292 BfOLOOY. 



leaves, so does the trunk here obtain the form of the leaf, 

 without itself producing true leaves. For, in the ferns, 

 the fruits lie upon the back of the apparent leaf, which 

 can only be the trunk. 



1564. The fruits, being further removed from the 

 fungi, no longer spring up in an opercular, but in a 

 valvular, manner like the higher capsules. 



1565. Green plants with imperfect spiral vessels and 

 blossoms, and also with naked seeds devoid of true cap- 

 sules, belong to the class of Ferns. 



1566. I therefore place in this class the Conifers or 

 trees with acicular foliage, because they have no ovarium, 

 but naked seeds ; and besides these, some other plants, 

 though doubtfully, on account of their very abortive 

 blossoms, as the Naiadaceee. There are therefore Tra- 

 chea! plants without and with stamina. The first por- 

 tray the stock or trunk, the second, the thyrsus or 

 blossom; they live mostly in dry situations, and pro- 

 duce resins or fetid matters. 



1567. First order. Parencliymatous ferns Aquatic 

 ferns. I here place the aquatic ferns, because, as 



water-plants, they occupy a lower situation, because they 

 support the fruits upon a radical trunk, and finally, 

 because these fruit-vesicles have two kinds of contents, 

 all of which seems to remind us of the fuci and lichens ; 

 they correspond to the Tremellini. 



1568. Second order. Sheath-ferns Club -ferns. 

 Here commence the land ferns, and those kinds indeed 

 whose so-called capsules open in a valvular manner, 

 just as in the liverworts ; or almost after the fashion of 

 a pyxidium by an orifice, somewhat as in the mosses ; the 

 trunk is provided with squamose leaves or lobes, e. g. 

 Lycopodiacese and Osmundacese ; they correspond to the 

 Confervaceae. 



1569. Third order. Stem-ferns Annular or ^Ring- 

 ferns. Here we meet with phylloidal involuted capsules 



or seeds upon the back of a stein that is likewise leaf-like ; 

 e. g. the typical or true ferns. 



1570. They have rudiments of roots and a stem, toge- 



