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RAMBLES 



IN 



Search of J^IotDcrlcss 



CHAPTER I. 



FERNS. 



"All about in shady places the Ferns were busy untucking them- 

 selves from their graveclothes, unrolling their mysterious coils of life, 

 adding continually to the hidden growth as they unfolded the visible. 

 In this they were like the other revelations of God the Infinite." — 

 David Elgixbrod. 



" On every side spring Ferns, whose feathery leaves 

 Seem wafted by the perpetual breath of God." 



AVING carefully studied flowering plants, and 

 collected specimens from all the orders of the 

 Two-lobed (Dicotyledonous) and One-lobed 

 (Monocotyledonous) classes, we are now free to enter on the 

 study of the third class of plants, the Flowerxess or Lobe- 

 less (Acotyledonous) class. Here we lose the grand dis- 

 tinguishing feature, the flowers, and must direct double 

 attention to the seed, now very minute, and termed spore*. 

 As the Two-lobed class are further characterised by the 



