350 Mr. E. S. Goodrich. 



When there are two or three synangia they may still be separate, but 

 they are crowded together, and in some cases may be more or less 

 fused. Some cases at least of irregular quinqueloctilar synangia are 

 due to the fusion of two original synangia, owing doubtless to the 

 close proximity of their primordia. But if originally distinct synangia 

 may become fused in their development, we have less difficulty in 

 understanding how the three loculi of the synangium may be due to 

 the fusion of three primitively separate sporangia. 



The most important inference from this comparison is that the 

 repeated dichotomy of the sporophylls of the family Psilotese is an 

 ancient feature. A real affinity with the Sphenophyllales is thereby 

 rendered more probable. 



In determining the affinities of the Phanerogams it is the custom to 

 attach more importance to the characters of the flowers than to the 

 vegetative characters, which are subject to many adaptive modifica- 

 tions. Bower has recently urged* the importance of the characters of 

 the reproductive organs, and especially of the sporangia, in determin- 

 ing the affinities of the genera of Ferns. If we allow that the characters 

 of the sporophylls and sporangia are entitled to more weight than 

 vegetative characters in deciding the affinities of the Psilotese, the 

 family must be placed in the Sphenophyllales rather than in the 

 Lycopodiales. The whorled arrangement of the leaves of the typical 

 family Sphenophyllese is the chief objection to this, but phyllotaxis is 

 often a very variable character, and notably so in the Psilotese, even 

 though it must be admitted that the arrangement in whorls appears to 

 have been a very constant feature in the Sphenophyllea?. It would 

 seem, therefore, that although the character of the sporophylls, and 

 especially the sporangiophores, justifies our including the Psilotea- 

 in the class Sphenophyllales, they yet form a family rather remote 

 from the Sphenophyllea\ 



" On the Excretory Organs of Ainphioxus." By EDWIN S. 

 GOODRICH, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. Com- 

 municated by E. EAY LANKESTEH, F.E.S. Eeceivecl January 

 7, Head January 23, 1902. 



Some years ago, in 1890, Weiss and Boveri discovered excretory 

 tubules in the pharyngeal region of Amphioxus.f Soon after Boveri 



* ' Phil. Trans.,' B, vol. 192, 1900, p. 30. 



t Weiss, P. E., "Excretory Tubules in Amphioxus lanceolatus," ' Quart. Jour. 

 Micr. Sci.,' TO!. 31, 1890 ; Boveri, Th., " TJeber die Niere dcs Amphioxus," ' Sitz.- 

 Ber. d. G-es. f. Morph. u. Phys. iu Miinchen,' Jalirg. 6, 1890. 



