CHAPTER XXII. 

 Marattiales (Fossil). 



The discovery of Pteridosperms has necessarily led to a con- 

 siderable modification of the views formerly held that existing 

 genera of Marattiaceae represent survivors of a group which 

 occupied a dominant position in the forests of the Coal age. 

 Mr Arber writes : — " The evidence, formerly regarded as beyond 

 suspicion, that the eusporangiate ferns formed a dominant 

 feature of the vegetation of the Palaeozoic period, has been 

 undermined, more especially by the remarkable discovery of 

 the male organs of Lyginodendron by Mr Kidston. At best 

 we can only now regard them as a subsidiary group in that 

 epoch in the past history of the vegetable kingdom^" Dr Scott 

 expresses himself in terms slightly more favourable to the view 

 that the Marattiaceae represent the aristocracy among the 

 Filicales. He says : — " We now have to seek laboriously for 

 evidence, which formerly seemed to lie open to us on all hands. 

 I believe, however, that such careful investigation will result in 

 the resuscitation of the Palaeozoic ferns as a considerable, though 

 not as a dominant groxip^." Zeiller's faith^ in the prospect of 

 Marattiaceous ferns retaining their position as prominent 

 members of Palaeozoic floras, though shaken, is not extin- 

 guished : he recognises that they played a subordinate part. 



Reference has already been made to the impossibility of 

 determining whether Palaeozoic fern- like fronds may be legiti- 

 mately retained in the Filicales, or whether they must be 

 removed into the ever widening territory of the Pteridosperms. 



1 Arber (06).p. 227. ^ goott (06) p. 189. » Zeiller (05). 



