VII. 



THE BEACKEN FERN {Pteris aquilina). 



The conspicuous parts of this plant are the large green 

 leaves, or fronds, which rise above the ground, sometimes to the 

 height of five or six feet, and consist of a stem-like axis or 

 rac/iw,from. which transversely disposed offshoots proceed, these 

 ultimately subdividing into flattened leaflets, the pmnules. 

 The rachis of each frond may be followed for some distance 

 into the ground. Its imbedded portion acquires a brown 

 colour, and eventually passes into an irregularly branched 

 body, also of a dark-brown colour, Avhich is commonly called 

 the root of the fern, but is, in reality, a creeping underground 

 stem, or rhizome. From the surface of this, numerous fila- 

 mentous true roots are given off. Traced in one direction 

 from the attachment of the frond, the rhizome exhibits the 

 withered bases of fronds, developed in former years, which 

 have died down; while, in the opposite direction, it ends, 

 sooner or later, by a rounded extremity beset with numerous 

 fine hairs, which is the apex, or growing extremity, of the 

 stem. Between the free end and the fully formed frond 

 one or more processes, the rudiments of fronds, which will 

 attain their full development in following years, are usually 

 found. 



The attachments of the fronds are nodes, the spaces 

 between two such successive attachments, internodes. It 

 will be observed that the internodes do not become crowded 



