8 
BRITISH TERNS. 
regalis and Asplenium Filix-foemina, the candex rises to 
some extent above the ground, attaining, in old plants of 
the Osmunda , the height of one or even two feet. The 
erect candex sends out abundant roots from its base, and 
fronds from its summit. 
The fronds of ferns are their most showy and at- 
tractive feature ; they consist of a stipes or stem , the 
upper part of which is called the rachis , of a leafy part 
traversed bv veins , and often clothed with scales and 
glands . The fronds of ferns are analogous to the leaves 
of plants, issuing from the caudex as the leaves do from 
the branch ; but as they differ from simple leaves in that 
they bear the fruit upon their under surface, it is well 
that they should have a distinguishing denomination, so 
w r e call them fronds . 
When first the fronds rise above the surface of the 
earth, they are curled up in a very curious manner. In 
most ferns every part is rolled inwards, each part coiled 
in towards the axis of development, and the whole leafy 
part forming a ball ; the stem is also curled in, and as 
it uncurls it forms a loop like the head of a crosier ; this 
kind of vernation is called circinate . We have only two 
genera which differ from the circinate mode of vernation, 
the Botrychium and Ophioglossum , and their fronds are 
folded together in a straight manner, as a laundress 
might fold linen. There are some interesting variations 
in the habits of the circinate ferns. The most compound 
species generally put forth their fronds first, and it is in 
this stage that they won the admiration of the obser- 
vant author of ‘ David Elginbrod d “ All about in shady 
places the ferns were busy untucking themselves from 
their grave-clothes, unrolling their mysterious coils of 
life, adding continually to the hidden growth as they 
