8 BRITISH FERNS. 



They have steins, by which their conspicuous parts are 

 borne up and supported. They have leaves, or fronds, to 

 which their elegance is due ; and these leaves bear on some 

 part of their surface, but usually on the lower face, the seeds 

 by which the plants may be propagated. These are the 

 several parts or external organs of the plants. 



The proper roots of Ferns are entirely fibrous, and they 

 proceed from the under side of those stems, which assume 

 the prostrate or creeping mode of growth ; but when the 

 stem grows erect, they are produced towards its lower end 

 on all sides indifferently, and proceed from among the bases 

 of the decayed leaves or fronds. Fibrous roots are so called 

 from their consisting of little thread-like parts or fibres ; 

 these, as they extend by growth at their points, insinuate 

 themselves into the earth, so that in process of time it be- 

 comes filled with their ramifications. They often form en- 

 tangled masses, but are not always sufficiently numerous for 

 this. The fibres of Ferns are mostly of a rigid or wiry tex- 

 ture ; and in the younger portions are often more or less 

 covered with fine, soft, downy hairs, which become lost as 

 they get older. It is by means of these organs chiefly that 

 Ferns, and all the more highly developed races of plants, are 

 nourished. 



The stem of a Fern forms either an upright stock, called a 

 caudex, which in our native species seldom elevates itself 

 above the surface of the ground, but in certain exotic ferns 

 reaches from thirty to fifty feet or more in height, and gives 

 a tree-like character to the species ; or it extends horizontally 

 either on or beneath the surface of the soil, and forms what 

 is called a rhizome or creeping stem. These creeping stems, 

 when not buried in the earth, are generally clothed with 

 hairs or scales, and sometimes to such an extent as to become 

 quite shaggy ; they vary greatly in size, some being as thick 

 as one's wrist, and others, as in our native Hymenyphyllums, 

 as fine as threads. 



The common Polypody has the thickest rhizome of any of 

 the creeping British species : in this it is nearly as thick as 

 one's thumb; but that of the common Bracken, or Pteris, which 

 is forme,d under ground, creeps the most extensively. The 

 Osmunda, or Flowering Fern, as it is called, is, of the native 

 upright-growing species, that which most readily gains height ; 

 and very old plants of this may sometimes be found with 

 bare stems of a foot or more in length. The stems of the 

 common Male Fern, of Lastrea montana, and of Polystichum 

 angulare, have also a tendency, though ina less degree, to this 



