FILICES. (KEKNS.) i>^^ 



SERIES II. 



CRYPTOGAMOUS or FLOWERLESS PLANTS. 



VEGiiTABLES destitute of proper flowers, and producing, 

 ill tiie place of seeds, minute homogeneous bodies (spores) 

 containing no embryo. 



Class III. ACROGENS. 



Plants with a distinct stem, growing from the apex only, 

 containing woody fibre and vessels. 



OnvKii 1(U. EQUISETACE-i:. (Horsetail Family.) 

 Comprises only the genus 



1. EQUISETUM, L. Scouring Rush. 



Fructification terminal, spiked or cone-like. Spore-cases (sporanrjia) 6-7, 

 borne on the lower surface of tlie peltate scales, 1-celled, opening on tlie inner 

 side. Spores loose, furnished at the base with 4 club-shaped elastic filaments 

 (p/atos). — Stems leafless, grooved, hollow and jointed, bearing at the closed 

 joints a toothed sheath. 



1. E. laevigatuna, Braun. Stems perennial, mostly simple, the obtuse 

 riilges smooth, or roughened with minute tubercles ; sheaths appressed, with 

 numerous bristle-like caducous black teeth. — Stiff clay soil. North Carolina, 

 and northward. — Stem 1^° - 4° high. 



Order ir.2. FILICES. (Ferxs.*) 



Leafy plants, mostly with perennial rootstocks (cawlex'), which in this 

 climate are creeping and slender, or stouter and sometimes ascending, 

 but in the tropics often grow many feet high, with a diameter of several 

 inches, giving the plants an arborescent appearance (^Tree-ferns). Leaves 

 (fronds) circinately rolled up in vernation (except the last Suborder), 

 and raised on a stalk or petiole (stipe). Spore-cases (sj)orcinf/i(i) one- 



* By Damel C. Eaton. 



