THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



83 



of the larva and pupa will also be given. 

 We propose also to figure the more 

 interesting varieties, and especially those 

 occurring in Britain and that have been 

 named. Several larvae are not yet known 

 to us, and we shall be glad to forward a 

 list of those we want to see, to anyone 

 who is w illing to help. We also desire to 

 see nou^y varieties, especially exotic forms. 

 We propose to record the assistance 

 rendered, in the same manner that Mr. 

 Stainton recorded the work of his helpers 

 in the Natural History of the Tineina. 

 Specimens entrusted to us shall be care- 

 ! fully returned at the earliest opportunity, 

 or as in case of ichneumons, &c , where 

 they may not be wanted back, we will make 

 the best return in our power. To begin 

 with we should be pleased to see 

 P. Machaon, v. Asiatica, Men., and Hippo- 

 crates, Feld. ; G-. Rhamni, v. Nepalensis 

 Doub., Aspasia, Men., and Acuminata, 

 Feld. ; G. Cleobule ; C. Hyale, v. Sa- 

 reptensis, Staud, &c. 



FERNS. 



Abstract of a Lecture deli vered by Mr. J. P. 

 Soutter, in the Temperance Hall, Bishop 

 Auckland, I ith December, 1879, to the Members, 

 &c, of the Bishop Auckland Naturalists' Field 

 Club. 



When the dry land began to emerge from the 

 seething waste of water, and the energizing prin- 

 ciples of life began to assume shape and form 

 amongst the oozy slime left by the receding waves, 

 we have reason to believe that the first land plant 

 which clothed the earth was a Fern. Before this 

 there was a profusion of sea and water weeds, 

 some of gigantic proportions, forming dense sub- 

 merged forests in the deep oceans, or towering 



their tall uncouth stems above the stiller surface of 

 shallower seas. But Ferns are essentially land 

 plants, for though some, as the Royal Fern, love 

 to grow near rivers and lakes, dipping their roots 

 down into the clear pellucid water ; or others, as 

 the Killarney Fern, luxuriate in the chinks and 

 crannies by the brink of rocky torrents, where 

 their foliage is ever wet with spray, yet none 

 of them are truly aquatic like the seaweeds, 

 of our oceans or the water lilies of our lakes. 

 This is no speculative theory, for we find the 

 reliable records in those ' ' Nature Printed Ferns " 

 on the indelible pages of the Stone Book, Some 

 have wondered that there are so few plant remains 

 compared with the enormous bulk and prodigal 

 profusion of animal relics, but when we consider 

 the delicacy of their tissue, how little solid matter 

 they contain, and how largely water enters into 

 their composition, and the enormous superincum- 

 bent pressure to which they have been subjected, 

 the wonder rather is that anything is left to tell 

 how they flourished. There is a large quantity of 

 sand or flint (silicon) in the structure of the 

 Horsetail, a closely allied plant, contemporaneous 

 with the Fern, and we find the impressions of 

 their stems wonderfully distinct, yet even they 

 were frail and fragile, compared with the massive 

 bones of the Mammoth or the imperishable enamel 

 of fishes' teeth. But apart from this evidence it is 

 the universal rule in nature that the more complex 

 and highly organised forms succeed the simpler 

 or lowlier types. As in the Vertebrata, the Age of 

 Fishes was succeeded by the Age of Reptiles, and 

 then of Birds and Mammals ; so in the Vegetable 

 World the Acrogens or flowerless and seedless 

 plants, such as Ferns, preceded the Gymnosperms 

 or naked seeded plants such as Firs, which were 

 followed by the Angiosperms or true flower and 

 seed-bearing plants as our roses and lilies. Ferns 

 have no true seeds but minute cellular germs 

 called spores. Pines and Firs have inconspicuous 

 flowers, and produce true, though rudimentary 

 naked seeds, whereas flowering plants properly so 

 called produce true seeds containing a perfect 

 embryo of the plant and covered with a protecting 

 skin. 



Ferns made their first appearance at about the 

 close of the Silurian period, and attained their 

 maximum of development about the middle of the 

 Carboniferous Era. Beginning with the green 

 structureless slime that forms on our rain water 



