9 
The Fern Garden . 
All the cryptogams are destitute of flowers; that is 
one of their most noticeable distinctions. But though 
flowerless they, for the most part, produce seeds in 
plenty. Look on the under side of a ripe frond of 
almost any fern you can get hold of, and you will 
observe sharp lines, or dots, or constellations of red, 
brown, or yellow fruit or spore cases; within these are 
the spores or true seeds, by the germination of which 
the race is multiplied. 
Ferns differ from flowering plants in the principles 
of their construction and growth. If we examine the 
base of a leaf-stalk of a tree we shall find a bud there, 
which, if left alone, will produce a branch or a cluster 
of fruit the next season. There are no such buds in 
the axils of fern leaves, not even in those of the brake, 
which is peculiarly tree-like in its growth. The growth 
of a fern is a sort of perpetual lengthening out at both 
ends. The upward growth, which is more frequently 
the subject of observation than the growth of the roots, 
consists first in a process of unrolling, and then of 
expansion and maturation of the leaves and stems. 
Because of these and other characters which obviously 
and without reference to the peculiar nature of their 
fruit distinguish them from flowering plants, the 
several parts of a fern are named differently to the 
corresponding parts in flowering plants. Thus, the 
true stem or root-stock of a fern is called a caudex , 
the true leaf is called a frond , the stem which bears 
the leaf is called the stipes , and the ramifications of 
the stipes through the leafy portion corresponding to 
the leaf-stalks of other plants bears the name of 
