30 BRITISH FERNS. 
not possess that ponderous tome (1164 pages) I beg 
to offer a few brief. explanations here, hoping the 
expert botanist will excuse what he may consider 
unnecessary repetition. 
Every Fern has three prineipal parts, the roots, 
the stem, and the leaves: the roots are never large 
and woody, like the. roots of trees, but are invariably’ 
slender and fibrous, and, what appears to have been 
unnoticed by all other writers, are in a great num- 
ber of species, a portion of the frond: to make this 
more clear, I will here state that there are two great 
groups of dorsiferous ferns: in one of these groups 
the roots, as well as the fronds, spring separately 
‘from a prostrate creeping stem called a “rhizome,” 
and in the other the leaves spring from the crown 
of a trunk-like stem called a “caudex ” or « cormus,” 
and one or two roots spring from the back of the 
stalk of each frond, Ferns of the first division are 
called “ Rhyzophylls,” those of the second division 
“Cormophylls.” The common Polypody is an ex- 
cellent example of the first division, the Male Fern 
an equally good illustration of the second. The 
roots always being fibrous are called indifferently 
ae a tee eee ae ae 
