FERNS, FOSSILS AND FUEL 
like fronds, while others were more like shrubs. There 
were other gymnospermic trees related to the present-day 
conifers, and the strange looking maidenhair tree, the 
Ginkgo biloba , must have given a peculiar charm to the 
forest. This tree, which probably already existed in 
Paleozoic times, is a complete anachronism, for it still 
is found living today. It defies evolution. Time has 
never changed it. It probably existed in more species 
when it grew wild than it does now, for in recent times 
it has been growing only under cultivation, as a decora¬ 
tive tree in the temple gardens of Eastern Asia. It has 
been imported into America and Europe from the East 
and is now growing in many parks and botanical gardens. 
Some magnificent specimens, standing in the Missouri 
Botanical Gardens at St. Louis, show themselves perfectly 
able to withstand the severe North American winters. 
The Triassic landscape was also rich in ferns and horse¬ 
tails, but they were no longer the same ferns and the 
same horsetails as those that grew in the Pennsylvanian 
period. A type of horsetail was prominent which stands 
midway between the gigantic Pennsylvanian Catamites 
and the modern Equisetum; botanists call it Neocalamites. 
A tongue-shaped fern called Taeniopteris was common. 
The climate during Triassic times was warm and still 
locally dry, but swamps had again become numerous in 
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