VI.] EXANNULATE ANNULATE 85 



the case of the Osmunda, these are all distinguished by 

 the fronds being entirely leafy in the lower part of the 

 plant and entirely fertile at the top ; the leaf-like divisions 

 (pinnce), at the apex of the fronds, being changed into 

 masses of spore-cases. This mode of bearing the fructifica' 

 tion gives the plant an aspect different from those whose 

 fructification is concealed by their position on the under 

 surface, so that Osmunda is sometimes spoken of as the 

 Flowering Fern. 



The second and much the larger family is composed 

 of those whose spore-cases are ringed, annulate. These 

 may be arranged under three sub-divisions : the first (a) 

 including Polypodies and Parsley Ferns ; the second (b) 

 the Shield Fern, Lady Fern, Spleenworts, Hartstongues, 

 Bracken, Scale Fern, Maidenhair, Bladder Fern, and the 

 Woodsia ; and finally (c) Filmy Ferns, Killarney, and 

 Hymenophyllum. 



By far the most interesting group is that of the Poly- 

 podies, of which there are five members. The Common 

 Polypody includes about twenty varieties, and amongst 

 the best known are Cambricum (the lovely Welsh Fern), 

 which bears no spore-cases ; Hibernicum, and Cornubiense 

 (the Cornish). Then there is the beech (phegopteris), 

 the alpine (alpestre, very like the Lady Fern), the oak 

 (dryopteris), and the limestone (Robertianum). 



I have ventured to sketch out, for the help "of those of 

 my readers whose knowledge of the Fern Family is limited, 

 a very simple and yet sufficient classification with which 

 every collector should become more or less familiar, and in 



