2 
THE FERN WORLD OF AUSTRALIA. 
The tMck hard part, from which spring the fronds, is the stem, 
and is mostly called in works on ferns the Rhizome or rootstock ; 
sometimes this stem will be found creeping over rocks or trees, at 
other times it will be found some distance below the surface of the 
earth. In creeping or climbing kinds the growing part will always 
be found in advance of the leaves (fronds), the more distant of 
which are the most likely to be fertile, that is to say bearing sori, or 
seed patches. 
In the short tufted form of stem, the leaves are developed around 
the growing point, the bases of the older leaves helping to form its 
trunk ; these stems are sometimes reclining, but in what are called 
tree ferns they become trunk-hke. In one tribe they are in the 
form of a large fleshy globose mass of several hundredweight. 
The leaves or fronds of ferns are of two parts. The stalk or 
stipes, that is the portion from the rootstock or rhizome, to the 
blade or ramified part. These stijyltes or stalks are either adherent 
to the rootstock, or at or near will be formed a joint or articulation, 
in which case the frond will be said to be articulated to the 
rootstock, this structure is often carried out throughout every 
division of the frond, and in such cases much care is required in 
preparing herbarium specimens. The continuation of the stalk 
through the leafy portion of the frond, when the latter is divided into 
leaflets, is called the rhachis, but if the frond is simple, that is, 
undivided, it is then called the rib or costa. These stipites, &c., are 
often more or less clothed with membranous scales, especially at 
their base, and as these ctften furnish means of recognising one kind 
from another, in gathering care should be taken not to rub them off. 
When a frond is separated into distinct leaflets and these are 
simple it is said to he pinnate, should these leaflets ot pinnce as they 
are termed be again divided into leaflets the frond -is said to be 
hi-pinnate, or twice leafletted, and so on tripinnated, &c., but when 
these divisions are connected at their base by their leafy blades the 
frond is termed pinnatifid and its division lohes, the terms hi- 
pinnatijid tri-pinnatifid being used in description ; fronds that are 
very much divided are usually termed decompound. The fronds are 
traversed by a series of veins, the midrib of the frond or p)inna is 
called the costa or costule, the first series of branches from which 
are called veins, the secondary series the venules, and the third series, 
the veinUts, This arrangement is called the venation and has 
according to its varions forms received distinguishing names j thus 
when the mlm are iiiibranohoci they m said to be dmpk, Bmm^ 
iitnm ihef bmiiohed onofi m mom a^d ara thsn eaid to bo 
/m'hd ov pinrwlity mi&fmwi, that resembling a midrib, and 
having tha venules or branches either forked or simple, When thoy 
are ahke on both sides of the midrib they are said to be equals if 
without a midrib they are called radiate, it produced fron> one side 
of a marginal midrib excentric. In all these cases the apices of the 
v^ins may terminate at or within the margin of the fro^d or its 
divisions, when they are said to be direct and free ; but siniila^ 
