274 



be so elaborately interwoven that they are often confounded in our 

 short-sighted investigations, are yet, in every instance, found to be dis- 

 tinct if the inquiry be skilfully and carefully conducted. In ferns, 

 it will be at once seen that the roots tend to the preservation of the 

 individual, so also does the stem : under all its names of root, rhizoma, 

 underground stem, caudex, trunk, &c.,* the discerning mind recog- 

 nises the same organ under a variety of forms. The fructification 

 is obviously a provision for the preservation of the kind, and it may 

 be remarked that it never appears in any degree to subserve the pre- 

 servation of the individual, but rather tends to its exhaustion and im- 

 poverishment. The frond which bears the fructification, may perhaps 

 occur to some botanists as holding a debatable office between the 

 preservation of the individual and that of the kind ; but this view will, 

 I think, be dispelled when we consider that in those ferns, where the 

 fructification occupies the entire surface of some fronds, others, per- 

 fectly sterile, are provided, and there can be no doubt that these per- 

 form the offices of nutrition, respiration, &c., and therefore, that when 

 a frond is foliaceous, and produces masses of fruit at intervals, the por- 

 tions not thus occupied may be regarded as subserving the preservation 

 of the individual. In Botrychium, Ophioglossura, Aneiraia, &c., we find 

 the frond divided into a fertile and a barren branch, and there is no 

 reason to doubt that the barren branch, not being in these instances 

 required for the perfecting of the fruit, is provided for the service of 

 the plant itself. 



Having thus indicated the existence of two classes of functions and 

 the provision of parts adapted to each, on proceeding to weigh the 

 importance of the two, we shall, I think, be inclined to concede the 

 greater importance to those which subserve the preservation of the 

 kind,t and therefore shall consider that botanists have acted wisely in 

 laying so great stress on fructification. J I am, however, inclined to 

 think, that the first class of organs has not received that consideration 

 to which it is entitled ; and I could wish to see characters carefully 

 drawn from the direction and form of the rhizoma, the attachment and 

 vernation of the fronds, and the presence, situation or absence of dis- 

 tinct articulation in the stipes. In two, at least, of our British ferns 



* Sir J. E. Smith adds the term " runners." 



f This subject, however, admits of question, and deserves a more rigid examination 

 than is desirable in this phice. 



X Throughout Zoology we trust almost exclusively to characters derived from parts 

 provided for the requirings of the individual, but I believe not from a conviction of 

 their greater importance. 



