PREFACE. 
V 
But no less interesting are Ferns in point of Structure. 
They originate from a minute bud or bulb, which in a dust- 
like form is familiar to every one who has handled the 
fronds, proceeding mostly from brown chaffy spots on the 
lower side : we find no blossom, no pod or berry, no true 
seed in the whole tribe. If the result of exact observation 
be correct as to the structural laws of this family, the 
earliest stage of a germinating fern-bud (commonly called 
the seed) exhibits the only true flower of the 'plant, from 
which the whole after-growth, even to the height of a tree 
of thirty feet, springs forth ; and which must be regarded, 
so long as it exists, as an ever new and freshly sprouting 
seed-vessel. That flower springs from the under surface of 
the earliest fern-leaf, which resembles a liverwort ; and the 
anther, from the anther-bearing flower, which conveys the 
vital principle to the fruit-bearing flower, is in form akin to 
a minute hairy worm, and swims actively in water, as in the 
marine A Igce, and in the Confervce of fresh water. This anther 
descends into the fruit-bearing flower, and impregnates the 
germ of the future plant. From that germ arises a cellular 
body out of which at length springs the first fern-frond , 
and on that frond are formed the bare or covered capsules or 
sporangia, mostly furnished with an elastic spring, which 
contain, and in due time discharge the spores, a light, 
minute, and copious dust, easily wafted by the breeze,* 
every particle of which, if perfect, may be regarded as a bulb 
or bud, capable of vegetation, but not possessing cotyledons, 
or any of those symmetrical characters which distinguish 
the germinating seeds of flowering plants. Thus the first 
stage of fern-life is all that can be compared with flowering 
plants, and is minute and remote from observation. A very 
clear and detailed description of the structure and functions 
of those parts of inflorescence is given by Dr. Goode, in an 
* The interior of the covered gallery at the top of Osmaston Smoke-tower 
was studded in 1860 with commoner Ferns, the spores of which had, doubtless, 
been borne thither upon the winds, 640 feet above the sea level. 
