UN UNE Pr té ons un on 
* 
( od ME a Figs Eun Me Sud. 
By Mr.. Fo by, Surgeon | in are, Communicated by Sir 
* jp Banks, Bart. P. e S. and H. M. L. S. ; 
ds ge — Read d » 1792. — 
Speech ap c | ; 
T was not generally known many years ago-that ferns bore- any 
feed, hence the notion of its power of rendiering whomfoever 
poffeffed it invifible* ; and it does not appear that the writers on 
Natural Hiítory are yet very well acquainted with the real feeds of 
ferns, or from what particular part the-young plants are produced. 
~ 
ee « 
In the Encyclopedia Britannica, 3d edition, where good information 
might be expected, we have this account of the fru&tification of 
ferns: ‘The flowers, whatever be their nature, are, in the 
greater number of genera, faftened, and as it were glued to the 
back of the leaves; in others, they are fupported upon a ftem 
which rifes above the leaves, but in fome are fupported on a flower- 
ftalk as already mentioned: the ftamina are placed apart from the | 
{ced-bud in a genus termed by Mr. Adanfon Palma filix: in the 
other ferns, where we have been able to difcover the ftamina, they 
are found withinthe fame cover with thefeed-bud+.” While ftudying 
medicine at Edinburgh, I had good opportunities of getting acquaint- 
ed with the frucuhication of ferns, under the direction of my worthy 
* « We fteal as in a caftle, cock fure; we have the receipt of fern-feed, we walk invi- 
fible.” SHAKESPEARE. 
t Vide Filix in the article Botany. i 
friend 
