01. 1.] FIL1CES. 65 



(67) are generally several together, though scarcely 

 more than one produces Fruit. Their Germen (59), 

 at first sessile, is covered with a membranous Calyp- 

 tra, or Veil, in the place of a Corolla, whose summit 

 admits the Pollen. The ripening Pericarp (61) is ge- 

 nerally elevated on a Peel ice I lus (22), and carries up 

 the Veil, torn from the base, along with it. The Fruit 

 is a Capsule (61 : 1), opening by a Lid; its margin 

 either naked, or variously fringed with a determinate 

 number of hygrometrical teeth, in a single or double 

 tow, affording good Generic distinctions (101). The 

 Seeds are minute and innumerable, but have been 

 proved such by germination. Masci are herbaceous, 

 leafy, mostly branched ; their Leaves continuous (46), 

 pellucid and often reticulated. Roots abundantly 

 fibrous; annual or perennial. Few plants are more te- 

 nacious of life, or revive more readily after drying. 



Examples of genera without a Fringe (Peristo- 

 mium) are Sphagnum and Gymnostomum; with a 

 single Fringe, Grimmia and Dicranum, fig. 108; 

 with a double one, fig. 112, Bryum, Hypnum, &c. 



Orel 5. Fiuces. Ferns (90) fig. 96-104. Nothing 

 is known of their Fructification but the Capsules, 

 fig. 101, 104; situated either on the back of the 

 Frond (24) and composing Sort, fig. 100, 102, 103, 

 (53:2), with, or rarely without, a membranous In- 

 volucrum, fig. 100, 103; or in Spikes, fig. 96, (48:3) 

 which seem transformations of the Frond or its seg- 

 ments (90). The most usual form of their Pericarp 

 (61) is a stalked globular Capsule, fig. 101, 104, of 



