CERATOPTERIS THALICTROIDES. 

 THE HORNED FERN. 



NATURAL ORDER, FILICES, 



Ceratopteris THALICTROIDES, Brongniait. — Sori continuous, arising from two principal longi- 

 tudinal but slightly anastomosing veins or receptacles on each side between the costa and 

 the margin. Capsules lax, scattered on the receptacles, sub-globose, sessile, obscurely 

 reticulated; annules very broad, nearly complete, or reduced to five or six indistinct ar- 

 ticulations, or quite obsolete. Involucre membranaceous, continuous, formed of the re- 

 flexed margin of the frond, which are very broad, and meet at the back. Seeds or spores 

 few, very large, obtusely trigonal, each of the three faces beautifully concentrically striated, 

 filled with an oleaginous substance. (Hooker's Species Filicinit.) 



AMES GATES PERCIVAE, one of the sweetest Ameri- 

 can poets of the early part of the present century, 

 tells lis — 



" 'Tis pleasant to stray in a tropical grove, 

 Where flowers, fruits, and foliage are blended above, 

 Where the sky, as it opens so vividly through, 

 Is pure as a spirit in mantle of blue, 



Where the wind comes perfumed from the orange and lime, 

 And the myrtle is ever in bloom in that clime. 

 Where the citron its green and its gold ever wears. 

 And the birds are forever caressing in pairs ; — • 

 O, 'tis pleasant a while in those groves to remain, 

 Till spring comes to visit and charm us again.'' 



One might almost imagine the poet had the modern Florida 

 in mind when he penned the above lines, for in these days of 

 easy communication with distant places, thousands of people find 

 it pleasant to remain a while in its orange and myrtle groves, till 

 spring returns to charm them back to their northern homes. 



But it is not only the enchanted wanderer among Florida's 

 tropical groves, or the one who delightfully breathes in its per- 

 fumed atmosphere, who is grateful for the modern means of 



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