4 
BRITISH FERNS. 
eye, and consist of single vesicles of various shapes, 
often beautifully ornamented with markings on the 
exterior. 
“ Some Ferns bear their spore-fruits in a somewhat 
different way. In the Osmunda, or Royal Fern, the 
division forming the end of the leaf consists of a spike 
covered with capsules (spore-fruits), which differ slightly 
from those above described. In the Adder's-tongue 
and Moonwort, the spores are produced in fronds 
(called fertile fronds), which are quite changed in 
character for this purpose, and appear like spiked 
inflorescences. These three last kinds are sometimes 
wrongly called Flowering Ferns. 
“ In germination, the spore, which is a mere vesicle 
and not a miniature plant, such as we find in a seed, 
grows and divides into a number of vesicles, which 
multiply and enlarge until they form a minute green, 
leaf-like patch, and from the surface of this the first 
leaf arises, as it does from th o plumule, or terminal bud 
of the embryo in the flowering-plants.” 
“The root of the tribe of Ferns," observes Mr. Keith, 
“ assumes a great variety of different aspects in different 
species. In Botrychium Lunaria it is fibrous; in 
Aspidium dilatation it is tuberous; and in Polypodium 
vulyare it is creeping and covered with scales. In Pteris 
aquilina, or Common Brakes, it is sometimes described 
as being spindle-shaped; yet this is not strictly the fact. 
If a frond is taken and pulled up with the hand, the 
portion of it is indeed spindle-shaped; but the real root, 
or rather rhizoma, or root-stock, from which you have 
