CHYPTOGAMIA. 369 



rence in the accessory, as v.ell as the essential, 

 parts of their flowers, their hulk heing by such a 

 reformation much diminished, it might be advisable 

 to reduce them to one Class, in which the slender 

 remains of Polygamia might commodiously be in- 

 cluded, and the title of such a Class should be 

 i)iclhiia, expressing the two distinct seats, or sta- 

 tions, of the organs of fructification. 



CLASS 24. Cryptogamia. Stamens and Pistils either 

 not well ascertained, or not to be numbered with 

 any certainty. Orders 5. 



1. Filiccs. Ferns. The parts of their flowers are 

 almost entirely unknown. The fructification, taken 

 collectively, and proved to be such by the produc- 

 tion of prolific seeds, grows either on the back, 

 summit, or near the base of the frond. Some are 

 called aunulatce, annulated, their capsules being 

 bound with an elastic transverse ring; otiiers thecattf, 

 or more properly cxanrndatce^ from the want of 

 such an appendage, of which some of the latter 

 have, nevertheless, a spurious vestige. All the 

 former, and some of the latter, are dorsiferous, 

 bearing fruit on the back of the frond, and of these 

 the fructification is either naked, or else covered 

 with a membranous involucrum. The genera are 

 distinguished by Linnaeus according to the shape 

 and situation of the spots, or assemblages of cap 

 sules, besides which I have first found it necessary 

 2 B 



