Manchester Memoirs, Vol. I. (1906), No. 10. 25 



opterideae, however, appear to shew in the structure of their 

 wood a character which places them above the modern 

 fern, and, unless we are to assume that the modern ferns 

 have lost the habit of forming such wood, and confined 

 themselves to the simple primary wood of scalariform 

 elements, then we cannot consider the Botryopterideae as 

 a whole as Primofilicinean, though, of course, some of its 

 members may have remained less advanced. The group of 

 Botryopterideae appears to contain members which are 

 " Pro-Pteridosperms " rather than Primofilices pure and 

 simple, and with them was Tubicaulis, which I therefore 

 conclude has no direct phylogenetic connection with any 

 living fern. 



There is one interesting group of " ferns " to-day with 

 which they m.ay have some remote affinity, and that is 

 the Ophioglossaceae. This small family is by some con- 

 sidered to be the remnant of a group from which Lyco- 

 pods and ferns sprang, but it has also certain anatomical 

 characters which are perhaps recently acquired. In 

 Helniinthostachys bordered slightly oval pits are described 

 by Farmer and Freeman ('99, figs. 19 and 20) and in 

 some material kindly supplied by Prof. Oliver, I have seen 

 much more strikingly gymnospermic pits with perfectly 

 circular borders. No direct connection with Tubicaulis is 

 suggested, but it is possible that this group is in some 

 points a nearer parallel to the Botryopterideae than are 

 most of the recent ferns. 



The fact that of the genus there are but two species, 

 and that each has been found but once, with an interval 

 of nearly 100 years, possibly indicates that Tubicaulis 

 was one of the less successful types, which may very 

 well have left no direct descendant among more modern 

 plants. 



