n6 



the scale-like prothallus even giving place to a thready 

 one, that in all probability we may regard them as the 

 primordial forms of ferns, grading upwards through the 

 lovely Todeas to the harder-fronded species which at the 

 further end of the exposure scale defy both drought and 

 heat in the most unfernlike fashion, a type of which we 

 have at home in our familiar Ceterach. 



Although I have alluded in a general way to the complex 

 internal structure of the fern frond, which serves both to 

 strengthen it and supply it with sap from the root system, 

 space altogether precludes entering into the wonderful 

 individual details of such structure which sections display 

 under the microscope, and which, as well as the system of 

 venation and general plan of growth, varies greatly in the 

 different genera and spe:ies, and even in the varieties, 

 although each species has certain characteristic arrange- 

 ments which enable the expert to determine it, very often 

 by sections only. A familiar example is the Common 

 Bracken, a stem section of which invariably displays the 

 rude resemblance to an eagle, which gives it its botanical 

 name of Ptevis aquilina. 



Chas. T. Druery, F.L.S., V.M.H. 



FERN HUNTING (continued). 

 It is well worthy of note that in the large majority 

 of instances the " finds " are either solitary plants or 

 clumps originating presumably from an originally single 

 sport, though now and again, as might be expected, 

 seedlings have established themselves near by, so that 

 farther search is rewarded by further specimens. Very 

 rarely colonies, as it were, are found as in our own case of 

 Asp. ad. nigrum caudatum, where many yards of a stone 

 dyke contained no other form but hundreds of this. 



