Bryophytes and pteridophtyes

[Adolf Ceska]

Ben,

"The Plant-Book: A portable dictionary of the higher plants" by D.J.
Mabberley (1990 edition) gives the following numbers for the Pteridophytes:
365 genera, 9,250 species "here arr. in 36 fams." No mention of the
bryophytes in Mabberley.

All the best,

Adolf


On Sun, 19 Jan 1997, Ben Tan wrote:

> Dear Everyone,
>
>         Some people believe that the bryophytes with ca 14,000 species
> worldwide is the second largest group of land plants next to the seed
> plants.  I thought that the pteridophytes (with fern allies) would have more
> species worldwide than the bryophytes.  Can anyone help by providing
> reliable statistics and references in determining which is the second
> largest group of land plants worldwide today?
>
> Ben Tan
> Farlow Herbarium, HUH
>
> Benito C. Tan
> Farlow Herbarium
> Harvard University
> 22 Divinity Avenue
> Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
>