Lycopodiales Sentence Examples

The vascular supply of the leaf (leaf-trace) consists of a single strand only in the haplostelic and some of the more primitive siphonostelic forms. In the microphyllous groups Leaf.trace of Pteridophytes (Lycopodiales and Equisetales) in and Petlolar which the leaves are small relatively to the stem, the Strands, single bundle destined for each leaf is a small strand whose departure causes no disturbance in the cauline stele.

The Sphenophyllales are only known in a fossil state, while the Equisetales, Lycopodiales and Filicales include both living and extinct representatives.

The anatomy of the stem is thus very unlike that characteristic of the Equisetales, and presents essential points of resemblance to the Lycopodiales and especially to the Psilotales.

A consideration of the characters of both shows that the Psilotales are the nearest living representatives of the Sphenophyllales, while resemblances suggesting actual relationship exist between this group and the Equisetales and Lycopodiales.

These differences and our comparatively imperfect knowledge of the Sphenophyllaceous plants which most closely resemble the Psilotaceae appear to justify the provisional isolation of the latter as a distinct group, showing affinities with both the Sphenophyllales and Lycopodiales.

As general characteristics of the Lycopodiales, the simple form of the leaves, which are generally of small size, and the situation of the sporangia on the upper surface of the sporophylls, which are often associated in cones, close to their insertion on the axis, may be mentioned; there are both homosporous and heterosporous forms, the prothalli exhibiting corresponding differences.

The several orders of Lycopodiales described above, while presenting a number of features in common, are distinctly isolated from one another.

What is known at present, while it does not indicate the phylogeny of the Lycopodiales, at least shows that such living orders as Lycopodiaceae and Selaginellaceae cannot be regarded as forming a linear series.

For these reasons no attempt has been made to arrange the orders in larger divisions, since such a division as that of the ligulate and eligulate forms, while convenient for practical purposes, may not express the phylogeny of the group. The Psilotaceae, formerly included in the Lycopodiales, have been described separately owing to their resemblance to the Sphenophyllales.

On the other hand, the spike has been explained as due to the elaboration of a single sporangium occupying a similar position with regard to the leaf as in the Lycopodiales, and evidence of considerable weight has been brought forward in support of this interpretation.

The important bearing of this question on the relationship of the Ophioglossaceae to the phyla of the Filicales and Lycopodiales will be obvious.

In the earliest land vegetations of which we have any sufficient record specialized forms of Equisetales, Lycopodiales, Sphenophyllales and Filicales existed, so that we are reduced to hypotheses founded on the careful comparison of the recent and extinct members of these groups.

The study of the Sphenophyllales, however, as has been pointed out above, appears to indicate that the Equisetales and Lycopodiales may be traced back to a common ancestry.

In addition to the three classes, Equisetales, Lycopodiales and Filicales, under which recent Pteridophytes naturally group themselves, a fourth class, Sphenophyllales, existed in Palaeozoic times, clearly related to the Horsetails and more remotely to the Ferns and perhaps the Club-mosses, but with peculiarities of its own demanding an independent position.