The Anatomy and Morphology of Tmesipteris. 
BY 
M. G. SYKES. 
Girton College , Cambridge ; Bathurst Student, Newnham College , Cambridge. 
With Plates VII and VIII and thirteen Figures in the Text. 
HE material on which the following investigation is based was kindly 
J- sent by Professor Thomas, of Auckland in New Zealand, at the 
request of Professor Seward ; it comprised two forms, differing only slightly 
in appearance and structure, but separated by Dangeard 1 as two species : 
T. tannensis (Fig. I) and T. lanceolata (P'ig. II). 
My thanks are due to Professor Seward, both for his kindness in 
obtaining the material for me and for his helpful interest in my work and 
useful suggestions during its progress. 
I. Habitat and Distribution. 
Tmesipteris is found living as an epiphyte on tree-ferns in New Zealand, 
Australia, and Polynesia . 2 Each plant consists of an aerial portion and 
a rhizome, or subterranean region, but has no roots. In my specimens the 
aerial part varied from three to eight inches in length. It is very difficult 
to extricate any but small pieces of the rhizome from the tree-fern roots 
with which it intertwines . 3 I therefore received only small broken 
posterior portions of the rhizome and short lengths of the anterior region, 
the latter being attached to the aerial shoots . 4 
Our knowledge of Tmesipteris is based entirely on the adult plant : 
spores have never been germinated, so nothing is known of the gameto- 
phyte. 
It seems probable that the plant has a saprophytic mode of life, and 
the occurrence of a fungus 5 growing in the cortical cells of the rhizome 
supports this suggestion. 
1 Dangeard, Le Botaniste, ii, p. 216. 3 Baker, Fern Allies, 29-30. 
3 Dangeard, Le Botaniste, ii, p. 168. 4 Jennings and Hall, 1891, PI. I, Fig. 4. 
5 Dangeard, Le Botaniste, ii, pp. 223-30, PI. IX, Figs. 15, 16. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XXII. No. LXXXV. January, 1908.] 
