CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS. 



253 



The more important Families of Cryptogams or Flower- 

 less Plants are : 



PRESENTING CONTRAST OK STEM AND LEAF (Cormopkytes): 

 With Vascular Bundles 



Ferns (Filices). 



Horsetails {Eqnisetacea). 



Club-mosses (Lycopodiaceee). 

 Evascidar 



Mosses (Musci). 



WITHOUT CONTRAST OF STEM AXD LEAF (ALL WHOLLY CELLULAR) 

 (Thallophytes): 



Mushrooms and Moulds (Fungi). 

 Sea-weeds (Alga!). 

 Lichens (Lichenes). 



i. Natural Order Filices. The Fern Family. 

 Type Male Shield Fern (Aspidtum Filix-mas]. 



FIG. 196. Young and expanded fronds of Male Shield Fern. 

 a sporange ; b spores magnified. 



A perennial herb, with a short thick rhizome, bearing a 

 terminal tuft of large broadly lanceolate bipinnatifid 

 annual fronds 2 to 4 feet in length. The young, unfold- 

 ing fronds are curled upon themselves like a crosier : 



