1 1 2 Bower . — Is Eusporangiate or Leptosporangiate 
It is not my object here to give a complete history of the 
origin and growth of this opinion : it is however one of long 
standing. Both Linnaeus and Sprengel placed the Hymeno- 
phyllaceae at the end of the series of Ferns, while the Mosses 
immediately followed them : notwithstanding that R. Brown 
and Sir W. Hooker 1 preferred to make them ‘part of the 
Polypodiaceae, ranking near Davallia and Loxsoma / Presl 2 
and Bernhardi separated them as a special family of Ferns, 
and the former writer concludes that the Hymenophyllaceae 
are rather far removed from the Filicineae, and must be re- 
garded as a connecting link with the Mosses and Liverworts 3 . 
Van den Bosch 4 went so far as to erect them into an order, 
which he styled the Bryopterideae, and placed them between 
Mosses and Ferns. These views were however based chiefly 
on the external characters of the Sporophyte ; when the in- 
ternal structure of the Sporophyte as well as the characters 
of the prothallus had been investigated by Mettenius, he con- 
cluded 5 that the views of Van den Bosch were untenable, and 
that though the Hymenophyllaceae occupy the lowest position 
among the Ferns, being furthest removed from the Ophio- 
glossaceae, still they are true Ferns. The affinity to the 
Bryophyta which he also recognised 6 , was accepted by 
Prantl 7 , but it remained for Goebel 8 to bring together 
evidence from the comparative examination of the sexual 
generation, in support of the Bryophytic affinity. Goebel re- 
marks at the close of his memoir that we are able even now 
to follow, at least in part, the phylogenetic development of the 
sexual generation from the Bryophyta to the Pteridophyta, 
though the neutral generation fails to supply us with any 
1 Genera Filicum, description of Plate XXXI. 
2 K. B. Presl, Hymenophyllaceae, 1842, pp. 96, 97. 
3 1. c., p. 98. 
4 Versl. en Mededeel. d. k. Akad. Amsterdam, XI, 1861, and Journ. d, Bot 
Nederland., I, 1861. 
6 Ueber die Hymenophyllaceae, Abh. Sachs. Ges. d. Wiss. 1864, p. 500. 
6 He points out especially the affinity with the Sphagnaceae. 
7 Hymenophyllaceae, p. 62, 1875. 
8 Zur Keimungsgeschichte einiger Fame, Ann. d. Jardin Bot. de Buitenzorg, 
vol. VII. 
