Cl. 1.] FILICES. 65 



veral together, though scarcely more than one pro- 

 duces Fruit. Their Germen (59), at first sessile, is 

 covered with a membranous Calyptra, or Veil, in the 

 place of a Corolla, whose summit admits the Pollen. 

 The ripening Pericarp (6*1) is generally elevated on 

 a PediCelbiS (22), and carries up the Veil, torn from 

 the base, along with it. The Fruit is a Capsule (6 1: 1), 

 opening by a Lid ; its margin either naked, or vari- 

 ously f rinsed with a determinate number of hygro- 



/ o / o 



metrical teeth, in a single or double row, affording 

 good Generic distinctions (L01). The Seeds are 

 minute and innumerable, but have been proved such 

 by germination. Musci are herbaceous, leafy, mostly 

 branched ; their Leaves continuous (46), pellucid and 

 often reticulated. Roots abundantly fibrous ; annual 

 or perennial. Few plants are more tenacious of life, 

 or revive more readily after drying. 



Examples of genera without a Fringe (Peristomium) 

 are Sphagnum and Gynmostomum ; with a single 

 Fringe, Grimmla and Dicranum, fig. 108 ; with a 

 double one, fig. 1 1 2, Bryum, Hypnum, &c. 



Ord.5. FILICES. Ferns (90) fig. 96- 104. Nothing 

 is known of their Fructification but the Capsules, 

 fig. 101, 104; situated either on the back of the 

 Frond (24) and composing Sori, fig. 100, 102, 103, 

 (53 : 2), with, or rarely without, a membranous In- 

 volucrum, fig. 100, 103 ; or in Spikes, fig. 96', (48:3) 

 which seem transformations of the Frond or its seg- 

 ments (90). The most usual form of their Pericarp 



F 



