PREFACE. 
V 
form is familiar to every one who has handled the fronds, pro¬ 
ceeding 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 germina¬ 
ting 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 is in form like a liver¬ 
wort ; 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 Algce, and in the ConfervcB of fresh water. 
This anther descends into the fruit-bearing flower, and im¬ 
pregnates 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 found the bare or covered 
capsules, mostly furnished with an elastic spring, which contain, 
and in due time discharge a light, minute, and copious dust, 
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 true 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: the second 
stage is what we call the Fern, and may be compared to a 
multiplied seed-vessel, of which the seeds are buds or bulbs. 
A very clear and full description of the structure and functions 
