*43 



direction is a number of brown or yellow spots, lines, or 

 patches, on the backs or edges of the fronds, such as we 

 shall find in no flowering plant whatever. These spots, 

 lines, etc., represent the spores, or more properly speaking, 

 heaps of little pods containing the spores, which in ferns 

 take the place of seed. On careful examination of a collec- 

 tion of ferns, we shall find that, as a rule, fronds of a similar 

 form will have these spore heaps arranged in a similar 

 way. Thus in the many varieties of ptevis, which form the 

 bulk of market ferns, they invariably form their continuous 

 lines along the under edges of the divisions, the edges 

 being thinned, and turn back to form a sort of protective 

 cover, though this is hardly seen when the spores are ripe. 



In the Maidenhairs, though the spore heaps are also on 

 the edge, and protected in a similar, but more effective, 

 way, the lines are broken up into very short ones, forming 

 a series of oblong dots. In Asplenium bulbifevum, a familiar 

 fern, whose fronds are dotted all over with youngsters, we 

 see an entirely different arrangement, the spore heaps here 

 being in numerous lines arranged in rows along the veins, 

 which form, as it were, the ribs of the sub-divisions, and if 

 we examine the Bird's-nest Fern [Asplenium nidus-avis) we 

 shall see that altogether different as it appears from A. 

 bulbifevum, it has still the same thin lines arranged in pre- 

 cisely the same way. Here then we obtain a clue to the 

 way the botanists determine the genus of the innumerable 

 ferns existing. Every genus has its one special way of 

 bearing its spores, and however widely the species or varie- 

 ties may differ in make and appearance, this one character 

 almost invariably suffices to clear up any doubt. 



In some cases, however, somewhat finer distinctions 

 have had to be drawn. Thus, if we examine the common 

 Male Fern (Lastvea filix-mas) of our hedges, and compare it 

 with the almost equally common Shield Fern (Polystichum 

 angulaye) we find the spore heaps in both markedly alike, 



