BENEDICT: GENERA OF THE FERN TRIBE VITTARIEAE ya g 
by accident, with a lot of filmy ferns. Plants were obtained in 
all stages of maturity, so that identification was easy. The plants 
of Polytaenium lanceolatum were grown from spores taken from 
herbarium material collected in Cuba by Mr. Norman Taylor. 
Planted a month or so after collection, they germinated rather 
slowly and remained in the prothallial stage for a couple of years 
before developing sporophytes. None of these were brought to 
maturity, so that absolutely certain identification is not practic- 
able, but the spores were sown in sterilized soil, the prothallia 
showed the peculiarities of the tribe as described by Goebel and 
by Britton & Taylor, and their continuity for the two years and 
their final production of the young sporophytes figured is indubi- 
table. 
The young plants of the other three species were obtained 
from material collected in the field. The Vittaria intramarginalis 
material was found on an herbarium sheet showing all stages up 
to maturity. That of Ananthacorus was obtained in like manner 
but lacks the very young stages. The material of Antrophyum 
was collected for me by Dr. C. B. Robinson, together with mature 
fruiting plants of the same species. This also lacks the earliest 
stages. This collection included numerous young plants of some 
other net-veined fern, but the venation type was entirely distinct 
from that of Antrophyum and easily separable. 
During the course of my work I made an attempt to grow 
plants of Antrophyum reticulatum from spores obtained from 
herbarium material sent me by Dr. E. B. Copeland, but the spores 
proved inviable after their weeks of passage from the Philippines 
to New York City. 
My first clue to the possible significance of the ontogenetic 
stages was obtained from figures of young Vittaria lineata (L.) 
J. E. Sm., published by Mrs. Britton and Miss Taylor.* This 
species, as it appears, is similar in its young stages to V. remota 
figured here. 
Before proceeding to take up the description of the young 
material of the five species just noted, I wish to recapitulate in 
detail the venation series observed in connection with the study 
* Britton, E. G., & Taylor, A. Life history of Vittaria lineata. Mem. Torrey 
Club 7: 185-211. pl. 28. 1902. 
