isgi.] 



Relationships of the Archegoniata 



327 



From a very careful study of the question, the writer x was 

 led to a very different view as to the relative position of the 

 different groups of the Filicineae, and gave what seemed to 

 him strong evidence in favor of considering the eusporangi- 



si 



V 



O 

 I* 



u 

 



Diagram i, illustrating the inter-relationships of the bryophytes 



ate forms, which hitherto were regarded as the highest of the 

 ferns, as the primitive forms from which the Leptosporang.- 

 atae have been derived. Ophioglossum was considered to 

 be the nearest of the existing forms to this ancestral form so 

 tar as 



sporophyte. 



nearest of the existing lorms ro yu> «.%.«»« ,"., ~ 

 can be judged from a study of the structure of the 



Of ?he three classes of the pteridophytes, the ferns forma 

 very large majority and constitute the prevailing type of the 

 existing forms. If we compare the number of ^Cies in the 

 three classes, we shall find that the Filicineae compn.se at least 

 90 per cent, of living forms, and that of the 3000 or more 

 species of ferns an overwhelming majority belong to one Jam- 



., ~ . ,. -ri • f~^4- i*r» rnnneftton With tilt 



the Polypodiaceae. This fact, in connection 



Hy — the Folypodiacea:. ln^ icu-l, ... — ^-..i; 



highly differentiated sporangium, and other %**f£j^ 

 arfties, led me to express the opinion that the Lepto. o ran 

 giat* (of which the Polypodiaceae are the type), * n ff° * 

 representing the primitive grouprf^^ 



1 Affinities of the Filicineae, p. 3 



