On the Embryogeny of Angiopteris evecta, 
Hoffm. 
BY 
J. BRETLAND FARMER, M.A., F.L.S. 
Fellow of Magdalen College , Oxford. 
With Plate XV. 
N otwithstanding the attention which has for 
many years been bestowed upon the Filicineae and 
their allies, the embryogeny of no member of the euspor- 
angiate Ferns is as yet known ; a circumstance, the cause of 
which is to be attributed to the difficulty of obtaining the 
plants in a condition suitable for investigation. 
When in Ceylon last year, I took the opportunity of 
securing as much material as possible of prothallia of Angi- 
opteris , with the view of studying the development of the 
sporophyte, and although my results are incomplete on some 
points, it has been possible to make out clearly the more 
important features presented by the embryo of this plant. 
The prothallium is remarkably deep green in colour and 
somewhat orbicular in shape. It is not unlike the thallus of 
Anthoceros , with which my specimens were often associated ; 
it commonly however reaches a large size, occasionally attain- 
ing to as much as three quarters of an inch in diameter. The 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. VI. No. XXIII, October, 1892.] 
T 2 
