Past History 



one of the long results of Time, as ferns and those 

 strange relatives of theirs, clubmosses and horsetails, 

 have been proved to be the descendants of plants that 

 grew millions of years ago. 



Let us try to picture what the world was like at that 

 very remote period. Large tracts of the land surface 

 of the globe then consisted of dense swamps, intersected 

 by slow-flowing rivers on their way to the seas. So 

 great was the heat that moisture in the form of vapour 

 was continually rising from the surface of the swamps, 

 rivers, and seas. The thick clouds of mist thus 

 formed acted as a screen between the blazing sun and 

 the earth. 



Under such conditions of heat, moisture, and shade, 

 the plant life of the period was of extraordinary 

 luxuriance. Dense forests with trees of gigantic size, 

 far exceeding in height the monarchs of our present- 

 day British woods, and a close tangled undergrowth of 

 many smaller forms of vegetation covered the muddy 

 swamps. Six great groups of plants are known to have 

 inhabited these dense forests, but only three out of 

 the six namely, ferns, clubmosses, and horsetails are 

 represented among British plants to-day. Till a few 

 years ago ferns were regarded as one of the most 

 important of these ancient groups. Recent research, 

 however, has shown that this view must be greatly 

 modified. Many of the plants hitherto looked upon 

 as true ferns have been shown not to have been so in 

 reality. While they resembled true ferns very closely 



