NOTES. 
ON A NEW TYPE OF FERN-STELE, AND ITS PROBABLE 
PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONS. — Among the alcohol-material of 
various Ferns, recently brought home by one of us from the Malay 
Peninsula with a view to the study of their anatomy, were several 
species of the genus Lindsaya. In all of these, Z. orbiculata (Lam.), 
Bed .(—L.flabellulata, Dry.), L. orbiculatayzx. tenera,Bed.(—L. tenera , 
Dry.), Z. rigida , Sm., Z. lancea (L.), Bed. ( = Z. irapezi/ormis, Dry.), we 
found that the rhizome presented a constant type of stele which was 
entirely new to us, and of such striking interest in relation to the 
phylogenetic problems which have quite recently become prominent 
in the province of Fern-anatomy, that we determined to undertake 
a detailed investigation of all the species of Lindsaya that we could 
obtain. L. Guianensis , Dry., from British Guiana, growing in one of 
the pits at Kew, shows the same structure 1 , while Z. relusa, Metten., 
on the other hand, has a typical solenostele. The nearest affinities 
of Lindsaya , as determined by soral characters, appear to be with 
Davallia § Odontoloma ; concerning one species of this section, 
Davallia repens , Desv., a very widely distributed Fern in the Indo- 
Malayan region and Polynesia, it is remarked in the ‘ Synopsis 
Filicum,’ p. 93 : ‘ Quite doubtful as between Odontolo?na and 
Lindsaya ! It was of great interest, therefore, to find that the 
structure of the stem of this species conformed exactly to what we 
will call provisionally, for convenience , sake, the Lindsaya- type. 
We have since ascertained that the stele of Davallia repens has already 
been partially described by Tr^cul 2 , who, however, missed the crucial 
character. The reference to this paper, which we had unfortunately 
overlooked, was given to us by Mr. Gwynne-Vaughan, who, it appears, 
is familiar with this type of structure. 
1 Sihce the text of this note was written we have obtained fragments of the 
rhizomes of Z. scandens, Hk., L. davallioides , Blume, and L. (Schizoloma) lobata , 
Poir. ( = Z. nitens , Blume) from herbarium-material, for which we are indebted to 
the kindness of Mr. R. H. Yapp, who collected it in Perak. In all these species 
we find the same type of stele. 
2 Structure du systeme vasculaire dans le genre Davallia , et en particulier dans 
Davallia repens. Comptes Rendus, t. 101, 1885. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVI. No. LXI. March, 190a.] 
