[Illustration:  Fig. 2.—­Annularia radiata. Carboniferous sandstone.]

A very large proportion of the plants which have been found in the coal-bearing strata consists of numerous species of ferns, the number of actual species which have been preserved for us in our English coal, being double the number now existing in Europe.  The greater part of these do not seem to have been very much larger than our own living ferns, and, indeed, many of them bear a close resemblance to some of our own living species.  The impressions they have left on the shales of the coal-measures are most striking, and point to a time when the sandy clay which imbedded them was borne by water in a very tranquil manner, to be deposited where the ferns had grown, enveloping them gradually, and consolidating them into their mass of future shale.  In one species known as the neuropteris, the nerves of the leaves are as clear and as apparent as in a newly-grown fern, the name being derived from two Greek words meaning “nerve-fern.”  It is interesting to consider the history of such a leaf, throughout the ages that have elapsed since it was part of a living fern.  First it grew up as a new frond, then gradually unfolded itself, and developed into the perfect fern.  Then it became cut off by the rising waters, and buried beneath an accumulation of sediment, and while momentous changes have gone on in connection with the surface of the earth, it has lain dormant in its hiding-place exactly as we see it, until now excavated, with its contemporaneous vegetation, to form fuel for our winter fires.

[Illustration:  FIG. 3.—­Rhacopteris inaequilatera. Carboniferous limestone.]

Although many of the ferns greatly resembled existing species, yet there were others in these ancient days utterly unlike anything indigenous to England now.  There were undoubted tree-ferns, similar to those which thrive now so luxuriously in the tropics, and which throw out their graceful crowns of ferns at the head of a naked stem, whilst on the bark are the marks at different levels of the points of attachment of former leaves.  These have left in their places cicatrices or scars, showing the places from which they formerly grew.  Amongst the tree-ferns found are megaphyton, paloeopteris, and caulopteris, all of which have these marks upon them, thus proving that at one time even tree-ferns had a habitat in England.

[Illustration:  Fig. 4.—­Frond of Pecopteris. Coal-shale.]

One form of tree-fern is known by the name of Psaronius, and this was peculiar in the possession of masses of aerial roots grouped round the stem.  Some of the smaller species exhibit forms of leaves which are utterly unknown in the nomenclature of living ferns.  Most have had names assigned to them in accordance with certain characteristics which they possess.  This was the more possible since the fossilised impressions had been retained in so distinct