The distribution and origins of selected Pteridophyta in the Mediterranean area is discussed. Five main periods and sources are indicated: ancient taxa in Equisetopsida and Lycopodiopsida which had an early Laurasian origin; Polypodiopsida that evolved in deciduous forest of the Northern Hemisphere in Paleocene- Eocene times; elements that arose in the tropics of the Cretaceous-Paleocene flora and developed in the warmer and wetter periods to be residual in the south-west of our area; those later species that secondarily spread from east or south-west Asia. The importance of Gondwanaland as a source of some of the older taxa is also briefly discussed.