Quite recently we have had to alter our views materially on the matter of the past history of the Ferns. Within the last few years it has been proved that a huge number of the fossil remains, belonging to the Palæozoic formation at any rate, are not Ferns at all. They belonged to a very distinct race of plants altogether, known as Pteridosperms, even though they had a superficial resemblance to Ferns. After a large amount of patient research it has been demonstrated that these plants bore seeds. The method of flowering and seed-production was vastly different from that which is to be observed in the flowering plants of to-day. The male or pollen-bearing organs were produced straight on the foliage in much the same way as the sporangium of a true Fern is developed. In a similar manner the seeds were borne straight on to the leaf. In some general points these plants also bore a strong resemblance to the Ferns, and it was this which misled the early observers. Without a doubt these Pteridosperms were related to the Ferns, and probably at some remote period the two groups had a common ancestry. There is good reason for believing that at the same time these Pteridosperms were flourishing true Ferns were also well represented. Now the interesting point about these Ferns is that they were not vastly different, in many ways, from the species which exist on the earth at the present time. Of course certain types, of which we have living examples, were more fully represented than is the case nowadays; on the other hand, some of our most widely distributed families seem to have been at rather a low stage in their history. As well, the remains evidence a large number of very simple species, which perhaps give us an idea of what the original Ferns were like. But on the whole there is nothing to show that our living Ferns are any more developed than the highest types which grew in the coal forests. In these far-away times there were Tree Ferns; but so there are, of course, at the present time.