WAYSIDE WEEDS. 2Q1 



if we canj their commou characters. In the first 

 place, we have ,the fern itself constituted by the 

 frond (Figs. Ill, 114), this frond being supported by 

 A central stem, or, as it is called, the " stipe," and 

 this again springing from a root stock, " caudex,^* 

 or rhizome (Fig. Ill), from which the true root 

 fibres are developed. When the stem or stipe of 

 the fern frond passes into the frond itself it takes 

 the name of " rachis ;" and passing through the 

 centre of the frond, becomes, as in the hart's-tongue 

 fern, as it were, a central midrib ; in others, as the 

 polypody (Fig. Ill), the spleenwort (Fig. 114), etc., 

 it forms the central support from which the lateral 

 divisions, or, as they are called, " pinn»," are given 

 ofi". The frequent presence, especially in young 

 fronds, of "chaffy" scales upon both stipe and 

 rachis will scarcely escape the observation even of a 

 beginner, and we need only again refer to the pecu- 

 liar mode of the springing of the young fronds to 

 secure attejation. 



Lastly, we come to the most peculiar char^icter- 

 istic of the fern tribe, the means of propagation^ 

 or what people generally would call seeds> but 

 which for specip.1, reasons botanists term spores 

 (Figs. 112, 113, 114, 117). These it is almost 

 superfluous again to remark are produced without 

 anything, resembling the flower of the vegetable 

 kingdom generally, and are for the most part col- 

 J:ectedupon the back of the fronds, "the collections 



