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The first leaves of V. lineata as shown by studies of Mrs, 
Britton and Miss Taylor, and of V. remota Fée which I have 
studied, are very simple, and the venation consists of a single 
vein extending through the middle. This is exactly the type of 
venation of a species of Monogramme, M. trichoidea, a Philip- 
pine species, which may well be considered as the simplest living 
fern. The leaves of this fern are but one or two inches long and 
scarcely thicker thana thread. After this first stage in the Vittaria 
leaf, the next few leaves show successively one or two to several 
areolae, arranged as in the mature leaves, but the leaves are 
broader in proportion, and sometimes actually broader than the 
later leaves. This stage corresponds to a species described as 
Antrophyum minimum Baker, but which I have put with two 
other species of about the same size and habit in the genus 
Hecistopteris J. Smith. There may be some question whether 
Baker’s species belongs in this genus, but at any rate, it may be 
said that Vittaria passes through stages corresponding to Mono- 
gramme trichoidea and Hecistopteris minima, recapitulating in 
its growth the venation characters of these genera. 
Similarly Antrophyum and Ananthacorus which have the most 
complex venation of all the genera in the tribe also recapitulate 
the characters of Monogramme and Hecistopteris minima. They 
differ from Vittaria when mature in having several to many rows 
of areolae along each side of the midvein instead of one, and they 
reach this condition merely by adding secondary areolae out- 
side of those first formed in the Hecistopteris minima stage. 
Thus in Antrophyum and Ananthacorus, the two axial rows of 
areolae correspond exactly (i. e., are homologous) with the only 
two rows developed in Vittaria. 
The particular interest attaching to this line of study, lies in 
the possibilities which it offers in the way of clearing up some of 
the relationships and the generic limits of such fern genera as 
Phlebodium, Goniophlebium and others which have complicated 
reticulate venation and which are known to be related, but about 
which there is much difference of opinion. It should also be of 
value in connection with the study of seed plants. 
Mr. B. O. Dodge gave a synopsis of his work on the fungi of 
