VASCULAR FASCICULI IN BRITISH FERNS. 89 
fibrous wing on either side of the base of the rachis is another point 
of resemblance to Osmunda. 
Gymnocarpium Phegopteris, Newman. Fig. 8. 
Polypodium Phegopteris, Hooker, Moore. 
Two vascular bundles* with dark sheaths 
traverse the stipes, in the foci of whose ellipse 
they are situate. As the first pair of pinne 
do not originate exactly opposite one another, 
one of the vascular bundles branches off before 
the other, sending off into the lowest pinna a 
single branch, which soon divides into two— 
these continuing almost to the apex of the 
pinna: the same phenomena are to be noted 
with reference to the other vascular cord, and, 
in both, are repeated to the apex of the frond. Just after each 
branching of the main cords they approach, but soon recover their 
relative position. (See fig. 8.) 
A few words in conclusion as to the special bearings of the 
present inquiry. First, it may be affirmed that the disposition 
of the vascular tissue in all the British varieties and indistinct 
species of Hooker’s genus Nephrodium is nearly alike. Secondly, 
that there is no marked distinction between the genus Aspidiwm 
(Polystichum, M.) and the genus Lophodium (Lastrea, M.) in this 
particular. (I have examined many foreign species of Polystichum 
with the same results.) Thirdly, that the genus Lastrea of Moore 
contains two British species (and many foreign ones) which possess 
a totally different arrangement of their vascular tissue, and that 
this fact, taken in connexion with the other previously recognized 
outward differences of these very same species, almost warrants 
their removal to another genus. And fourthly, that genera whose 
outward characteristics are conspicuously distinct, exhibit marked 
differences in the arrangement of their vascular fasciculi, while 
closely allied genera do not. 
- I will not weary the Society with further details, but beg it to 
accept the present communication as a small selection from those 
results at which several hundred observations have enabled me to 
arrive, 
* In Polypodium Phegopteris a close approach to the sigmoid figure in the 
vascular bundles of 4L. Oreopteris and L. Thelypteris is made, The same ob- 
servation applies to the foreign species P. Aeragonopterum, and, with modifica- 
tion, to the genus Onoclea. The genus Asplenium includes two or three appa- 
rently distinet arrangements, and demands more complete examination. 
LINN, PROC,—BOTANY, VOL. VII. H 
