INTRODUCTION. 
XXXI 
fronds rise from it separately, and often at considerable 
distances from each other. The rhizoma is sometimes said 
to he tufted; instances of this are shown at pages 163, 208 
and 249 : a tufted rhizoma is robust, compact and erect ; 
it hears a tuft of fronds at its extremity. The fronds are 
something like deciduous branches ; they cannot with pro- 
priety be called leaves, although some modern botanists 
have attempted to introduce that name : they generally 
consist of a stem and a leafy portion ; the stem being par- 
tially naked and partially continued through the leafy por- 
tion to its extremity. The whole of this stem is often 
called the rachis, but our most able botanists divide it into 
two parts, calling the lower portion where naked the stipes, 
and the upper portion the rachis. I have not used these 
words, but have always spoken of it as a stalk or stem. 
The fronds of ferns are generally very much divided, 
and are usually described by the amount or character of 
divisions. The fronds at page 289 are simple or undivided, 
those at pages vii and 293 are deeply notched or pinnati- 
fid, and those at pages 137, 143, 163, 273, 281 and 285, 
are called pinnate, the leaf-like divisions being termed 
pinncB. The pinnce are more or less divided : fig. h at 
page 187 represents a pinnatifid pinna, and at page 209 
all the pinnce are pinnate, or completely divided into a 
series of leaf-like divisions called pinnules, and these pin- 
nules again are either simple, pinnatifid, or pinnate. 
The seed of ferns are usually produced in little capsules, 
surrounded by a jointed ring, which terminates below in a 
short stalk ; the capsule when ripe splits open, and the 
