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A TEBN BOOK ¥0R EYEHTBODY. 



correct appellation is Cryptogamia, which means Lidden. 

 flowers," because all of them have organs which produce 

 seeds or spores (the great object of all flowers) ; the floral 

 envelopes, such as the gay and often gorgeously tinted 

 petals, beiDg absent. The floral organs in many of the 

 Cryptogamia are so deeply concealed, or masked under 

 such peculiar forms, that they fully merit the title which 

 has been given to them. In the higher Cryptogamia, or 

 those which approach nearest to flowering plants, as ferns 

 and mosses, the reproductive organs (flowers if you please) 

 are less concealed than in the lower Cryptogamia, such as 

 algcs, lichens, and fangi. 



Ferns, therefore, belong to the higher Cryptogamia, of 

 which they constitute a most important section, and are 

 distributed all over the world, except the cold Polar 

 regions. In some countries they equal one-ninth part of 

 all the flowering plants which the country is known to 

 produce, whilst in others they scarcely exceed in number 

 -2^0 th of the flowering plants. They are to be found in 

 Greenland, Iceland, and the North Cape, all over the 

 tropics, as well as the temperate regions between, and are 

 plentiful in the Australasian islands. The number of known 

 species is very uncertain, fluctuating according to the 

 opinions of different pteridologists as to what constitutes 

 a species. Some have placed the maximum at 2,000, 

 others consider the minimum to be double that number. 

 Sir W. J. Hooker described 2,500 species in his " Species 

 Filicum," more than twenty years ago, and Mr. John 

 Smith thinks that, with the additions since made, the 

 number will not fall short of 3,000. This, therefore, may 

 doubtless be accepted as an approximate estimate of the 

 number. 



That ferns are very beautiful, highly ornamental, and 

 consequently attractive, will be admitted; but the utili- 

 tarian will be anxious to learn " what are their uses ? " 

 Such a querist will hardly receive a satisfactory answer 

 if he confines the meaning of Kis word " use " to market 

 value or economic application. It is true that the materia 

 medica derives small additions from ferns. A kind of food 



