A Fern is a flowerless plant which has a fibrous root, vascular 
stem, veined leaves, reticulated cuticle furnished with stomata, 
and bears spores as fruit in capsular receptacles. 
The Ferns and their Allies form the first order of the Linnaean 
Class Cryptogamia, and the structure of them shows so exactly 
an intermediate character between the Vasculares and Cellurares 
that all systems of classification have assigned them this station 
among vegetables. They are without flowers, have but imperfectly 
formed vessels, and no deposition of real woody fibre, therefore 
cannot with propriety be arranged with Phaenogamous Plants, while 
their semivascular texture and their fully developed leaves show 
their organization to be greatly above that of any other order of 
Cryptogamic plants. 
Although the True Ferns have a direct analogy with the 
Palmae and Cycadeae, the connexion between them and other orders 
is more apparent in the Pteroides or Fern Allies, particularly the 
Equiseta and Lycopodia. The former of Ihese two are nearly 
connected with several orders of Flowering Plants. In their 
hollow'-jointed, silicious stem they resemble the Grasses, in other 
respects the Coniferoe and Amentaceae, approaching the one by 
means of the genus Casuarina, and the other by that of Ephedra, 
nor are they far removed in structure from the Charas, thus con- 
necting also the Ferns and the Algae. The other of the Fern allies, 
the Lycopodia, were considered by the earlier Botanists as Mosses, 
so slightly do they differ from that tribe, not only in habit, but in 
many important characteristics. 
Thus the tribes under consideration, which are divided according 
to the modern system into Filicales, Lycopodales, and Equi- 
setales, the first the True Ferns, the others the Pteroids or Fern 
Allies, altogether form valuable, because well-connecting links in 
the great chain of nature. 
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