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and also to develop the protecting scales as this process 

 goes on, until presently we see the central group fattening 

 up as it were, lifting and increasing in size and making 

 room for each other as they do so until the centre of the 

 crown is filled quite up with the now obvious tops of a 

 group of future fronds. If we now examine the crown 

 exteriorly we shall find that from the base of each of these 

 knobs, as they still appear, a little bundle of roots may be 

 detected creeping down to the soil through the old frond 

 stalks which form the crown, and it is largely these which 

 are feeding the individual fronds which at one and the 

 same time are producing these roots, and fattening them- 

 selves up so to speak by the development of their internal 

 coil system. The next step is the development of the stalk, 

 which as it lengthens pulls as it were the coils or now 

 developed knobs one by one out of the hitherto closely 

 packed group, and this is done on a spiral system so that the 

 fronds do not rise at once all to the same height, though 

 eventually they may become so. As the stalk or main 

 stem lengthens so do the side divisions follow the example, 

 uncoilmg as they develop until the minor divisions, even to 

 the most minute ones, or the crests they may bear, are all 

 in evidence in a comparatively small and very soft state. 

 The next step is the expansion, flattening out and harden- 

 ing, of these until the frond is full size and perfect. In the 

 meantime the spore heaps, which have been visible in 

 embryo as spots or lines, so soon as the segments destined 

 to bear them have unfolded, have been also developing and 

 are well in evidence when the frond has finished growth, 

 though it may be some time yet before they are perfected 

 and have assumed their browned or ripened state. 



This process describes in a general way all the crown- 

 forming development, but each species has its peculiar 

 method of unrolling its fronds as they lengthen their stalks 

 and rise. The Shield Ferns send up fronds with a coiled- 

 up top like a ball for about half their height, the coils 



