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
Ronald Ferns Ronald Ferns Ronald Ferns (14 October 1925 – 2 December 1997) was an English illustrator, designer, cartoonist and surrealist painter in oil and watercolour. He attended Saint Martin's School of Art, London. His first major official commission was a mural for the 1951 Festival of Britain, in the Country Pavilion, for the Milk Marketing Board. In the same year, he was also commissioned to create the scenic design for the premiere of "Fate’s Revenge" by the Ballet Rambert. Throughout the 1950s, he contributed witty line illustrations, decorations and cartoons to "Lilliput", for which he also painted several covers in colour,