The Fern Alliance 



We have not yet discovered the ancestor of the 

 flowering plants, so that it is impossible to prove or 

 disprove any of these ingenious speculations. 



Both the great groups of flowering plants (Mono- 

 cotyledons and Dicotyledons) suddenly appear about 

 the beginning of the Cretaceous period, and not as 

 single individuals either, but in battalions, with many 

 of our natural orders and not a few present-day genera. 



On the other hand we now know, thanks to the 

 brilliant researches of Professor Oliver and Dr. Scott, 

 that seed-plants not only existed but were common in 

 coal-measure times. They have proved that a certain 

 fossil (Lagenostoma Lomaxi) is a true seed with a husk 

 or cupule. Its stems are fossils known as Lyginodendron, 

 and its foliage seems to be another fossil called Neur- 

 opteris, which had hitherto been supposed to be a fern.^° 



Some of these coal-measure seeds are more or less 

 succulent (Trigonocarpus), and it would be interesting 

 to know what sort of animal lived on them. Could 

 they be distributed by fishes ? This is not impossible, 

 for, as Spruce points out in a recently published book, 

 shoals of fish lie in wait for the fruits of some of the 

 trees in the Amazon valley. 



Neither birds nor mammals, and not even Ptero- 

 dactyls, existed in those days. 



It has been found possible to trace, more or less 

 accurately, the pedigree of some of our still living 

 coniferous trees. They are descended from the fossil 

 Cordaites which have been connected with the seed- 

 ferns or Cycadofilices of the coal-measures. These 

 last spring from a very primitive fern-stock. 



From these last-mentioned primitive ferns (or Primo- 

 filices of Arber) our modern ferns have been derived, 

 but did not diverge from them before later Carboni- 

 ferous days.^^ 



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