396 West. — A Contribution to the Study of the Marattiaceae . 
structure of the apex of the older rhizome. The present writer has found 
that a meristematic region, similar in all essentials to that described above 
for Danaea , occurs at the apex 
of the old rhizome of Kaidfussici 
aesculi folia (Text-fig. 24). 
The stem -apex of Marattia 
and of Angiopteris was not ex- 
amined by the writer, since 
Charles ( 23 ) for the former, 
and Bower ( 4 , 5 , 7 , 9 ) for the 
latter, have already published 
a full account of the changes 
which take place at the apex 
of the stem in these genera, 
and have shown that whilst the 
apical growth of the young 
sporeling may be traced back 
to the segmentation of a single 
initial cell, in older plants a 
group of equivalent initials constitute the apical meristem. 1 
2. Roots. 
Russow ( 54 , p. 107, Taf. VIII, Fig. 158) expressed the opinion that the 
apical growth of the roots in the Marattiaceae takes place by means of 
several [Marattia — 7- 10; Angiopteris = 12-18) relatively large prismatic 
or pyramidal initial cells, the outermost of which give rise to the cortex and 
epidermis, whilst the more central form the axile vascular tissue and the 
tissues of the root-cap. 
Holle ( 34 , p. 217) gave a brief account of the apical growth of the roots 
of Marattia cicutaefolia and of Angiopteris evecta, in which he stated that the 
number of initials at the root-apex was correlated with the size and strength 
of the roots, a single four-sided apical cell being found only in the weaker 
roots. Schwendener ( 56 , Taf. VI, Figs. 3 and 4) described and figured four 
initial cells at the apex of the roots of Angiopteris evecta and of Marattia 
Kaulfussii. 
Van Tieghem and Douliot (66) briefly referred to the apical growth of 
the lateral root in A ngiopteris Durvilleana and in Marattia laevis , and 
figured (he., PI. XXVI, Fig. 407) a lateral root of Marattia with a single 
large triangular apical cell. 
1 Several initial cells are found at the apex of the stem of other Vascular Cryptogams in which 
the shoot is relatively bulky; e. g. Lycopodium (Russow, 53*; Strasburger, 61), Phylloglossum 
(Bower, 6), Iso'etes (West and Takeda, 71), and certain species of Seluginella (Russow, 53; 
Bruchmann, 14, 15). 
