15 



in these, is the seed. Hence the reproduction, as shewn in the 

 two great divisions of plants, may be thus summed up : 



In Flowering Plants. 

 A separable cell is formed. "Pollen," 

 which is sown in the Pistil, and pro- 

 duces the embryo of a plant, " Seed," 

 corresponding with the higher orders 

 of animal life, in which the egg is 

 hatched in the parent. 



In Non-Flowering Plant*. 

 A separable cell becomes the future 

 Plant, without mediate gestation 

 warmth, moisture, and surrounding 

 media thus analogous to the produc- 

 tion of animals from eggs. 



Now it is to the non-flowering plants that the Ferns helong, and 

 inasmuch as they have leafy appendages, whilst the Fungi have 

 not ; we hence form two groups of non-flowering plants, or, 



ACOTTLEDONS. 



a. Plants without leaves, sometimes forming a kind of crust or 

 Thallus (Thallogen*) Fungi, Lichens, &c. 



b. Plants with leaves, whose parts modify to produce spores, 

 seed, (Acrogens) Mosses and Ferns. 



Native Ferns present the following parts : 



A root, more or less fibrous, sometimes springing from an 

 underground stem, Rhizome ; this is the true stem of the plant, 

 the which, growing upright, constitutes the tree fern of the tropics. 



Leaves (Fronds of the Botanist), consisting of a leaf-stem 

 (Stipes), which sending out fibres right and left, covered by ex- 

 pansions of the bark, constitutes the green leaf-matter. The 

 frond may be entire as in the Hartstongue, simply winged as in 

 the common Polypody and Hard Fern, or doubly winged as in the 

 Lady Fern ; the first divisions being termed pinna, the smaller 

 ones pinnulce. 



Fronds of Ferns are distinguished from the leaves of flowering 

 plants, 1st, by an involute method of growth, the young leaf being 

 rolled over like a shepherd's crook or pastoral staff. 



In the compound fronds aestivation proceeds as follows: The 

 frond gradually unfolds lengthwise. Then the pinnae unroll. The 

 pinnulae follow, and the more or less divided leaf is exposed to 

 view. 



2nd, The ramifications of its woody fibre, forming " leaf veins" 

 are always in a bifurcate or fork-veined form. 



Seeds are the result of the gradual separation of a cell destined 

 for reproduction, and which are thus produced : 1st, The Capsule, 

 which, in some examples, as the Shield Fern, consists of a mem- 

 branous case having a row of cells involuted around it, forming a 

 spring to liberate the sporules. Or the pinnulae are metamor- 

 phosed into seed cases, as in the Eoyal Fern. Bunches of the 

 former are called Sori the cases of the latter Theca. 



The number of seeds produced on a single Fern may be esti- 

 mated by the following calculation, arrived at from an examination 

 of the Aspidium Filix Mas, Male or Shield Fern. 



