﻿THE FERX BULLETIN 



27 



Rood, A. N. Lycopodium Luciduhtm porophilum in 



Ohio. Fern Bulletin O. 190S. 

 Schaffner, T. H. The Air cavities of Equisetum 



as Water Reservoirs. Ohio Naturalist N. 1908. 

 Slosson, M. Notes on Some Hybrid Ferns. Fern 



Bulletin O. 1908. — Various hybrids between species 



of Nephrodhim (Dryopteris) in Eastern America 



discussed. 



Nephrolepis Scholseli illust. Gardening D. 15, 1908. 



— A crested form of N. exalt a Seottii. 

 Polypodium aiircum Mandaianum illust. Gardening 



D. 15, '1908. — A multifid form of Polypodium aur- 



eum areolatum. 



THE COAL FERNS. 



The Coal Ferxs. It has long been believed that 

 the bulk of our Coal Measures consists of the remains 

 of ferns, but discoveries made within the past few years 

 show that these guesses at the past history of these 

 deposits have been all wrong. While it seems reason- 

 ably certain that plants with true flowers were not in 

 existence when the coal was formed yet the pines, or 

 rather certain relatives of the pines were most amund- 

 ant. Ferns were plentiful, to be sure, but many of the 

 plants we have been calling ferns, and which, to judge 

 from appearances only, are very fern-like turn out to 

 be more nearly related to flowering plants or at least 

 to the Gymnosperms, as the pines and their allies are 

 called. These latter plants bore seeds, and are there- 

 fore certainly not ferns, while they are so fern-like in 

 structure that any botanist would hesitate to call them 

 true gymnosperms. Thev have therefore been placed 

 in a class by themselves as Pteridosperms. A rather 

 full account of them may be found in the Report of the 

 Smithsonian Institution for 1907. 



