I NT R ODUC TION. 
Ill 
Cryptogams, whilst the Ferns present us with the most highly developed and conspicuous 
living representatives of the group (for we do not now speak of extinct plants). The scientific 
name for the family of Ferns is Filices or Filicince. 
STRUCTURE. 
Let us now bring before our notice the different parts or organs of which ferns are made 
up, and briefly examine their various modifications and structure. 
By far the great majority are perennial, one of the few annual species being Gymnogramme 
leptopliylla , fully described in the following pages. In appearance, as well as in what the botanist 
calls habit, they present infinite variety, some being very small, delicate, creeping, and moss-like, 
others rigid and leathery, whilst others, attaining the height and appearance of palms, are called 
Tree-Ferns. The main cause of this variety is due to modifications of the stem, which we 
proceed to describe. 
STEM. — The stem of a fern is either erect or creeping, and either subterranean or above 
ground. When under ground it usually receives the erroneous name of root, but its structure 
is the same whether above or beneath the surface of the ground. Good examples of the erect 
form of stem, called the caudex , are seen in our British Male Fern ( Nephrodium Filix-mas), or 
Lady Fern ( Athyrium Filix-fcemina ), or in the Royal Fern ( Osmunda regalis), when they have 
attained to a considerable age ; but here the caudex rises at the best but a few inches above the 
ground. To see the erect stem in its highest development we must look at the tree-ferns of hot 
countries, none of which occur in Europe in a wild state, although they may be seen in the 
hot-houses of any of our large gardens, some very beautiful examples being noticeable in 
the tropical fern-house of the Royal Gardens, Kew. These show us an erect, slender or 
thick, column-like trunk, without branches, and with all its fronds borne upon its summit, and 
usually forming a beautiful spreading and drooping crown. The older part of the stem is either 
covered with the dry bases of the fronds of past years, or its surface is marked by their scars, 
and in all erect stems these are placed close together, and the scars form a diagonal pattern, 
as shown in the accompanying figure. Not unfrequently, the real stem is of small 
size, the bulk being composed of these persistent bases of the leaves, as is the case 
in our Male Fern. The true roots, which are long, tough, slender, and fibrous, 
and usually dark in colour, are given off on all sides of the caudex at the bases 
of the fronds, and often in the tree-ferns form a pyramidal or conical mass round 
the stem down to the ground ; this is well seen in the Dicksonia antarctica of our 
conservatories. These roots may become welded together so as to form a solid 
wood-like mass, as in Cyathea mediillaris of New Zealand, where it is called 
“weki,” and cut into slabs by the Maoris. The caudex of this fern reaches a height 
of over a hundred feet, but the ordinary height of tree-ferns is from twenty to fifty 
feet, and some are much smaller: thus, Todea Wilkesiaua of the Fiji Islands has 
EXTERNAL SUR- 
an erect stem about seven feet high, and only as thick as a walking-stick. It is face of stem 
very uncommon for these erect stems of ferns to branch or divide. 0F tree-fern. 
In some creeping caudices which are above ground, and anchor themselves to 
it by roots, the fronds are also crowded, and form a tufted crown ; but much more usually such stems 
or rhizomes bear the fronds at intervals (or, as botanists would say, the internodes are developed). 
The intervals between the origin of fronds are longer or shorter in different cases. Our common 
Polypody ( Polypodium vulgare ), or, still better, the Hare’s-foot Fern ( Davallia canariensis), are 
