123 WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS. 



the ground. Sometimes the flowers mistake the seasons and 

 put in an appearance with the leaves in spring, but they are 

 imperfect, and the perianth is greenish-white. 



The name is from Colchis, where it is said to have grown 

 abundantly. 



Hart's-tongue Fern (Scokpendrium vulgare). 



Hitherto we have dealt only with flowering plants. In these 

 sexual organs are borne in more or less conspicuous blossoms, 

 and, as the result of fertilization of the ovules by the pollen, 

 seeds are produced which give rise to plants exactly like that 

 which bore them. Ferns produce an enormous number of 

 minute bodies, called spores, which are incapable of developing 

 directly into a plant similar to that by which they were pro- 

 duced ; but on germination they give rise to a minute green 

 scale, like a liverwort, upon the under surface of which sexual 

 organs appear, and by the mingling of their cell-contents a 

 true bud is formed, from which a true fern-plant is evolved. 

 There are other important points upon which ferns differ from 

 flowering plants, but it is not within the author's province to 

 deal with them here. Let it suffice to add that as a fruit- 

 bearing organ the leafy portion of a fern differs greatly from 

 the leaves of other plants. To prevent confusion it is termed 

 a frond. 



The Hart's-tongue has a frond of very simple character 

 strap-shaped consisting of a stout mid-rib (rachis), with a 

 leathery green expansion on either side, the upper end tapering 

 off to a point, the lower divided into two lobes. A large number 

 of thick red-brown parallel ridges on the under surface will 

 attract immediate attention. These are heaps of delicate 

 capsules (sporangia) , which contain the spores. The Hart's- 

 tongue is a plant of sandy or rocky hedgerows. 



