368 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



On these grounds (and other considerations might also 

 be adduced) it would appear to be a reasonable view that 

 the Eusporangiate Ferns were the more primitive, and that 

 the Leptosporangiates are a later, specialised series, sharing, 

 it is true, with the Mosses certain vegetative characters, 

 though not on that account to be directly connected with 

 them. Accordingly the nearest point of contact of Bryo- 

 phyta and Pteridophyta is not to be sought for between 

 Mosses and Filmy Perns — both probably specialised types 

 -but we should rather look to certain Hepaticae, and 

 compare them with P2usporangiate Pteridophytes. This 

 suggestion came primarily from Campbell iBot. Gazette, 

 Jan., 1890), and the most prominent novelty in his book is 

 the treatment of the whole Archegoniate series with this 

 end in view. This has led to considerable chanp.es in the 

 usual arrangement of the materials, and, in accordance with 

 opinions explained by Campbell in his text, he places the 

 Ophioglossaceae nearest of Pteridophytes to the Bryophyta. 

 We do not propose here to enter upon a detailed criticism 

 of Campbell's views on these or other questions ; they will 

 doubtless be suitably reviewed elsewhere. We would 

 rather consider the broad results which may be expected to 

 follow from such a change of attitude as he has been the 

 first to advocate, and his book the first to embody in the 

 form of a general statement. 



In the first place we see the sporophyte again reinstated 

 in the position which it should hold as an important factor 

 for comparison. The tendency in these borderland specu- 

 lations has of recent years been to appreciate the decadent 

 gametophyte, and depreciate the nascent sporophyte — as 

 morphological currency. We would not advocate the con- 

 verse ; nor do we wish to see botanists ranged in two 

 camps upholding respectively their favourite generation as 

 the true basis of phylogenetic speculation. What we 

 deprecate is the somewhat unsportsmanlike flight before 

 the difficulties of comparison of the neutral generation. 

 But the fact remains that in the long run it has become the 

 dominant factor in plant-life, and its characters should there- 

 fore be given due weight. 



