CHAPTER I. 
THE GERMS OF FERN LIFE. 
In the whole vegetable world there is nothing more beautiful 
than the process by which Ferns become developed from 
the almost mysterious atoms, which are, so to speak, the 
starting points of their existence. It is indeed nothing less 
than marvellous that plants of such exceeding beauty and 
gracefulness, and characterized by such wonderful diversity 
of form, should be produced from germs which are in most 
cases almost infinitesimal, or so small as singly to be unseen 
by the naked eye. In what manner these minute atoms are 
produced by the parent plant, how nursed upon its fronds, 
how stored and protected from injury during the process of 
preparation for that final stage in their germ history at which 
they are launched forth to commence a separate existence in 
the Fern world, we shall subsequently inquire. We have 
now to speak of the germs as we find them fully endowed 
by the Creator with the mystic power which enables them 
to pass through their beautiful and wonderful stages of 
growth. 
Here it will first be necessary to point out that the germ 
atom of the Fern — beautifully named a s^orc — has little 
analogy with the seed of an ordinary plant. The spore 
differs from the seed both in the nature of its construction 
and in the principle of its growth. A seed is in truth a 
miniature plant compressed into a tiny space. This plautlet 
or embryo consists of two principal organs united to each 
