Fern fern ("Onoclea sensibilis"). Giant water fern ("Salvinia molesta") is one of the world's worst aquatic weeds. The important fossil fuel coal consists of the remains of primitive plants, including ferns. Ferns have been studied and found to be useful in the removal of heavy metals, especially arsenic, from the soil. Other ferns with some economic significance include: The study of ferns and other pteridophytes is called pteridology. A pteridologist is a specialist in the study of pteridophytes in a broader sense that includes the more distantly related lycophytes. Pteridomania is a term for the Victorian era craze of fern collecting
The Power of Movement in Plants John Murray. This book stands at the culmination of a long line of study in plants and is immediately preceded by 'The different forms of flowers on Plants of the same species’ (1877). (See Bibliography for additional publications on plants.) These studies on plants were first evidenced in 'On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects’ (1862), the publication that immediately followed "On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection". He co-authored this study with his son Francis Darwin (who specialised in botany) and his devotee, George Romanes, who assisted in editing