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ACOTYLEDONS FERNS MOSSES DIAGRAM 18. 



FAMILY OF FERNS. 



Ferns are green, and somewhat resemble other plants. The 

 spores are developed under the leaves, or 

 fronds, as they are called, owing to their 

 bearing the spores in small clusters of 

 variable form. Sometimes they are long 

 and narrow, and sometimes round or bean- 

 shaped. In one beautiful fern called the 

 maiden-hair, the stalk of which is black and 

 slender, the spores are placed under the 

 very edges of the leaves which seem to be 



folded over to cover them. In the so-called flowering fern, the 

 spores are arranged as a kind of stem, but its resemblance to a 

 flowering plant is only apparent, and not real. 



Our British ferns are all plants of moderate size, but in hot 

 countries they grow to a great height, and resemble the palms, 

 both because their stem grows in length without increasing in 

 breadth, and because they are likewise surmounted with a crown 

 of large leaves. 



FAMILY OF MOSSES. 



Mosses, like ferns, resemble other plants in external appearance ; 

 they are green, and have a woody stalk, one might say, like those of 

 yery small trees. The spores of mosses are not developed under the 

 leaves, as in ferns, but in special and very elegant organs. When 

 we look at mosses during the season, chiefly in winter and spring, in 

 which they fructify, we notice straight slender filaments projecting 



