The seven vegetable families. 207 
as the Verge of the Leaf is j and its Joints are brown. Therefore the con- 
flrudllon is this : 
The Papilla is the Receptacle of the Frudificatlons, formed from the 
white part of the Conic Clufters. From this rife numerous Filaments, 
crowned with their Rings of Anthera? : for each Ring is a Colledion of 
Antherae ; every brown Joint of it being one. Thefe joints burft in wa- 
ter, as the Particles of Farina always do ; but the central part never opens. 
This central part is in each a tingle Seed : the miracle is its fituation in- 
ftead of being lodged in a Capfule, it is fixed to the complicated Anthera, 
and contained within it: and when the Farina bunls,. it receives imme- 
diate impregnation. 
Thus the Procefs of Nature in the Fern is the fame as in all other' 
Plants, What we call the Seed, is a part, or continuation, of the Central 
Subfiance of the Stalk; which, when it has received from the burfiing fa- 
rina the Rudiment of anew Plant, ripens, defends it, falls, and burfiing 
by the warmth and moifiure of the earth* grows. 
Th.e Seed is at firfi: an empty membranaceous Shell : when the Anthera 
has burfi, it appears full, and yellowifii j and then being opened, we fee 
plainly the Rudiment of a Plant, covered with a yellowifh waxy matter. 
When the Anthers burd, a fine yellow, pulpy fubftance iflhes from, 
them, fo fine that it appears like fmoak ; and in the midft of this is feen. 
a fmall oblong body, a minute Rudiment of a future Plant. 
That thefe Joints of the Ring are Antherae, is certain ; for I have- 
feparated them entire from the Ring, and feen their Powder burfi: in that: 
condition. They are oval and white : the brown colour they feem to have 
in the Ring being only lhadow. I doubt not but the Frudtifications of 
the other Ferns are of the fame kind with thefe; and, probably, in 1 
many they are as diftindl.. 
CHAP. XLVI. 
LUXURIANT GRASS.. 
A ny Grass would have ferved for an inftance of. the Plants of this - 
great Family; for all, have hufky Covers for their Seeds, and fimple 
Leaves, and jointed Stalks. Thefe are the mofi: obvious part of the Cha- 
radter: and whether we examine the low Grass that darves upon the 
fun-burnt wall, or the tall Wheat, at Harved, we fee it equally : a fimple, 
fmooth,.. 
