Bower. — Ophioglossum simplex , Ridley. 213 
separate strands ; these insert themselves individually upon the rather 
irregular ring of bundles of the stock, which opens by a lateral gap to 
receive them. A comparison with O. pendulum (Figs. 6-13) shows that 
the arrangement in O. simplex is virtually the same, though somewhat 
smaller and simpler — a fact which still further accentuates the affinity with 
that species. 
We are now in a position to discuss the morphology of this curious 
plant, and the bearing which its existence may have upon the general 
theory of the Ophioglossaceous form. It seems clear that the lamina, 
commonly present, is practically absent here : not even any vestigial trace 
of it was seen, though if young specimens were available it is possible that 
such might be found. So far as observation has been possible the appendi- 
cular organ appears simple, and to be terminated by a normal fertile spike. 
Either of two possible views may be based on these facts : (1) that the 
appendages are simple spikes, which have not, and never had, a subtending 
sporophyll ; (2) that they are leaves of the ordinary Ophioglossaceous type, 
in which the sterile lamina is entirely abortive. 
If the former be their real nature, then we see in O. simplex some 
support for the view put forward some years ago by Campbell 1 . He com- 
pared the Ophioglossaceous spike with the sporogonium of Anthoceros , 
and remarked : ‘ If we could imagine such a sporogonium to develop a root 
fastening it to the ground, and thus rendering it entirely independent of the 
oophyte, we should have the simplest possible form of a Pteridophyte.’ 
The plant of O. simplex seems to consist of little more than two such 
‘ sporogonia,’ with root, or roots ; in fact it would almost realize Campbell’s 
forecast, and suggest more strongly than before that the Ophioglossaceae 
are, as he held, the most primitive Pteridophytes. If it were thus primitive 
it would point to the spike being the prior existent part, and the lamina 
a mere subsequent appendage upon it. 
But in Celakovsky’s view, which I have found reason to support 
elsewhere 2 , the Ophioglossaceae are regarded as derivative forms from 
a Lycopodinous type of construction, in which a constant relation of the 
spore-bearing organ to the lamina existed throughout the descent. With 
such a type the condition of O. simplex could only be brought into con- 
formity on a theory of abortion of the lamina, which subtends the spike in 
the usual Ophioglossaceous type: this is the alternative theory above 
suggested. Against this theory there can be no a priori objection, for 
in the Ophioglossaceae we see various degrees of abortion of the fertile 
spike, which lead to the condition of its complete absence ; and there seems 
no reason to hold that what may happen to the spike may not equally 
1 On the affinities of the Filicineae, Bot. Gaz. xv, No. i, Jan. 1890 ; also Mosses and Ferns, 
pp. 296, 297. 
2 Studies in Morphology of Spore-producing Members. II. Ophioglossaceae. Dulau and Co., 1896. 
