MUSCI AND HEPATIC A K 



479 



suggests an intermediate state of that elaboration <>f the sporophyte which 

 has resulted in the characteristic Flora of the Land. By the discovery of these 

 and other archaic forms the gap in organisation between the Bryophyta and 



Aster vxylon MackieL 



Hornea Lignieri 



Fig. 372 a. 

 Reconstruction by Kidston and Lang of the Rhynie fossils named above. 



Reduced in scale. 



the Pteridophyta has been narrowed, not only in theory but by observed fact. 

 Nevertheless in the absence of the gametophyte of these fossils, the method ot 

 establishing the independence of the sporophyte remains still an open problem. 



B.B. 



2 H 



