FERNS. CHAP. I. 



mixed with Furze and Brambles ; but the habitats 

 of such as are the most luxuriant in their growth, 

 are moist and fertile spots, in shady and retired 

 situations, as on mossy dripping rocks, or by 

 fountains and rills of water.* Some of them will 

 thrive even on the dry and barren rock, or in the 

 chinks and fissures of walls ; and others, only in 

 wet and marshy situations where they are half 

 immersed in water. 



SECTION I. 



Conservative Organs. 



Modifica- The Root. The root of the family of the Ferns, 

 as most other natural families, assumes very different 

 aspects in different species. In Osmunda Lunar ia 

 it is fibrous, the fibres being but few. In Asplc- 

 nium Trichomanes it is also fibrous, the fibres being 

 numerous and closely matted together. In Aspi- 

 dium Filix-mas it is at first also merely fibrous, but 

 is converted in the process of vegetation into u large 

 caudex, of which the fibres seem to be only appen- 

 dages. In Aspidium dilatatum it is tuberous ; -f- 

 and in Poly podium vulgar e it is creeping and 

 covered with scales. In Pteris aquilina or com- 

 mon Brakes, it is sometimes described as being 

 spindle-shaped, J but this is evidently not the fact. 



* Withering, vol. i. p. 355. 



f Smith's Flor. Brit. p. 1126. f Ibid. 1126. 



