by the indusia into 2 or 4 compartments, each containing one sorus and splitting separately longitudinally at maturity to release the sporangia in masses of mucilage. |
 | | Plants with very different fertile and sterile leaves (assuming the 2–4 mm long, shortly-stalked sporocarps enclosing the sporangia are correctly interpreted as highly modified fertile leaves). |
| delta-intkey.com /britfe/www/piluglob.htm (303 words) |
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