THE HIGHER CRYPTOGAMIA. 223 



(until the end of May) the stem rapidly elongates to the 

 extent of about an inch, and during this period the portion 

 of the stipes of the young frond which afterwards 

 assumes a brown colour, is formed : it is a cylindrical 

 body, one or two inches high, having a vertical direction 

 produced by violent curvature close to its place of insertion, 

 and clothed with yellowish- white scales (PI. XXIX, fig. 14). 

 After the removal of the latter a flat furrow is visible at the 

 apex of the young frond on the side turned towards the 

 stem, in which the rudiments of the lamina of the frond 

 are closely folded in the form of a flat cellular mass, about 

 one eighth of a line long, exhibiting two or three furcate 

 ramifications (PI. XXX, fig. 6, 6 h ). Towards the end of 

 the second vegetative period this cellular mass attains the 

 length of one line, and makes from ten to twelve furcations, 

 alternating to the right and to the left hand. The further 

 development of the frond goes on in the spring of the third 

 year, at the end of May in which year it appears above the 

 surface of the earth, delicately rolled up like a crosier, and 

 complete in all its parts. 



Roots are developed only from the cortical vascular bun- 

 dles of the stem of mature plants, and in fact only from the 

 points of junction of their meshes. Their rudiments are 

 formed close under the terminal bud, at the point where the 

 course of the cortical vascular bundle exhibits its inward 

 curvature (PL XXXII, fig. 1). Here cell-multiplication 

 commences in one of the outer cells of the cambium bun- 

 dle, similar to that by which the first root of the germ-plant 

 is formed. As in that case, the three different kinds of 

 septa of the cell of the first degree stand at right angles to 

 a radial plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the 

 stem. A septum is formed turned towards the vascular 

 bundle from which the root is developed, and making an 

 angle of about 30° with the root. This septum has the 

 form of the third part of the surface of a truncate cone, 

 and its formation is followed by that of a curved septum 

 inclined in an opposite direction, this again is followed by 

 the formation of an almost flat transverse septum at right 

 angles to the longitudinal axis of the root, and diverging 

 from the two former by about 60°. The form of the pri- 



