Abstract:
The New Zealand region offers a very favourable field for the application of palaeoecological techniques based on the statistical analysis of the pollen and spore content of fossil - iferous rocks and recent sediments. Cranwell and von Post carried out a preliminary survey of six Otago bogs and Cranwell subsequently has provided a key to assist in the identification of indigenous pollens. Although ferns play an important role in the present vegetation of New Zealand, little is known of their spore forms or the extent to which they might be used in similiar investigations. The present author has attempted a preliminary review of the spore forms of the contemporary "Cryptogamic
Tracheophyta" with a view to ascertaining to what extent spore types are sufficiently characteristic of taxonomic or ecological groups to enable use to be made of spore counts in future investigations of peats, lignites and coals. Spore morphology is discussed and descriptions and keys are provlded for representative groups. The survey embraces the Orders Psilotales, Lycopodiales,Isoetales , Marattiales, Ophioglossales and Filicales, and alll but a few rare or little known species have been included in the study. The work has been brought into rapport with recent name changes in the groups dealt with and a synonymy is appended.
