To-day the dominant family in this group is the _Polypodiaceæ_. It includes nearly all our British ferns, and the majority of species for the whole world. This family does not appear to be very old, however, and it cannot be recognized with certainty beyond Mesozoic times. From the later Mesozoic we have only material in the form of impressions, from which it is impossible to draw accurate conclusions unless the specimens have sporangia attached to them, and this is not often the case. The cuticle of the epidermis or the spores can sometimes be studied under the microscope after special treatment, but on the whole we have very little information about the later Mesozoic ferns. A couple of specimens from the older Mesozoic have been recently described, with well-preserved structure, and they belong to the family of the Osmundas (the so-called “flowering ferns”, because of the appearance of special leaves on which all the sporangia are crowded), and show in the anatomical characters of their stems indications that they may be related to an old group, the _Botryopterideæ_, in which are the most important of the Palæozoic ferns. In the Palæozoic rocks there are numerous impressions as well as fern petrifactions, but in the majority of cases the connection between the two is not yet established. There were two main series of ferns, which may be classed as belonging to I. Marattiaceæ. II. Botryopterideæ. Of these the former has still living representatives, though the group is small and unimportant compared with what it once was; the latter is entirely extinct, and is chiefly developed in the Carboniferous and succeeding Permian periods. The latter group is also the more interesting, for its members show great variety, and series may be made of them which seem to indicate the course taken in the advance towards the Pteridosperm type. For this reason the group will be considered first, while the structure of the Pteridosperms is still fresh in our minds. The Botryopterideæ formed an extensive and elaborate family, with its numerous members of different degrees of complexity. There is, unfortunately, but little known as to their external appearance, and almost no definite information about their foliage. They are principally known by the anatomy of their stems and petioles. Some of them had upright trunks like small tree ferns (living tree ferns belong to quite a different family, however), others appear to have had underground stems, and many were slender climbers. [Illustration: Fig. 86.—Stele of _Asterochlaena_, showing its deeply lobed nature]