162 L1NN/EAN ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 



vast assemblage of vegetables in which the parts of 

 fructification are, either from their minuteness, or from 

 their particular situation, entirely concealed, or imper- 

 fectly visible. (F. 33, 35, 57, 195, l'J6.) 



The vegetables of this class, are referred by Linnaeus to several 

 distinct natural families. Thus the ferns constitute the fifty-fifth 

 order of his natural system, the mosses his fifty-sixth, the algae 

 his fifty-seventh, and the fungi his fifty-eighth order. 



167. Division: This class has always been divided 

 into five natural orders ; viz. Jilices, musci, hcpaticcr, 

 algce, and fungi, each established on the distinguishing 

 characters of the productions they embrace. 



168. Filices or Ferns : This order contains a selec- 

 tion of plants, the fructifications of which, are essentially 

 different from all others, at least in point of situation, 

 being generally diffused in spots or lines on the under 

 surface of the leaf. (F. 33.) 



Specimens of this order are furnished by several plants ; such are 

 thehorse-tail,adder's-tail,adder's-tongue,moon-wort,osmund-royal, 

 various species of polypody, shield-ferns, spleen- wort, hart 's-tongoe, 

 and the common brake or fern, a well known plant, found upon 

 almost all the heaths and open hilly places in the kingdom. 



169. Musci or Mosses : These plants, which form 

 the second order of the class cryptogamia, have roots 

 and leaves something like those of other plants, but the 

 fruit is very different. Small threads, like the filaments 

 of stamens, generally grow out of the bosom of the 

 leaves, aud support little roundish bodies that resemble 



