Bower. — Studies in the Phytogeny of the Fi lie ales. 287 
becoming thicker upwards, and narrowing suddenly near to the apex. 
They do not bear any glands, and are not branched (Fig. 16). Such hairs 
are of a very primitive type, and the absence of any broadening into 
ramenta or scales is. in strong antithesis to what is seen in many related 
genera, and especially those of the Cyatheaceae. But the condition here 
seen compares in essentials with the condition of those species of Gleichenia 
( G . linearis and pectinata) with which comparisons have been drawn 
on other grounds. 
The Sporangium. 
It has been seen that the sorus of Lophosoria consists of about 7-10 
sporangia, seated upon a slightly raised receptacle. Not only does observa- 
tion of young stages show that the sporangia of a single sorus arise 
simultaneously, as in the relatively primitive Simplices, but there is 
an extraordinary simultaneity of development of the sporangia on the same 
pinnule, and even on the whole leaf. This condition, so different from what 
is usual in the more advanced Ferns, was entirely unexpected when the 
collection of material was made.- The result was that only certain stages 
were at first secured, and those did not include the earliest. The difficulty 
as to material was, however, surmounted through the kindness of Mr. Harris, 
of the Hope Gardens, Jamaica, who made a second collection for me so as 
to secure the earliest stages of the sorus and sporangium. It is to be 
remembered that the condition thus shown by Lophosoria is characteristic 
rather of the lower than of the higher Filicales, and is conspicuously the case 
in the Gleicheniaceae. 
The mature sporangium is of large size, and of almost spherical form. 
It is attached by a short stalk, which in transverse section shows six 
or more cells (Fig. 17). This corresponds to what is seen in G. linearis 
(Studies, IV, Fig. 9), and is distinctly more complex than is seen in Also- 
phila excelsa ( 1 . c., Fig. 89). There are no internal cells such as are seen in 
the massive stalk of Todea ( 1 . c., Figs. 48-50), or in Lygodium as clearly 
indicated byBinford’s drawing (‘ Bot. Gaz/, vol. xliv, Fig. 18, p. 217), or in 
Gleichenia circinnata ( 1 . c., Fig. 5), or in Matonia ( 1 . c., Fig. 59), and occasion- 
ally seen in Mohria (Prantl, ‘ Schizaeaceae,’ Fig. 143). In this detail, 
which is in itself an indication of the massive character of the sessile spor- 
angium, Lophosoria takes a middle position between the larger sporangia of 
some Simplices and the smaller sporangia of the Gradatae. 
The external form and structure of the sporangium is shown in 
Figs. 18-20, from three different points of view. The oblique annulus is 
well marked, and continuous past the stalk, thus marking off two areas 
of thin-walled cells, corresponding to those described as the ‘ peripheral * 
and e central ’ faces in the case of Gleichenia (Studies, IV, p. 34). The 
peripheral face is shown in frontal view in Fig. 18, and is the face of the 
