422 SPHENOPHYLLALES. B. PSILOTACEAE 
in the embryo of guzsetum, with its direct and early assertion of the 
axis, and the relatively late and subsidiary character of its first leaves. 
It is naturally impossible to express any opinion on such points at 
present; but it is to be remarked that the facts relating to the mature 
plants of the Psilotaceae as they stand would bear either of those inter- 
pretations. So far as expressed, current opinion appears to favour the 
probability of reduction in accordance with habit, and especially so in 
the case of Pszlotum, where the leaves lend themselves readily to an 
interpretation as reduced structures. But whichever view be ultimately 
taken, a strobiloid theory would meet the facts more readily than any 
phytonic theory of the shoot. 
