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
Rube Ferns New England venues, meeting Kid Gardner in a draw in Chicago in February, and Izzy Straus and Lou Demonge in Brooklyn Clubs in June. In July, he lost to Bobby Dobbs in Hartford, Connecticut. On January 15, 1900 Ferns fought his first bout billed as a World Welterweight Title, defeating "Mysterious" Billy Smith at the Hawthorne Athletic Club in Buffalo, New York. According to BoxRec, Smith knocked Ferns down fifteen times before fouling him and losing the fight in the twenty first of twenty-five rounds, indicating Fern's claim to the title was not firmly established by this bout. Ferns' second