SEEIES II. 



FLOWEKLESS OR CRYPTOG'AMOUS 

 PLANTS. 



PLANTS not producing true flowers, but reproducing 

 themselves by means of spores instead of seeds, the 

 spores consisting merely of simple cells, and not con- 

 taining an embryo. 



This series is subdivided into three classes : 



1. Pteridophytes, embracing Ferns, Horsetails, and Club- 

 Mosses. 



2. Biyophytes, embracing the true Mosses and Liverworts. 



3. Thallophytes, embracing Algae and Fungi. 



Types of all of these have already been described and 

 illustrated in Part I. We shall here enumerate the 

 common representatives of the Pteridophytes only. 



FERNS. 



These beautiful plants are favourites everywhere, and we shall 

 therefore enter into a description of their characteristics with 

 sufficient minuteness to enable the young student to deter- 

 mine with tolerable certainty the. names of such representatives 

 of the Family as he is likely to meet with commonly. v 



In Chapter XXI. of Part I. will be found a full account of the 

 common Polypody, with which it is assumed the student is 

 already familiar. 



Fig. 262 shows a portion of the frond of the Common Brake 

 (Pteris aquilina). Here the frond is several times compound. 

 The first or largest divisions to the right and left are called pi 



169 



