2 The Fern Garden. 



All the cryptogams are destitute of flowers ; that is 

 one of their most noticeahle distinctions. But though 

 flowerless they, for the most part, produce seeds in 

 plenty. Look on the under side of a ripe frond of 

 almost any < fern you can get hold of, and you will 

 ohserve sharp lines, or dots, or constellations of red, 

 brown, or yellow fruit or spore cases ; within these are 

 the spores or true seeds, by the germination of which 

 the race is multiplied. 



Ferns differ from flowering plants in the principles 

 of their construction and growth. If we examine the 

 base of a leaf-stalk of a tree we shall find a bud there, 

 which, if left alone, will produce a branch or a cluster 

 of fruit the next season. There are no such buds in 

 the axils of fern leaves, not even in those of the brake, 

 which is peculiarly tree-like in its growth. The growth 

 of a fern is a sort of perpetual lengthening out at both 

 ends. The upward growth, which is more frequently 

 the subject of observation than the growth of the roots, 

 consists first in a process of unrolling, and then of 

 expansion and maturation of the leaves and stems. 

 Because of these and other characters which obviously 

 and without reference to the peculiar nature of their 

 fruit distinguish them from flowering plants, the 

 several parts of a fern are named differently to the 

 corresponding parts in flowering plants. Thus, the 

 true stem or root-stock of a fern is called a caudex, 

 the true leaf is called a frond, the stem which bears 

 the leaf is called the stipes, and the ramifications of 

 the stipes through the leafy portion corresponding to 

 the leaf-stalks of other plants bears the name of 



