Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
its upper side, and a 
number of small, branch- 
ing rootlets arise, without 
regularity or system, from 
its lower surface. Some- 
times the half-buried main 
‘ 
stem, or ‘‘ rootstock,’’ is 
many inches long, and 
at one end of it there is 
a large actively-dividing 
cell—the growing point. 
But in the tropical tree- 
ferns the main stem stands 
erect, and the ‘ 
‘ growing 
point’’ is at its tip-top. 
When our native ferns 
appear above ground in 
spring, their leaves, or 
fronds, are rolled down- 
ward from the tips like 
croziers, and by this token 
we can distinguish them 
<= from their near kindred, 
the adder’s - tongues 
Fic. 71.—‘‘Male-fern” (4 spidium i i 
Selix-maas), showing the pros- (Ophioglossacez), which 
trate root-stock and the down- 
ward roll and scaly covering of 
the young fronds, 
(From the Vegetable World.) 
enter the world upright. 
The roly-poly ferns of 
