GENERAL RESULTS— PTEROPSIDA 641 



Ophioglossaceae sprang from some offshoot of the 

 sporangiophoric Pteridophytes, allied in some degree to 

 the Sphenophyllales," ' while he recognises an analogy 

 with the Filicales. My own feeling is that the converse 

 way of putting the relations is to be preferred. It 

 appears probable that the Ophioglossaceae were derived 

 from primitive Ferns, allied to the Botryopterideae, 

 while they show analogies, in the way their sporangia 

 are borne, with the sporangiophoric Pteridophytes, such 

 as Sphenophyllales and Psilotales. On the view here 

 adopted we should naturally regard the Ophioglossaceae 

 with well-developed Fern-like leaves as, on the whole, 

 the more primitive members of the family. 2 



All the evidence we possess as to the Ferns of early 

 periods shows that they were already megaphyllous 

 forms, comparable in habit to their later successors, and 

 affords no ground for the supposition that they were 

 derived from a microphyllous ancestry. It must, how- 

 ever, be admitted that our palaeontological record for 

 the Ferns (as for other Pteridophytic groups) is too 

 short to settle questions of origin. 



The majority of the Lower Carboniferous and 

 Devonian Fern-like plants were probably Pteridosperms. 

 It is as yet impossible to distinguish by the habit 

 between these plants and the Ferns, and indeed the 

 best proof we now have of the presence of true Ferns in 

 Devonian rocks is the occurrence of petrified stems of 

 Asterochlaena (p. 324). 



1 Origin of a Land Flora, p. 492. 



2 The evidence for saprophytic reduction within the family seems to be 

 materially strengthened by the case of extreme reduction which has been 

 found in Ophioglossum simplex. See, however, the views of Bower, Origin 

 of a Land Flora, p. 477. 



