MESOZOIC PLANTS 245 



species — the Maidenhair Tree. Oriental reverence 

 has saved it from extinction, and the curiosity of the 

 Occident is securing its cultivation over a wide area. 

 The species has a peculiar botanical interest as the 

 sole survivor of a gymnospermous group of numerous 

 species, the oldest of which date back to the Permian, 

 and as an instance of a Gymnosperm in which the 

 ovule, after the manner of Cycas, is fertilized by an 

 actively swimming male cell (p. 178). The Ginkgoales 

 reached the hey-day of their development in the 

 Mesozoic. 



The Mesozoic Era, embracing the Triassic, Jurassic 

 and Cretaceous Periods — the geological " Middle Ages " 

 — was undoubtedly the Era of Gymnosperms. Ferns 

 held their own, but the cryptogamic Lycopods and 

 Horsetails, so majestic in Palaeozoic times, became rela- 

 tively inconspicuous in the Mesozoic, while Ginkgoales 

 and Conifers increased in importance. The Mesozoic 

 Conifers differed little from existing forms. Fossil 

 Monkey-Puzzles (Araucarice) have been traced back 

 certainly as far as the Jurassic, and the same is true of 

 the Cypress family — the Cwpressinece. The Larch and 

 Pine family (Abietinese), and the Yew family (Taxacese), 

 have been traced down to the Cretaceous. The Gink- 

 goales and Cycads, however, were the special features of 

 the Mesozoic, and of these two gymnospermous groups 

 the Cycadophytes was easily first during the Triassic 

 and Jurassic Periods, which have been aptly termed the 

 " Age of Cycads." As we have learned (p. 178), Cycads 

 are now few in number and restricted in distribution; 

 but in the Mesozoic they were exceedingly numerous, 

 and had a worldwide distribution. They extended to 



