148 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



in common with several other families of recent 

 Ferns, and it is probable that the Primofilices, 

 taken in the widest sense, represent the Palaeozoic 

 stock from which most of the later groups were 

 derived in Mesozoic times. 



The Primofilices, however, by no means ex- 

 haust the Palaeozoic Ferns; another and more 



Fig. 16. Angiopteris evecta. After Engler and Prantl. 



complex family has still to be considered, and in 

 this case also we will approach the fossils through 

 a recent group. Unfortunately the family Marat- 

 tiacese, with which we are here concerned, has no 

 popularly known members, though some of them 

 will have been noticed by those who have visited 

 the Fern-houses at Kew. They are almost en- 

 tirely tropical Ferns, a few spreading into tern- 



