Order II. 
POLYGAMIA DICECIA. 
875 
14437 Leaves oblong acute subcordate at base netted beneath 
14438 Leaves ovate unequal-sided sinuate-toothed cordate at base rough on each side 
1'1439 Leaves opp. obovate oblong serrated acute scabrous above hairy beneath 
14440 Leaves oblong acuminate blunt tapered at base netted beneath. Stipules scarious smooth 
14441 Leaves ovate-oblong acute sinuate toothed smooth 
pEPdia of Gardening. 4839.) F. elastica as well as some other plants produce the gum known as India- 
rubber. 
F. indica is an immense tree, spreading very wide, the branches ash-colored, and throwing down roots into the 
8oil. Marsden mentions one of these growing near Memgee, twenty miles west of Patna, in Bengal, which 
was in diameter 370 feet ; the circumference of the shadow at noon was 1116 feet, and tliere were fiity or sixty 
stems. It is called the priest's tree, and hold in so much veneration by the Gentoos, that if any one cuts or 
.ops off a branch, he is looked upon with as great abhorrence as if he had broken a cow's leg. F. religiosa is 
so called, because it is sacred to the idol Vishnu. The horizontal branches root into the soil like the other ; 
ail the species are of remarkably easy culture, and root easily from large cuttings. 
of Filices and their nearest allies, to introduce some alterations into the form of the pages of this work. These 
alterations commence with Musci. 
The orders of Cryptogamia being equal in importance to the classes of flowering plants, they will be treated 
of as the classes have hitherto been treated. Each order will, therefore, stand by itself, and will have its 
genera and species arranged under it, without immediiite connection with any other order. 
Reproductive organs uniform. Thecce naked, or having an involucre placed on the back of a frond, which is cither 
fohaceous, or contracted so as only to cover the clusters of thecce, and always circinate when young. 
This is the most beautiful of all the orders of Crvptogamic plants, and has always been a favorite tribe, to 
which the most celebrated botanists of all modern times have given their attention. Till some time, however, 
after the death of Linnjeus, ferns shared the fate of all other departments of botany, being viewed rather as ob- 
jects of elegant form than of scientific examination. Sir James Edward Smith was the first author who 
attempted to distribute them into genera, by characters derived from a minute inspection of their organs of re- 
production ; and his arrangement, however imperfect it may now be considered, is certainly that upon the 
principles of which the more precise divisions of recent authors have been effected. He was succeeded by 
bwartz, Willdenow, Brown, and many others, and lastly by Dr. George Frederick Kaulfuss, Professor of 
liotany at Halle, whose arrangement of 1824 is chiefly here adopted as being the most recent which has been 
pubhsned. ^ ^ ° 
The principal distinction which exists between ferns and other orders of Cryptogamous plants is found in the 
situation of what are called their sori, or patches of reproductive organs, which are in all cases inserted upon 
the back surface of the leaf, or, as it is called in ferns, the frond, sometimes appearing only in the form of little 
spots, sometimes covering the whole of the under side of the frond, and sometimes contracting the substance 
ot thetrond, so as to give it the appearance of a single mass of fructification, bursting in a determinate 
manner, as in Ophioglossum, Schiza^a, &c. Besides this character, the fronds are always rolled up in a circin- 
ate manner when they are first developed. 
That part of the frond which occupies the place of the petiole of a compound leaf is called the rachis. The 
groups of thecaB forming the organs of reproduction are called 5or« [a), which are either naked or covered with an 
mvolucrum, or, as it is more frequently termed, indusium. [b) This latter organ, when present, cither bursts out- 
^^'!r^u,°^^'^'^^ margin of the frond, or inwardly towards the midrib or rachis. It may also be either single 
or double ; the latter term signifying, that there is a cover on each side the sorus. The bodies which are called 
viects by some authors, and capsules by others, are constructed in two ways ; they are either surrounded 
and Miscellaneous Particulars. 
FILICES. 
