456 THE FAMILIES, GENERA AND SPECIES OF PTERIDOPHYTA. 



Mr. Crawley was an enthusiastic, artistic and botanically 

 accurate water-colour painter, and some hundreds of colour 

 sketches of Transvaal plants were sent by him to a friend in 

 England. I trust they may be recovered, and that means will 

 be found to publish them, as they would form a valuable con- 

 tribution to the Flora of South Africa. His keenness in this 

 work of making a permanent colour record of the Flora is in- 

 dicated by the following sentence from the last letter he ever 

 wrote me : 



" I spent my last day in Africa among the flowers at the foot of Table 

 Mountain, and my first four or five days (on board ship) in sketching some 

 of them." 



I fear very few of us would have the courage to attempt to 

 sketch fiowers on board ship! His sketches were very true 

 to nature, both in colour and detail. 



His innate modesty and love of fairness are indicated, in the 

 same letter, where he says : 



" I hope I have explained to you that I was not the discoverer of Pellcea 

 geraniafolia in the Waterkloof ; Colonel Abdy found the first specimen." 



Thi's was an addition to the Pretoria Flora, and he was afraid 

 I had given him the credit for it. which, on referring to my 

 MSS.. I find was the case. 



In this paper an attempt has been made to describe the Pteri- 

 dophyta in a clear and concise manner, for the benefit of 

 teachers, students and amateur botanists. An extended 

 description is given of the group as a whole, with descriptive 

 definitions of the special terms. This is followed by keys to 

 and descriptions of the Classes, Groups, Families, and Genera. 



We have not furnished descriptions to the species, as this 

 would have taken more time and required more herbarium 

 work than we felt it desirable to spend in view of the amount 

 of other work to be done. We have, however, prepared keys 

 to the species, giving the localities in which they are known to 

 occur and references to the specimens. We are indebted to 

 Miss Leendertz, Curator of the Herbarium of the Transvaal 

 Museum, for a list of the fern species in that herbarium, with 

 names of localities and collectors. 



Mr. Crawley and I also worked together on a paper on the 

 Families and Genera of Transvaal Monocotyledonous plants, 

 the main part of which is finished, but since Mr. Crawley left 

 I have not had time to complete the remainder. 



The PTERIDOPHYTA or Vascular Cryptogams. 



(Ferns and Fern-allies.) 



These are fern-like plants, having leaf-bearing shoots and 

 true roots; there is no primary tap-root, but roots are formed 

 as required from the stem or leaves. The Pteridophyta do not 

 produce seeds, but reproduction is effected by means of minute, 

 pollen-like, asexual bodies called spores, which are borne in 

 spore-cases called sporangia. These sporangia arise upon the 

 leaves, either on the ordinary foliage, as in most ferns, or on 

 specially differentiated leaves, as in the Royal ferns (Osmnnda). 



