WHAT IS A FERN? 
241 
accustom you at once to the difference between 
them and ordinary plants. 
Some parts of a Fern bear different names to 
those affixed by botanists to the corresponding— 
we use the word corresponding in its popular and 
not in its strictly technical sense—parts of another 
plant. First of all there is the crown, which may 
be styled for the sake of simplicity the mainstay 
-of the plant, or the base of its stem. From the 
under surface of this stem or root-stock proceed 
the long fibrous roots which, diving into the soil, 
or penetrating between the crevices in rocks and 
walls, seek and convey to the plant the abundant 
moisture without which it could not live. From 
the crown of the root-stock grow the stalks which 
support what would be popularly called the leaves. 
Each of these stalks is called a stipes, and in 
most Ferns both the surface of the crown and 
the stipes are covered with scales—a rust- 
coloured kind of excrescence. 
On each stipes, at a distance from the crown of 
the plant which varies in different species of 
Ferns, commences the leaf, technically and beau- 
tifully styled the frond. At this point begins 
