This type of stern is therefore often spoken of as protoslelic. In the Ferns there is clear evidence that the amphiphloic haplostele or protostele succeeded the simple (ectophloic) protostele in evolution, and that this in its turn gave rise to the solenostele, which was again succeeded by the dictyostele.
It is probable that this type of stele is a modification of a primitive protostele, in which the main mass of stelar xylem has become much reduced and incidentally separated from the leaftraces.
The anatomy of the stele in the stem exhibits on the whole a progression from a solid protostele through a tubular solenostele to one or more circles of separate steles derived by the breaking up of the solenostele.
The main events in this transition appear to have been (I) disappearance of the central xylem of the protostele and replacement by pith, leading to the survival of a number of (mesarch) collateral bundles (see below) at the periphery of the stele; (2) passage from mesarchy to endarchy of these bundles correlated with a great increase in secondary thickening of the stele.