180 THE FOSSIL FERNS. 



CLASS II. CELLULAE CBYPTOGAMUE. 



The second class, that of the cellular cryptogamice, includes 

 the third family, that of the liverworts and mosses. 



CLASS III. VASCULAK CEYPTOaAMLE. 



The third class, that of the higher order of cryptogamous 

 plants, entitled vascular cryptogamics, constitutes the bulk of 

 the plants of the coal, and comprises the extensive tribes of 

 equisetacea, or horse-tail family ; the ferns ; the marsiliacece, 

 or pepperwort family ; the characece, or chara family ; and 

 the lycopodiacece, or the club mosses. But, though resembling 

 the recent tribes above mentioned, the fossil plants far sur- 

 pass them in size. Thus the equisetum, or horse-tail, is a 

 small, slender, elegant plant of our ponds and ditches, not 

 more than half an inch in diameter, having an erect, suc- 

 culent, jointed stem, with verticillate fringes of linear leaves 

 growing round the joints, and bearing spikes of fructification 

 on the summit. Plants of this family are abundant in the 

 coal ; but they are, comparatively, of gigantic species, exceed- 

 ing a foot in circumference. 



4th Family. EQTJISETACE^E. 



We subjoin a figure (112) of the existing equisetum, for 

 . the purpose of comparing it with that of 

 the fossil equisetum columnare, from Brong- 

 niart, and of calamites cannaformis, from 

 Lindley and Hutton. (Figs. 113, 114.) 



5th Family. FERNS. 



"We next arrive at the ferns, which form 

 so large a proportion of plants of the coal, 

 and which, in their size and proportions, 

 present so striking a contrast to the dimi- 

 FIG. 112. nutive genera of this region at the present 



day. The common brake, or fern, exhibits 

 a type of the family ; but the arborescent ferns which now 

 grow only in the vicinity of the equator, present the closest 



