MR MACVICAR on the Germination of the Filices. 269 



Were we to seek for analogies to these hepaticoidal forms of 

 ferns, in more highly organised bodies, we do not know where 

 to find them beyond the limits of this family. But there are 

 several circumstances which might lead us to view them as re- 

 presentatives of the prostrate stem. They originate from the 

 sporule, a minute tuber ; they soon after emit radicles, which pe- 

 netrate the soil, and contribute to their increase, and, when ar- 

 rived at sufficient strength, they form a bud. And perhaps it 

 may be found, by future observations, that the elongation of the 

 hepaticoidal form, and the successive emission of radicles farther 

 up, are confined to those species having prostrate stems. 



It is not among the Dicotyledones that the Filices lay any 

 claims to rank. Some most eminent botanists, however, have 

 classed them among the Monocotyledones ; a place assigned them 

 chiefly from the structure of the stem, in which the occurrence 

 of vascular fasciculi, and certain modes of growth, indicate many 

 points common to them and to species decidedly monocotyledon- 

 ous. But the detection of vessels in the stems of Ferns, and in 

 other nearly related tribes, may have arisen from the circum- 

 stance, that they exist there in a state easily detected, while the 

 minuteness of some other families very much limits the success 

 of dissection. In this question habit gives little aid ; for the gi- 

 gantic arborescent species seem to approach as nearly to the 

 magnificent Palms on the one hand, as the humble Trichomanes 

 and Hymenophylla do to the Mosses on the other. But while 

 the whole reproductive system is truly cryptogamic, and the ob- 

 ject of the botanist to confine to one of three classes the almost 

 infinite modifications of structure in the vegetating world, it 

 seems preferable, at least, until the structure of several other 

 cryptogamic tribes be investigated, to attach that importance to 

 the fructification which has usually been given it, and to place 

 them, where they have generally stood, among the Acotyledones ; 



