The leaves have a single main bundle, and in the mesophyll are four longitudinal series of large intercellular spaces separated by transverse diaphragms. The sporangia, which are situated singly on the adaxial surface of the leaves, between their insertion on the stem and the ligule, arise from a considerable number of epidermal cells.
As the axis of the ctenidium lies by the side of the body, and is very frequently connate with the body, as so often happens in Gastropods also, we find it convenient to speak of the two plate-like structures formed on each ctenidial axis as the outer and the inner gill-plate; each of these is composed of two lamellae, an outer (the reflected) and an adaxial in the case of the outer gill plate, and an adaxial and an inner (the reflected) in the case of the inner gill-plate.
The fertile branch or branches are situated on the adaxial surface of the leaves, and may be simple, as in Ophioglossum (fig.