TRANSACTIONS Of SECTION K. 781 



('Verh. der Zool.-bot. Gesel.' Wien, 1903) as Anagallis ttrvenstsXccetuha, and 

 which was considerably paler than phcenicea, may have been a hybrid of the paler 

 form (.4. camca) with the blue pimpernel. 



D. F wither Observations on Inheritance in Primula sinensis. 1 

 By R. P. Gregory, M.A. 



6. Sand-dunes and Golf-links. By Professor F. 0. Bower, F.R.S. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 



Joint Discussion with Sections B and I on the Biochemistry of Respiration, 



See p. 762. 



The following Papers were read in Section K : — 

 1. Note on Ophioglossum palrnatum. By Professor F. 0. Bower, F.R.S. 



It ha6 already been shown that Ophioglossum pendulum and simplex (included 

 in section Ophioderma) differ from others of the Ophioglossaceas in the fact that 

 the leaf-trace consists not of a single strand, but of more than one. It is true 

 that in Botrychium, and less prominently in Helminthostachys, the single strand 

 soon divides ; but in both of these and in Eu-ojihioglossum the leaf-supply is 

 inserted as a single strand. 



It was thought probable that 0. palrnatum (the only species of section Cheiro- 

 glossa) would share with the species above named the character of a divided trace, 

 and material collected in Jamaica has shown that it does. The axis is much 

 distended by parenchymatous storage tissue in pith and cortex, and as a conse- 

 quence the meshes of the stele are transversely widened. From their margins 

 right and left, but not quite simultaneously, arise two strap-shaped strands, 

 which are thus widely apart in their origin. After subdivision into numerous 

 smaller strands, these range themselves into two fan-like semicircles, which 

 spread till their margins meet, forming the circle of strands of the petiole. 2 



A remarkable feature of the stock is the intrusion of roots into the bulky 

 pith ; this is especially obvious towards the base, where they pass out as thick 

 mycorhizic roots. 



Comparative study of leptosporangiate ferns has shown that the single strand 

 is a primitive, and the divided strand a derivative, type of leaf-trace. If this 

 hold also for the Ophioglossacese, then the section Ophioderma and Cheiroglossa 

 are in this feature derivative as compared with the rest of the family. This con- 

 clusion is in accord with comparison on other grounds, whichever view be taken 

 of the origin and affinities of the family — whether from early Filicales or from 

 some such source as the Sphenophyllales. In either case their characters of ex- 

 ternal morphology indicate 0. pendulum, simplex, and palrnatum as extreme and 

 specialised types, 3 and this estimate of them is now supported by the detail of 

 insertion of the leaf-trace. 



2. On Two Synthetic Genera of Filicales. 

 By Professor F. 0. Bower, F.R.S. 



In a recent paper on the genus Plagiogyria * it has been shown that this type 

 is certainly a substantive genus, quite distinct from Lomaria, with which it was 



1 Published in the Journal of Genetics, vol. i., p. 1, 1910. 



2 Compare Annals of Botany, vol. xviii., pi. xv., figs. 14, 18. 



3 Ibid. vol. xviii., p. 205, vol. xxii., p. 327. 



4 Annals of Botany, 1910, p. 423. 



1910. 3 E 



