WHAT IS A FERN ? 



accustom you at once to the difference between 

 them and ordinary plants. 



Some parts of a Fern bear different names to 

 those affixed by botanists to the corresponding 

 we use the word corresponding in its popular and 

 not in its strictly technical sense parts of another 

 plant. First of all there is the crown, which may 

 be styled for the sake of simplicity the mainstay 

 of the plant, or the base of its stem. From the 

 under surface of this stem or root-stock proceed 

 the long fibrous roots which, diving into the soil, 

 or penetrating between the crevices in rocks and 

 walls, seek and convey to the plant the abundant 

 moisture without which it could not live. From 

 the crown of the root-stock grow the stalks which 

 support what would be popularly called the leaves. 

 Each of these stalks is called a stipes, and in 

 most Ferns both the surface of the crown and 

 the stipes are covered with scales a rust- 

 coloured kind of excrescence. 



On each stipes, at a distance from the crown of 

 the plant which varies in different species of 

 Ferns, commences the leaf, technically and beau- 

 tifully styled the frond. At this point begins 



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