CHAPTER XVIII 



FERNS (Filices) 



The subject of ferns hardly comes within the 

 scope of this little volume, whose main purpose is 

 to deal with familiar flowering plants, either wild 

 or cultivated. I am, however, devoting the con- 

 cluding pages to the consideration of the ferns, 

 because, in the first place, they are undoubtedly 

 familiar plants, and in the second place, they re- 

 present the highest order of Cryptogamia or 

 Flowerless plants, in contradistinction to the 

 Phanerogamia or Flowering plants. 



In the former chapters we have seen that 

 flowers are specially organised buds produced by 

 plants exclusively for the one purpose of repro- 

 duction, or the formation of their seeds. It is 

 obvious, therefore, that a flowerless plant does not 

 produce seeds ; flowerless plants are therefore 

 called " spore-plants," and flowering plants ^^ seed- 

 plants." 



The fructification of ferns may be readily 

 observed on the under sides of their leaves, or 

 fronds. These structures are arranged in various 

 ways ; sometimes they appear along the margins of 

 the frond, as in the Bracken (Pteris) genus (Fig. 

 1 1 6, Plate 84) ; in other cases, as in the genus 

 Davallia (Fig. 1 1 7, Plate 84) they are enclosed in a 

 N 193 



