fig] 



QLlyz CreaSurg of M a tang. 



494 



the stamens, terminating in a bilamellar 

 stigma. The fruit is an ovate many-seeded 

 berry. The plant has opposite, remote, 

 shortly-stalked broadly lanceolate leaves, 

 and axillary, solitary pendulous flowers of 

 a pale green colour. It is a climber, with a 

 rooting stem, attaching itself to the trunk 

 of tree ferns, &c. The name is sometimes 

 applied to certain Vandas. [R. H.] 



FIG. Ficus. — , ADAM'S. Musa para- 

 disinca. — , BARBARY. Opuntia vulgaris. 

 — , COMMON. Ficus Carica. — , DEVIL'S 

 or INFERNAL. Argemone mexicana. —, 

 HOTTENTOT'S. Mesembryanthemum edule. 

 — , INDIAN. Opuntia, especially O. vulga- 

 ris; also a general name for the Cactacece. 

 — , KEG, of Japan. Diospyros Kaki. — , 

 PHARAOH'S. Sycomorus antiquorum. — , 

 SACRED. Ficus religiosa. 



FIG-MARIGOLD. Mesembryanthemum. 



FIGUE BANANE. (Fr.) Musa sapien- 

 tum. — CAQUE. Diospyros Kaki. — 

 MODIQUE. Clusiaflava. 



FIGUIER. Ficus. — COMMUN. Ficus 

 Carica. — D'ADAM. Musa paradisiaca. 

 — DTNDE. Opuntia vulgaris. 



FIG-WORT. Scrophularia. The term 

 Figworts has also been applied to the 

 scrophulariaceous order. 



FILAMENT. The stalk of the anther. 

 Any kind of thread-shaped body. 



FILAGO. A genus of small herbaceous 

 Compositw, distinguished by their chaffy 

 receptacle, the absence of a pappus, and by 

 the female florets being mixed among the 

 scales of the imbricated involucre. They 

 are mostly annuals of low stature, having 

 the stems and leaves hoary with cottony 

 down, and inconspicuous flowers of the 

 texture popularly known as everlasting. 

 The commonest British species are F. 

 minima, a hoary little plant three to four 

 inches high, with erect stems, very narrow 

 leaves, and brownish-yellow flowers ; and F. 

 gen.ianica, a plant of similar habit, six to 

 eight inches high, with an erect stem ter- 

 minating in a globular head of small coni- 

 cal flowers, from the base of which usually 

 spring two or three horizontal branches 

 terminating in like manner. This curious 

 mode of growth occasioned the term Herba 

 impia to be applied by the old botanists to 

 this plant, as if the offspring were unduly 

 elevating themselves above the parent. 

 None of the foreign species are worthy of 

 especial notice. French, Cotonniefe ; Ger- j 

 mari,Filzkraut. [C. A.J.] 



FILBERT. Corylus Avellana. — -.WEST 

 INDIAN. Entada scandens. 



FILFIL BFRREE. An Indian name for 

 the fruits of Vitex trifolia. 



FILICES. One of the principal groups 

 of cryptogams, some of the leading pecu- 

 liarities of which will be found explained 

 in the article Acrogens. They are com- 

 monly called Ferns, and consist of arbo- 

 rescent or herbaceous perennial, very rare- 1 

 ly annual plants; those of arborescent l 



habit having a trunk varying from two 

 or three to sixty or eighty feet in height, 

 and formed of the consolidated bases of 

 the fronds, surrounding a soft central 

 mass of tissue; those of herbaceous habit 

 either having a caudex formed on apian 

 similar to the arborescent kinds, but on a 

 smaller scale, the young fronds forming 

 the growing point, or having a more or 

 less fleshy rhizome whose growing point 

 is in advance of the development of the 

 fronds, which are produced from its sides 

 instead of its apex. Arborescent Ferns are 

 represented in Plates 2, fig. e, 9, and 12 ; 

 and a simple-fronded Fern in Plate 12. 



Ali true Ferns, under which name are in- 

 cluded nearly all the ferns that are known, 

 may be recognised by the circinate 

 growth of their young leaves, and by their 

 hypophyllous fructification. The fronds 

 are very various in regard to size and 

 form, some being simple, others many 

 times cut or divided ; while some measure 

 but an inch, and others many feet.in length. 

 In the majority of instances there is no 

 material difference of aspect between 

 those fronds which are fertile and those 

 which are sterile ; but in others, including 

 whole groups, the Acrostichece for example, 

 there is a manifest contraction of the 

 fertile fronds, which are sometimes re- 

 duced to mere ribs and spikes clustering 

 with masses of the spore-cases. 



The spore-cases, which are collected into 

 heaps called sori, consist of little one- 

 celled vesicles, girt either longitudinally, 

 vertically, or obliquely by a jointed ring, 

 which nearly, or in some cases completely, 

 surrounds them. This ring is elastic, and 

 by its contraction disrupts the spore-case 

 and scatters the contained spores— mere 

 dust-like atoms, invisible except in a mass 

 to the naked eye. The sorus, or heap of 

 spore-cases, is in some groups naked, 

 but in others covered while young by a 

 membrane called the indusium. 



The spores of Ferns are produced by 

 cell-division within the spore-cases, and 

 are consequently unattached, and various- 

 ly shaped and sculptured. They consist of 

 two coats containing a grumous mass. 

 On germination the outer coat bursts, and 

 the inner is elongated and protruded, and 

 by cell-division becomes converted into a 

 thin marchantiform frond or prothallus. 

 On the under-surface of the prothallus, two 

 kinds of bodies are borne, one of which, 

 the antherid, produces spiral ciliated sper- 

 matozoids, while the other, which forms 

 the archegone or female cell, is sunk in 

 the tissue. The cell at the base of the 

 archegones, after impregnation, gives 

 rise to a new plant, which is gradually de- 

 veloped, and is of different duration in 

 different species, producing successive 

 crops of fronds and spore-cases. 



Many schemes have been proposed for 

 the classification of Ferns, but that seems 

 to be preferable, which is based on the 

 modifications of the vascular system taken 

 in conjunction with the fructification. All 

 Ferns are referrible to one of the groups 

 Ophioglossacece, Marattiacece, or Polypodia- 



