The Sporing of the Fern 261 



early spring are generally hairy or scaly (Fig. 71), 

 with brown transparent outgrowths which help to 

 protect the tender frond from cold snaps and bitter 

 winds. Later in the season hairs and chaffy scales 

 may still be seen clinging to the fern-stalk and 

 sometimes almost covering its lower portion. Under 

 the microscope these scales are seen to consist each 

 of a single layer of cells, with thickened brown 

 walls, through which a mucilaginous or resinous 

 liquid oozes. Gold and silver ferns have their 

 under surfaces covered with hairs which exude re- 

 sinous and waxy substances. 



But the trick of developing hairs is best under- 

 stood by the tree-ferns, whose young leaves are 

 completely buried in a brown mass of vegetable 

 fur, sometimes utilized by robber man for stuffing 

 matresses. 



By latter July most native ferns have attained 

 maturity, and on the backs of the fronds, in many 

 species, we can see dots and dashes of silver-green, 

 dark-green, or brown. These are "sori," and 

 their general plan can be readily seen with a 

 pocket-lens. 



Typically each sorus consists of a little scale or 

 lid, covering a group, or perhaps two groups, of 

 stalked sporangia, and each sporangium is a little 



