Fern plants. Like all other vascular plants, the diploid sporophyte is the dominant phase or generation in the life cycle. The gametophytes of ferns, however, are very different from those of seed plants. They are free-living and resemble liverworts, whereas those of seed plants develop within the spore wall and are dependent on the parent sporophyte for their nutrition. A fern gametophyte typically consists of: Ferns first appear in the fossil record in the early Carboniferous period. By the Triassic, the first evidence of ferns related to several modern families appeared. The great fern radiation occurred in the late Cretaceous, when
Robert Ferns Waller Robert Ferns Waller Robert Ferns Waller (30 April 1913 – 3 November 2005) was a poet, editor, environmentalist, biographer and radio producer. Waller was brought up in South London, attended Dulwich College, and spent a year in bed with rheumatic fever, during which time he read voraciously and formed a lifelong love of Shakespeare. He took a course in journalism at University College, London, where he also studied philosophy under Professor John Macmurray, whose ideas were another lifelong influence. Waller was on the fringes of the Euston Road School of artists; he became a protégé of T.S. Eliot, and worked