4 FEENS OF THE LAKE COUNTRY 



and wiry, often in youth more or less covered with fine 

 soft hairs. 



The stem is sometimes called a caudex, sometimes a 

 rhizome. The caudex is the root-stock, not the root, but 

 a true stem, either uprightly-growing or drooping, the 

 upright stem of some foreign ferns sometimes growing 

 to the height of fifty feet or more, like a forest tree. 

 The rhizome is the creeping stem, or that part of the 

 stem extending on or under the ground, extending 

 very far indeed in some ferns, farthest in the Common 

 Bracken. When not under ground, these creeping 

 stems are generally clothed with hairs or scales, some- 

 times becoming quite shaggy. The rhizome varies con- 

 siderably in size, from that of the Common Polypody, 

 which is as thick as one's little finger, to that of the 

 Film Ferns, as fine as thread. 



The fronds consist of two parts, the leafy portion, 

 and the stipes, which is the part of the stalk above the 

 caudex or rhizome. The farther continuation of the 

 stalk, forming in the leafy part a midrib, or midvein, 

 which becomes branched when the frond is divided (as 

 in the Oak Fern), is called the rachis (rachides in the 

 plural). The stipes is generally more or less furnished 

 with brownish membranous scales, sometimes only a 

 few at the base, sometimes extending along the rachis. 

 When the frond is divided quite down to the rachis, or 

 midrib, it is said to be pinnate, and each of the leaf- 

 like divisions is called a pinna (Latin for a feather). 

 When these pinnae are again divided in the same man- 

 ner the frond becomes bi-pinnate, or if thrice divided 

 tri-pinnate. When the division is nearly but not quite 



