THE FERN FAMILIT. 



471 



the ground. In the tropics there are glorious species that attain the 

 stature of trees, building up a slender shaft with the bases of their 

 successively-developed fronds, which keep ascending in a crest higher 

 and higher into the air, after the manner of the crown of a palm-tree, 

 and emulating the palm-leaves in magnitude. A rude and rudimentary 

 pedestal of this nature is observable in some of our native Aspidmms. 

 While in the bud state, the fronds are usually " circinate," or curled 

 inwards, every tittle frondlet partaking of the general curl. The spectacle 

 they present when they rise out of the ground in spring, resembling 

 little shaggy and clenched fists, is exceedingly curious and pretty. As 

 they expand, they often present the figure of a bishop's crozier. When 

 fully developed, the fronds of shield-ferns often form an elegant 

 inverted cone, spreading from the crown of the root like the feathers 



Fig. 205. 



Forked veins. Leaf of Maiden-hair Fern 

 (magnified). 



Fig. 206. 

 Osmunda (miniature). 



of a shuttle-cock. Green is the prevailing colour of the fronds, though 

 a few charming species, called Gymnogrammas, are richly overlaid on 

 the under surface with a golden or silvery powder, which is apt to rub 

 off like the feather-dust from a butterfly's wing. 



The fructification of the ferns is in the highest degree curious. 

 Generally, it is disposed upon the under surface of the fronds, in the 

 shape of tiny circular spangles, or of long and narrow bars, or as 

 a beautiful continuous braid along the margin, the colour being in 

 every case brown or yellowish. These spangles, bars, or lines, are 

 termed the sori. They are chiefly abundant at the upper part of the 

 frond, and are sometimes quite confined to it, and in some species, as the 

 hard-fern, occupy only a few of the fronds. The fronds of a given fern- 



