FILICES-FIRE-FLY. 



471 



The easiest mode of doing this is by using a hoop of 

 proper size placed within the shoots, and to which 

 the latter are tied in star-like order, and at equal 

 twelve-inch distances. Such a laterally curving posi- 

 tion may be much assisted and caused by the primer 

 ahvavs cutting at an outside bud, which naturally 

 grows first outward and then upward, and continued 

 to the height of six feet, but never higher; and the 

 middle of the tree is, in the mean time, kept free from 

 shoots and branches, so that a well-trained head be- 

 comes at last like a large bowl or basin. 



The subsequent management of the trees, both 

 while gaining the desired form and after having gained 

 it, consists in preserving all the short spurs produced on 

 the branches, and shortening the small lateral shoots, 

 which every year rise from the same. The management 

 of these laterals is of trreat importance. If they exceed 

 the length of six inches, they may be cut back to a few 

 buds ; but it' less, they should be preserved entire, as 

 their points are generally fruitful. The special object of 

 the primer is to have the branches thickly beset with 

 fruitful spurs, and which are only reduced in length, 

 when, after a few years' growth, they become too 

 distant from the branch, when they are pruned back 

 to a healthy spur at their base. If any part of a 

 branch become accidentally naked, a strong shoot 

 from the bottom may be led up, and managed so as 

 to fill the vacancy. 



When filbert trees are thus managed, and have 

 arrived at their full volume in width and height, they 

 mav be kept in the same state for mar-y years say 

 twenty or thirty by the knife only, and with the 

 requisite skill in using it. When the fruit are in- 

 tended for long keeping, they should remain on the 

 tree till thoroughly ripe, which is indicated by the 

 rich brown colour of the shell. They require to be 

 laid on a dry floor for a few days, and afterwards 

 stored in jars of dry sand, where they, the kernels, 

 will keep sound for a long time. 



F1LICES are the first order of the class Foliaceee, 

 in the second grand division Ccllulares. This order 

 includes all the ferns, of which there are fifty-three 

 genera, and three hundred and eighty species. The 



a. b. c. d. Part of a froud and magnified capsules of ferns. 



ferns of this, and other temperate regions, are com- 

 paratively humble plants, their true stems generally 

 crrcuiiiL;- on the surface oi the ea^th, or subterranean ; 

 but in the West Indies, and other hot insular situa- 

 tions, arboreous species are found, the stems of which 

 rise out, of the earth, and elevate their crowns of fronds 

 to the height of thirty or forty feet, or even more. In 

 these noble examples of the class, the true structure 

 of the stem, arid affinities of the plants in gei.eral with 

 the palms, is much more obvious, even to the common 

 observer, than in the snffruticose and herbaceous 

 brakes that are now indigenous to these northern 

 latitudes. The fronds or leaves are usually pinnati- 

 fid, and more or less compound ; sometimes nearly 

 simple and entire, with reticulated veins. The capsules 



are minute, one-celled, brown, membranous, and sur- 

 rounded by a thick articulated elastic ring, irregularly 

 mrsting, and either clustered on the lower surface of 

 he frond, or compound in spikes. Their expansion 

 s circinate, and some increase themselves by bulbs. 



I 



a. 4. c. Frond and fructification of ferns. 



The old botanists denied that ferns had seeds ; but it 

 s now proved beyond all doubt, that the fine dust shed 

 jy the fronds are really seeds. 



Ferns delight in a humid soil, and they often grow 

 )arasitically upon trees. The medicinal virtues of 

 some are highly astringent, others anthelmintic, or 

 >urgative ; some are said to be pectoral, and others 

 ire valued for their corroborant qualities. The young 

 eaves and roots of some are used as food ; beer is 

 jrewed from the roots of others ; and the fronds of 

 Aspidium fragrans has been used as tea. 



FIMBR1A. A genus of shells constituted by 

 Megerle, but now classed with the genus Litcina, as 

 )eing properly no other than one of its species. Cu\ ier, 

 lowever, called it Corbitla, but a more accurate exami- 

 nation of the species appears to confirm the propriety 

 of referring these molluscs to the genus Luclna. 



FINCH. (See FRINGILUD^E.) 



FIORIN is the Agrostcs stolonifera of Linnocus, a 

 British grass, of which much noise was made some 

 years ago by a Dr. Richardson of Ireland, who main- 

 tained that it was more valuable for green winter fod* 

 der than any other : that it was indestructible by rain 

 or snow, and contained great fattening qualities. It 

 has been extensively tried in other countries, but has 

 not maintained the character first attributed to it as a 

 winter fodder. 



FIR, is the English name of the frees included in 

 the genus Abies of'Salusbury. The silver and spruce 

 firs are the most common examples of this tribe of 

 forest trees. Linnaeus ranked them in his twenty-first 

 class Moncecia, and tenth order Monadelphia, and they 

 are among the most magnificent plants of the order 

 Conifer (E. 



The firs are almost all remarkable for the regu- 

 larity of their growth, tapering form, and great altitude 

 of their boles. Their timber is also excellent, and 

 almost solely used in the construction of houses ; being 

 easily convertible, and withal durable, in consequence 

 of the great quantity of resin it contains. 



The hemlock spruce is one of the commonest trees 

 of North America, and on the west coast of the middle 

 parts of that continent, some of the firs grow to an 

 amazine: size and height. 



All the varieties are raised from seed, and, after being 

 transplanted two or three times in the nursery, are 

 then lit to be planted out for good. For further 

 particulars of this interesting genus, see ABIES and 

 CONIFERS. 



FIRE -FLY. A name indefinitely bestowed upon 

 any winged luminous insect. The Elatcr noctilucns 

 (see ELATERID.E) ; the Fulgoree candelance and Imiter- 

 narite (see FULGORA), and sometimes also the winged 

 glow-worms (LAMPYRIDJE, which see), being alike 



