102 THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS 



The Club-mosses or Lycopods, then the great 



arborescent family; and 

 The Fern-like plants. 



The last mentioned were in number of species 

 much the most important of all, amounting to 

 about half the whole. It used to be assumed 

 that this great mass of plants with the fronds 

 of Ferns were really what they appeared to be 

 true Cryptogamic Ferns. But the researches 

 of the last few years have confirmed a suspicion 

 already felt by one or two clear-sighted investi- 

 gators, that a large number of them were only 

 Ferns in appearance and were really of a much 

 higher rank in the Vegetable Kingdom. Only 

 in the case of a mere fraction of these Fern-like 

 plants is there any satisfactory evidence that 

 they were true Ferns, reproduced by spores, 

 like those of the present day. As regards the 

 majority, the nature of the reproductive organs 

 has only been in any degree revealed during 

 the last seven or eight years; all the evidence 

 goes to show that the great bulk of the apparent 

 Ferns of Palaeozoic age were really reproduced 

 by seeds. In certain cases the seeds have been 

 found in actual connection with the fronds; in 

 other cases identity of structure enables us to 

 recognize them; in a great number of instances, 

 including most of the chief genera of the Fern- 



