The British ferns at one view / by Berthold Seemann.

  • Seemann, Berthold, 1825-1871.
Date:
1860]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The British ferns at one view / by Berthold Seemann. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE BRITISH FERNS AT ONE VIEW, * By BERTHOLD SEEMANN, Ph.D., F.L.S., AUTHOR OF ‘ THE BOTANY OF H.M.S. HERALD,’ ‘ POPULAR HISTORY OF THE PALMS,’ ETC. THE ILLUSTRATIONS BY WALTER FITCH, F.L.S. The object of the present Publication is to serve as a key to the writings of Newman, Moore, and others, by exhibiting at one glance all the genera and species of British Ferns. The idea originated with my friend Mr. Scheer, of Northfleet; and the arrangement followed is that of Smith’s * Cultivated Ferns.’ Magnified Figures of the Generic Characters are placed at the foot of each column ; and when the Genus contains more than one Species these Figures have been drawn from the most typical member of the Genus. FEPtNS are flowerless plants, chiefly inhabiting the tropical and temperate zones, growing epiphytically or terrestrially. They have an erect or creeping caudex, and leafy fronds, generally unfolding spirally, and traversed by veins, which produce cases (sporangia) con- taining reproductive spores. The sporangia are solitary, or more generally collected in crowded masses termed sori, the sori being either naked or furnished with a membranaceous covering (indusium). All the British Ferns may be classed under the following Natural Orders, Tribes and Genera : — Order I. POLYPODIACEiE .—Fronds unfolding spirally. Sporangia globose or oval, unilocular> pediculate or sessile, furnished with a vertical or transverse, rarely oblique, articulated ring. Tribe I. PolypodietB.—Sori round, oblong or linear, destitute of a special indusium. 1. Polypodiuvi, J. Smith, Linn, in part. — Fronds pinnatifid or bipinnatifid. Veins forked, free, the lower exterior venule bearing the sporangia on its apex. Sori round or oblong, transversely uniserial. 2. Phegopteris, Fee, J. Smith.— Fronds varying from pinnate to decompound-multifid. Veins forked or pinnate; venules free. Sporangia terminal, medial or basal. Sori round, rarely oblong, naked. 3. Gymnogramvie, Desv.—Fronds simple, pinnate, pinnatifid or multifid, smooth, villose or farinose. Veins forked; venules free, sporangiferous nearly their whole length. Sori linear, simple or forked, often becoming confluent. Tribe II. Pteridese.—Sori round or linear, marginal, intramarginal or costal, furnished with a speeial or universal lateral indusium, which is produced on the exterior side of the sporangiferous receptacle, sometimes undefined or obsolete. 4. Cryptogramme, R. Br.— Fronds bi-tripinnate, the fertile contracted; segments oblong, linear; margins membranous, revolute, oppositely conniving, forming a universal indusium. Veins forked, free, the upper portion sporangiferous. Sori defined, oblong, becoming laterally confluent, forming a com- pound, broad, intramarginal, linear sorus, included under the universal indusium. ' bipinnate ; pinnse and pinnules articulated ateral or radiating, forked; venules free, tortion of the margin (indusium), which is e, and ultimately becomes replicate. innate, rarely simple; the ultimate pinnae snules free, the apices of the fertile trans- uting a linear, continuous or interrupted with term: alter< ( entiri verse 22102035016