200 FERNS. CHAP. I. 



but of some of the Exotic species the height is 

 said to be upwards of ten feet. 



SECTION II. 



Reproductive Organs. 



As Ferns are destitute of conspicuous flowers, so 

 they were at one time thought to be destitute also 

 of seeds, and propagated nobody knows how. 

 Hence the common opinion so prevalent in ancient 

 Fern-seed times with regard to the non-entity,* or the invisi- 

 beanon- bility-f" of Fern-seed ; an opinion that is scarcely 

 emity * even now exploded among the vulgar, though de- 

 monstrated by botanists to be totally erroneous ; 

 the fruit or seed of Ferns being not only visible to 

 the naked eye, at least in its aggregate mass as re- 

 sulting from the mode of inflorescence affected by 

 different genera, but even the individual seeds by 

 the assistance of the microscope. The former must 

 have been often seen, though evidently not attended 

 to, by ancient botanists ; and the latter are said to have 

 Discover- been first discovered by Cole and Swammerdam 



CO* 



about the year 1670, as well as distinguished from 

 the capsules in which they are contained. 





wx s%u. Theoph. lisp* Qvrw TO. I. 

 f Gadshill. We have the receipt of Fern-seed we walk in- 

 visible. Hen. IV. Part I. Act I. Scene I. 



