FERN TRIBE ; 147 
had, that ferns bore no seed. Pliny says: “Of ferns be two kinds, and they 
bear neither flower nor seed.” The general opinion some centuries later, 
however, was, that the fern-seed was visible only on St. John’s Eve, just at 
the precise moment at which the Saint was born :— 
** But on St. John’s mysterious night, 
Sacred to many a wizard spell, 
The hour when first to human sight 
Confest, the mystic fern-seed fell.” 
The superstitious belief that he who could at that hour get some of the 
fern-seed became invisible, is frequently alluded to by our old poets. Shak- 
spere makes one of his personages say— 
‘* We have the receipt of fern-seed ; we walk invisible.” 
Fletcher says— 
‘**Had you Gyges’ ring, 
Or the herb that gives you invisibility ? 
And one of Ben Jonson’s characters thus refers to it :— 
‘¢T had no medicine, Sir, to walk invisible ; 
No fern-seed in my pocket.” 
Yet the seeds (spores) of ferns are very numerous, and myriads are borne 
on the slightest summer breeze, like a thin vapour, and sent forth to fertilize 
our beautiful earth. Professor Lindley observes of the hart’s-tongue, which 
is but a small fern, that a little computation will show its means of dissem- 
ination to be prodigious. Each of its clusters, he tells us, consists of 3,000 
to 6,000 capsules. Taking 4,500 as the average number, then each frond 
has avout 80 clusters, which makes 360,000 capsules per leaf; the capsules 
themselves contain about 50 spores or seeds, so that a single leaf of Hart’s- 
tongue may give birth to no fewer than 18,000,000 of young plants. 
Thus numerous and beautiful, too, in themselves, are the spores of ferns, 
enclosed within the elastic rings of their tiny cases, which are seen by the 
aid of a microscope to be covered over with markings so varied and so 
delicate, that the line of the finest pencil can scarcely represent them. The 
finger of God has traced them there, and left them to speak to us of His 
power and skill. 
Each pinnule of the Brake has a mid-vein, whence issue side veins, which 
are either opposite or alternate. These are twice forked before reaching the 
margin, where they unite with a vein which runs round the edge, and forms 
the receptacle for the clusters of capsules. The indusium consists of a white 
membranous fringed expansion of the thin skin of the upper surface, which 
rolls under so as to cover the fructification seated on the marginal vein. 
Beneath this line of capsules is another bleached and fringed membrane, 
very similar to the first, which is also apparently an expansion of the skin of 
the under surface. 
If the rhizome of the Brake be dug up undeveloped fronds of various 
ages will be found, as well as the decaying bases of fronds that have fallen ; 
it is found that the smallest of these immature fronds take two years to 
arrive at the glory of full expansion. The male fern and some others take 
as long. 
19—2 
