2 
THE FERNS OF SOUTH AFRICA 
In all ordinary flowering plants, where seed is produced, 
it is formed after the flower, and is the direct result of the 
sexual fertilisation of one part of the flower by pollen grains 
produced on another part of the same flower, or of a different 
flower of the same kind. 
In the ferns, however, neither the seed-like capsules, nor 
the dust-like particles, or spores , contained in them, are the 
result of sexual fertilisation ; indeed, until after the spores are 
set free there is no flower or anything analogous to a flower, 
nor any sexual parts, produced on the fern, and from the first 
appearance of a young frond it bears these capsules and 
spores which grow simultaneously with it, and reach maturity 
also at the same time. 
It is this production of reproductive spores, without flowers 
or evident sexual connection, that is used as the first division 
in systematic botany, separating plants into two groups, 
flowering, or Phanerogams , and flowerless, or Cryptogams , the 
latter including, besides the plants now under study, such 
plants as mosses, lichens, seaweeds, and fungi, or mushrooms, 
each having its own method of reproduction. 
The further life-history of the spores will be explained 
later on, but enough has been said to distinguish clearly 
between a fern and a more highly developed plant. 
There remains, however, the difficulty that these parts are 
too minute for examination, except under a powerful micro- 
scope, and some readers may want a distinction which they 
can see for themselves without the microscope. This is not 
obtainable in every case ; but with ferns a little practice will 
enable anyone to identify the regular lines, or dots of capsules, 
along the edge, or on the surface, of the underside of the 
mature fertile frond, but which are not to be found on the 
leaves of any flowering plant. Another easily seen character, 
which holds in all except Ophioglossnm, is the manner in 
which the young fronds lie rolled up before they unfold, 
i.e,, every frond is rolled inward like the mainspring of a 
watch, having the tip of the frond for its centre, and each 
curve outward is rather larger, and contains all the rest. 
The divisions of the frond are also folded in the same way. 
