14 HISTORY OF BRITISH FERNS. 



becomes apparent except in the case of very ngod 

 plants. 



The leaves of Ferns are generally called fronds, and as 

 this latter term is much tlie more appropriate, we shall 

 adopt it, with this general explanation, that it means the 

 leaf-like organs which are borne on the proper stem. The 

 leaf-like character they bear has led some botanists to reject 

 the term frond altogether, and to consider them as true 

 leaves ; but since they grow by development from their 

 apex, which botanists say leaves do not, and since they 

 produce, from some part of their surface, what in their 

 case stands in the place of flowers, there is no more reason 

 why they should be called leaves, than the leaf-like stems 

 of Cactuses, or those of the curious hot-house plants called 

 JCylophyUa — each of which afford examples of plants bear- 

 ing flowers on what appear to be leaves, but which are in 

 reality stems. The frond or leafy part of a Fern is, how- 

 ever, not to be classed among stems ; and hence, since it 

 is of intermediate character between a leaf and a stem, a 

 distinctive name seems to be properly applied to it, and 

 the name in common use among botanists is that which we 

 have here adopted. 



There are no flowers produced by the Ferns (we use the 



