THE FEENS AND FEEN ALLIES OF 

 NEW ZEALAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE STRUCTUEE OF FERXS AND ALLIED PLANTS. 



What is a Fern 1 The question is often asked, but it is not always 

 easily answered, at least in a manner satisfactory to the questioner. 

 It will not enligtten the majority of inquirers to say that — "A fern 

 is a vascular cryptogam, bearing well-developed leaves which have 

 usually simple or forked veins, are circinate in vernation, and bear 

 spoi-angia almost always collected into son on their under-surfaces or 

 margins.'' While, no doubt, perfectly true and quite satisfactory to 

 the botanist, this description might — as far as its general application 

 is concerned — be couched in Greek. It will be advisable, therefore, 

 to explain what the above definition means, and in doing so we 

 shall hope to give an explanation which will be comprehensible by 

 those who know nothing of botany. 



The majority of our cultivated plants bear their organs of repro- 

 duction in tolerably conspicuous groups, which we call the flowers 

 and_/rwii. A single flower, like that of the strawberry, for example, 

 contains a large number — probably from 50 to 100 — of these repro- 

 ductive organs, and they are called respectively the stamens (male 

 organs) and pistils (female organs). By the fertilizing action of the 

 former on the latter, the seeds are developed. When the other 

 parts of the flower have fulfilled their functions, the pistils continue 

 to increase in size, forming the fruit which we see when ripe as little 

 seed-like bodies (popularly known as the seeds) on the outside of the 

 succulent strawberry. These contain the true seeds, which, when 

 sown, give rise by direct growth to similar plants to the one which 

 produced them. AU flowering plants are furnished with stamens 



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