| ie) THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 
of the Palm Ferns (Zamiz, or Cycadeze) stands at the lowest 
stage, and is directly allied to ferns, as the name implies, 
so that some botanists have actually included them 
in the fern group. In their external form they resemble 
palms, as well as tree ferns (or tree-like frond ferns), and 
are adorned by a crown of feathery leaves, which is placed 
either on a thick, short trunk, or on a slender, simple 
trunk like a pillar. At the present day this class, once so 
rich in forms, is but scantily represented by a few forms 
living in the torrid zones, namely, by the coniferous 
ferns (Zamia), the thick-trunked bread-tree (Encephalartos), 
and the slender-trunked Caffir bread-tree (Cycas). They 
may frequently be seen in hot-houses, and are generally 
mistaken for palms. A much greater variety of forms than 
occurs among the still existing palm ferns (Cycadeze) is pre- 
sented by the extinct and fossil Cycads, which occurred in 
sreat numbers more towards the middle of the secondary 
period, during the Jura, and which at that time principally 
determined the character of the forests. 
The class of Pines, or coniferous trees (Coniferze), has pre- 
served down to our day a greater variety of forms than have 
the palm ferns. Even at the present time the trees belonging 
to it—cypresses, juniper trees, and trees of life (Thuja), the 
box and ginko trees (Salisburya), the araucaria and cedars, 
but above all the genus Pinus, which is so rich in forms, 
with its numerous and important species, spruces, pines, firs, 
larches, ete.—still play a very important part in the most 
different parts of the earth, and almost of themselves consti- 
tute extensive forests. Yet this development of pines seems 
but weak in comparison with the predominance which the 
class had attained over other plants during the early 
