CHAPTER XV. 



IMPERFECT PLANTS. 



There is an extensive tribe of plants to which the 

 ibregoiog terms do not apply. Linnaeus, finding their 

 (lowers invisible, at least to the naked eye, denominated 

 them Cryptogamia ; and other writers, in consideration 

 of their simple and often defective structure, term them 

 Imperfect. They are usually distributed into Ferns, 

 Mosses, Hepaticce, Jilgcc, and Fungi, which we shall 

 examine in the above mentioned order. 



I. FERNS. 



These are usually distinguished with ease from the 

 more perfect plants, having their leaves, branches, and 

 items so united, as to constitute one organ, and usually 

 having the fructification on the back of the leaf. That 

 part which is analagous to the stem of other plants, or 

 perhaps to the petiole of a compound leaf, is denomi- 

 nated the Stipe; and the various parts united, whether 

 in a Fern or in other plants, constitute a Frond. 



Their floral organs are very minute, and entirely 

 unlike the gay blossoms which adorn the landscape and 

 beautify the shrubs that bear them. The existence of 

 these organs, taken collectively, is established by the 

 production of seeds which grow on the back of the frond, 

 or on a separate spike, or at the base of the stipe, or 

 in the axils of the leaves. 



