328 



BOTANY OF THE LIVING PLANT 



or obliquely, as in the common Male Fern [Nephrodium) (Fig. 267) ; 

 or horizontally with a creeping habit, as in the Bracken {Pteridium), 

 or the Common Polypody. When upright the internodes are short, 

 and the numerous leaves take the basket-like grouping, as in the 



Fig. 267. 

 Nephrodium Filix-mas, Rich. /I, stock in longitudinal section. i; = theapex. st= 

 the stem. fe = the leaf-stalks. 6' = one of the still folded leaves. g = vascular strands. 

 B = a leaf-stalk, bearing at ft a bud with root at lo, and several leaves. C is a similar 

 leaf -stalk cut longitudinally. Z) = a stock, from which the leaves have been cut away 

 to their bases, leaving only those of the terminal bud. The spaces between the leaves 

 are filled with numerous roots, Jt', w'. E, stock from which the rind has been removed 

 to show the vascular network, g. F = a mesh of the network enlarged, showing the 

 strands which pass out into the leaves, (.^fter Sachs.) 



Male Fern ; when creeping the internodes are longer, so that the leaves 

 are isolated, as on the underground rhizome of the Bracken, the leaves 

 being here the only part above ground. The stems of Ferns have 

 unlimited apical growth, and sometimes fork at their ends, as the 

 Lycopods do. But buds may also appear at the leaf-bases, a condition 



