XXl] HYMEN OPHYLLACEAE 365 



bears some resemblance to recent Hymenophyllaceae, but the 

 figures are by no means convincing: an examination of the 

 type-specimens in the Strassburg Museum led Solms-Laubach^ 

 to express dissent from Schimper's determination. A more 

 satisfactory example is that afforded by the fertile pieces of a 

 frond described by Zeiller^ from French Coal-Measures as 

 Hymenophyllites quadridactylites (Gutbier). Some of the 

 ultimate segments with a truncated tip are preserved in close 

 association with a group of oval sporangia with a complete 

 transverse annulus (fig. 270, F, G). The position of the sporangia 

 is such as to suggest their separation from a terminal columnar 

 receptacle like that in Trichomanes and Hymenophyllum. In 

 his account of this species from the Coal-Measures of the Forest 

 of Wyre, Kidston^ states that Zeiller informed him that he had 

 noticed traces of what appeared to be a columnar receptacle in 

 the French specimens. 



The records of Hymenophyllaceae from the Mesozoic and 

 Tertiary formations are not such as need detain us. The facts 

 bearing on the geological history of this family are singularly 

 meagre. There is no evidence which can be adduced in 

 favour of regarding the Hymenophyllaceae as ferns of great 

 antiquity, which played a prominent part in the floras of 

 the past. 



It is interesting to find that the genus Ankyropteris*, one 

 of the Botryopterideae (a group of Palaeozoic Ferns for which I 

 propose the name Coenopterideae), has a morphological character 

 in common with Trichomanes, namely the production of axillary 

 buds : there are also features in the stelar anatomy shared by 

 the Botryopterideae and Hymenophyllaceae ^ These resem- 

 blances, though by no means amounting to proof of near 

 relationship, point to a remote ancestry for certain features 

 retained by existing members of the Hymenophyllaceae. 



Cyatheaceae. 



The specimens from the Culm rocks of Moravia on which 



1 Solms-Laubach (91) A. p. 153. - Zeiller (83) p. 155 ; (88) A. PI. vni. figs. 1-3. 

 3 Kidston (84=) p. 593. * See p. 450. = Scott (08) p. 343. 



