A morphological and anatomical investigation of some of the thelypterid ferns

Abstract

From this survey of the available literature it can be seen that although the thelypterids have already been studied in varying degrees of detail, by many workers, the information presented has always been of a fragmentary nature. This has been a consequence either of the restricted geographical knowledge of the worker or of the restricted lines of research along which he has worked. Thus the present situation is that at one end of the scale the taxonomy and morphology of the thelypterids have been intensively studied (although in various strictly delimited geographical areas only) whilst at the other end of the scale anatomy and palynology have been studied in only a very small number of species which, moreover, have been chosen in a somewhat arbitrary manner. The present situation regarding the thelypterids is therefore that although there has been a large volume of work carried out, much of this has been of an incidental nature in works whose emphasis was not on the thelypterids alone. Because of this the available information is scattered throughout numerous works and an overall picture has not been constructed previously.