844 REPORT— 1903. 



representing the dominant, family of recent ferns, are met with in nearly all parts 

 of the world and possess the attributes of a group of plants at the zenith of its 

 prosperity. We may confidently state that so far as the somewhat meagre 

 evidence allows us to form an opinion, this family occupied a subordinate position in 

 the composition of Mesozoic floras. Polj'podiaceous sporangia have been met with 

 in Palaeozoic rocks, and their existence during the Mesozoic period is not merely a 

 justifiable assumption, but is demonstrated by the occurrence of undoubted species 

 of Poly pod iacese. It seems clear, however, that this family did not attain to a 

 position of importance until the Mesozoic vegetation gave place to that which 

 characterises the present period. The Osmundacefe are now represented by five 

 species of Todea and four of Osmundu ; Todna barbara occurs in South Africa, 

 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, the other species are all filmy ferns and 

 occur in New Zealand, New South Wales, New Caledonia, Samoa, and in a few other 

 southern regions. The genus Osmunda has a wider range, occurring in Europe, 

 Asia, North America, India, Japan, Southern China, Java, South Africa, and 

 other parts of the world. During the Rhaetic and Jurassic periods the Osmundacese 

 flourished over the greater part of Europe ; their remains have been recorded from 

 England, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Poland, Siberia, and Greenland, also 

 from North America, Persia, and China. 



Similarly the Schizseacese, a family now represented by a few genera in India, 

 North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Japan, China, and elsewhere, 

 were among the more abundant ferns in the Jurassic vegetation. TheCyatheacese, 

 a family that is now for the most part confined to the tropics, constituted another 

 vigorous and widely spread section in the Jurassic period ; we find them in 

 Jurassic rocks of Victoria, as well as in several regions in Europe, North America 

 and the Arctic regions. 



The fertile fronds of many of the fossil Cyatheacese bear a striking resemblance 

 to that isolated survivor of the family in Juan Fernandez — Thyrsopteris elegans. 

 It is true that a considerable number of ferns of Jurassic and Weald en age have 

 been described by the generic name Thyrsopteris without any adequate reason ; 

 but, neglecting all doubtful forms, there remain several types represented in the 

 Jurassic flora of Siberia, England, and other parts of the world, which enable us 

 to refer them with confidence to the Cyatheacese and to compare them more 

 particularly with the sole existing species of Thyrsopteris. The Gleicheniaceae, at 

 present characteristic of tropical and southern countries, were undoubtedly abundant 

 in the northern hemisphere in early Cretaceous days ; abundant traces of this 

 family are recorded from Greenland as well as from more southern European 

 latitudes. 



One of the most striking facts afforded by a study of the Mesozoic fern 

 vegetation is the former extension and vigorous development of two families, the 

 Dipteridinse and Matoninese, which are now confined to a few tropical regions and 

 represented by six species. The tall graceful fronds of Matonia pectinata, 

 forming miniature forests on the slopes of Mount Ophir and other districts in the 

 Malay Peninsula in association with Dipteris covjugata and Dipteris Lobbiana, 

 represent a phase of Mesozoic life which survives — 



' Like a dim picture of the drowned past.' 



The fertile fragment of a frond of Matonidium exposed by a stroke of the 

 hammer in a piece of iron-stained limestone picked up on the beach at Haiburn 

 Wyke (a few miles north of Scarborough), is hardly distinguishable from a pinna 

 of the Malayan Matonia jjectinata. Rhsetic and Jurassic ferns referred to the 

 genus Laccopteris afford other examples of the abundance of the Matonineae in the 

 northern hemisphere during the earlier part of the Mesozoic era. 



The modern genus Dipteris, with its four species occurring in India, the 

 Malayan region, Formosa, Fiji, and New Caledonia, stands apart from the great 

 majority of Polypodiaceous ferns, and is now placed in a separate family — the 

 Dipteridinse. Like Matonia it is essentially an ancient and moribund type with 

 hosts of ancestors included in such Rhsetic and Jurassic genera as Dictyophyllum, 

 Camptopteris, and others which must have been among the most conspicuous and 



