50 
COPELAND. 
Piaty taenia requiniara (Gaudich.) Kuhn is treated by Diels 
as the nearest relative of Taenitis. This fern is accredited to 
the Philippines, but is known to me only by leaf fragments 
ex herb. Kunth, collected in Waighiou in 1825, and kindly sent 
me from the Berlin Botanic Garden. So far as can be judged 
from these fragments, it is altogether like Taenitis except for 
the acrostichoid fructification and a correlated narrowing of 
the fertile pinnae; the close affinity of the two is not doubtful. 
Lomagramma is like Platytaenia in fructification, and fairly 
similar in venation, but does not seem to be a member of this 
group. 
Genera with the Gym.no gramme type of fructification are 
usually found in the groups with acrostichoid genera, and may 
be regarded as intermediate between the latter and the more 
primitive forms with definite sori. In the Taenitis group, this 
position is occupied very exactly by Syngramma pinnata J. Sm. 
The stele and trichome characters are perfectly typical of the 
group; and I have fronds from New Guinea which would be 
determined without hesitation as Taenitis, if they were sterile. 
Sy7igramma is a natural genus, whether or not its separation 
into several genera can be justified. The simple-leaved sections 
have modified types of venation, but are alike in the important 
structural characters, including the natural type of stele. Ex- 
amining a small number of individuals, I have found soleno- 
steles in Syngiamma alismifolia J. Sm., S. ca^'tilagidens 
(Baker) Diels, and S. horneeyisis (Hooker) J. Sm. ; overlapping 
foliar gaps in S. Wallichii Hooker and S. angusta Copel. ; and 
in S. Hookeri C. Chr., gaps usually but not always overlapping, 
this character varying along a single rhizome. 
Because of its affinity to Taenitis and Platytaeiiia, and espe- 
cially to the more primitive genera, ScJiizoloma and Dennstaed- 
tia, Syngramma may with reason be regarded as the most primi- 
tive member of one or perhaps two other groups, embracing 
a considerable part of the genera included in the Pterddeae of 
Diels. These include first the genera with fructification of the 
same type, as Craspedodictyum.,^ Coniogramme and Hemionitis; 
and second such genera as Doi-yopteris, with the sori of Pteris. 
These all preserve the ancestral stelar characters, and the fronds 
of most of the species have the same structural peculiarities. 
The paleae of all except the first-named are less abruptly nar- 
rowed, and in some cases less pigmented and with thinner walls. 
‘This Journal 6 (1911) Bot. 84. 
