GENERAL DESCRIPTION 3 



differ obviously from seeds, in that they consist merely of 

 a homogeneous cellular mass. In true seeds the radicle 

 (or young root) and the plumule (or young shoot) 

 are present in the embryo, and are developed from de- 

 terminate points ; but Fern spores, consisting merely 

 of a small vesicle of cellular tissue a vegetable cell,* 

 grow indifferently from any part of their surface, the 

 parent cell becoming divided into others, which are 

 again multiplied and enlarged, until a small germinal 

 scale, or primordial frond, is formed, and from this, in 

 due time, the proper fronds are produced. The surface 

 of the spores is sometimes smooth, sometimes tuber- 

 culate, or even echinate" (prickly like a hedge-hog). 



From this almost invisible dust spring the multi- 

 tudes of Ferns that crown the summer with their 

 various plumes. Each atom of dust becomes a green 

 speck, then a scale in which root and stem and leaves 

 are yet but one confused and undeveloped mass, then 

 a bud. then a young frond pushing its crozier-like form 

 or its tender spikelet through the earth, then a full- 

 grown magnificent plume like the Royal Fern twelve 

 feet high by the Irish Lakes, or a dainty coronal of 

 feathers like the common Male Fern so abundant in 

 our own English Mountain District. 



The proper roots of Ferns are fibrous, proceeding 

 from the under side of the stem when the stem is pros- 

 trate or creeping, but from all sides indifferently when 

 it grows erect. When sufficiently numerous they 

 form entangled masses. The fibres are mostly rigid 



* Hence the name of Cryptogamic, from crypt, or cell. 

 B 2 



