Igor] ANATOMY OF THE OSMUNDACEAE 383 
small part of the fern flora of the earth. But this does not 
seem to have always been the case,® for the Marattiaceae, 
although overwhelmingly predominant in the Coal period, con- 
stituted but 4 per cent. of the total filicineous flora in the Lower 
Jurassic, the remainder being composed of Osmundaceae and 
Cyatheaceae, with the related families Matonineae and Proto- 
polypodiaceae. As to distribution, the first genus is confined to 
the northern hemisphere, and the Todeas are with one exception 
found only in Australasia. Five Osmundas belong exclusively 
to restricted areas in east Asia and the adjoining islands; (O. 
Claytoniana occurs in the Himalayas and North America; 0. 
cinnamomea in eastern Asia, North and South America; and QO. 
regalis in every continent except Australasia. Of the Todeas, 7. 
barbara is a native of Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa; 
and the remaining species, the so-called ‘‘filmy” Todeas 
(Leptopteris of some authors), belong to oceanic islands in the 
eastern south-tropical region. 
Of these species I have had the opportunity of studying 
five, namely, O. regalis, O. cinnamomea, O. Claytoniana, T. barbara, 
and 7. superba. Nevertheless, in the following pages most atten- 
tion will be devoted to O. cinnamomea, not so much because 
its anatomy has not previously been described, as because the 
writer, for reasons which will become apparent, believes it retains 
a more primitive type of skeletal axis than any of the family so 
far investigated. The material of the species of Osmunda stud- 
ied was collected from several different localities, and in large 
quantities. Of O. cinnamomea specimens from fully a hundred 
and fifty plants were preserved and examined, and of each of the 
others perhaps one-third of that number. The more important 
Points were verified from specimens taken from three different 
localities, 
Observations have been mainly restricted to the mature root, 
Stem, and leaf trace. Some young plants of Osmunda were 
Studied, and the growing points of the older stems have been 
*Scorr : Studies in fossil botany 304. 1900. 
9DIELs: Engler and Prantl’s Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien 14: 377. 1900. 
