V] FERNS 73 



nature of these Palaeozoic plants was recognised. 

 Nothing was known as to the reproductive organs. 

 Ferns as now represented in the floras of the 

 world are essentially seed-less plants. As the author 

 of Hudihras wrote : 



' Who would believe what strange bugbears 

 Mankind creates itself, of fears? 

 That spring like fern, that insect weed, 

 Equivocally, without seed.' 



The reproductive organs or spores borne on the 

 fronds of a fern produce, on germination, a thin 

 green structure, known as the prothallus, less than 

 an inch in length : this bears the sexual organs, and as 

 the result of the union of the male and female cells, 

 the embryo fern-plant begins its existence as a parasite 

 on the inconspicuous prothallus, until after unfolding 

 its first green leaf and thrusting a slender root into 

 the ground, it starts its career as an independent 

 organism \ In this life-cycle the seed plays no 

 part. 



It is noteworthy that the absence of any indication 

 of spore-capsules and spores, in the case of some of 

 the supposed fern leaves from the Coal-measures, 

 caused some suspicion in the mind of an Austrian 

 Palaeobotanist as to the right of such specimens to 



^ The life-history of a Fern is clearly described by Prof. Bower 

 in a recent volume in this series. 



