Glossary
ACÙMINATE. Gradually tapering to a point. ACÙLEATE. Prickly. Beset with prickles. ACUTE. Sharp pointed, but not tapering. ADVENTÍTIOUS. Irregular, incidental. Growing out of the usual or normal position. ANÀSTOMOSING. Connected by cross veins and forming a network as in the Sensitive ferns. ÀNNULUS. A jointed, elastic ring surrounding the spore cases in most ferns. ANTHERÍDIA. The male organs on a prothallium. APEX The top or pointed end of leaf or frond. (plu. APICES). ARCHEGÒNIA. The female organs on a prothallium. ARÈOLA. A space formed by intersecting veins; a mesh. AURICLE. An ear-shaped lobe at the base. ARTÍCULATE. Jointed; having a joint or node. AXIL. The angle formed by a leaf or branch with the stem. BI (Latin, Two, twice, doubly. bis, twice). BLADE. The expanded, leafy portion of a frond. BULBLET. A small bulb, borne on a leaf or in its axil. CAUDATE. With a slender, tail-like appendage. CAUDEX. A trunk or stock of a plant; especially of a tree fern. CHAFF. Thin, dry scales of a yellowish-brown color. CHLÒROPHYLL. The green coloring matter of plants. CÍLIATE. Fringed with fine hairs. CÍRCINATE. Coiled downward from the apex, as in the young fronds of a fern. CLAVATE. Club-shaped. COMPOUND. Divided into two or more parts. CONFLUENT. Blended together. CORDATE. Heart-shaped. CRENATE. Scalloped with rounded teeth; said of margins. CRÒSIER. An uncoiling frond. CÙNEATE. Wedge-shaped. CÚSPIDATE. Hard pointed, tipped with a cusp. DECIDUOUS. Falling away when done growing—not evergreen. DECOMPOUND. More than once compounded or divided. DECURRENT. Running down the stem below the point of insertion, as the bases of some pinnæ. DECUMBENT. Not erect; trailing, bending along the ground, but with the apex ascending. DEFLEXED. Bent or turned abruptly downward. DENTATE. Toothed. Having the teeth of a margin directed outward. DICHÓTOMOUS. Forking regularly in pairs. DIMÓRPHOUS. Of two forms; said of ferns whose fertile fronds are unlike the sterile. EMÀRGINATE. Notched at the apex. ENTIRE. Without divisions, lobes, or teeth. FALCATE. Scythe-shaped, slightly curved upward. FERTILE. Bearing spores. FÍLIFORM. Thread-like; long, slender, and terete. FILMY. Having a thin membrane; gauzy; said of the filmy fern fronds. FLABELLATE. Fan-shaped; broad and rounded at the summit and narrow at the base. FROND. A fern leaf or blade; may include both stipe and blade, or only the latter—called also lamina. GLABROUS. Smooth; not rough or hairy. GLAND. A small secreting organ, globular or pear-shaped; it is often stalked. GLAUCOUS. Covered with a fine bloom, bluish-white and powdery, in appearance like a plum. HASTATE. Like an arrowhead with the lobes spreading. IMBRICATE. Overlapping, like shingles on a roof. INCÌSED. Cut irregularly into sharp lobes. INDÙSIUM. The thin membrane covering the sori in some ferns. INVOLUCRE. In ferns, an indusium; in filmy ferns, cup-shaped growths encircling the sporangia. LÀMINA. A blade; the leafy portion of a fern. LACÍNIATE. Slashed; cut into narrow, irregular lobes. LANCEOLATE. Lance-shaped; broadest above the base and tapering to the apex. LOBE. A small rounded segment of a frond. MIDRIB. The main rib or vein of a segment, pinnule, pinna, or frond; a midvein. MÙCRONATE. Ending abruptly in a short, sharp point. OBLONG. From two to four times longer than broad and with sides nearly parallel. OBTUSE. Blunt or rounded at the end. OÌDES. A Greek ending, meaning like, or like to, as polypodioides—like to a polypody. ÒÖSPHERE. The egg-cell in fern reproduction—becoming the oöspore when fertilized. OVATE. Egg-shaped with the broader end downward. PALMATE. Having lobes radiating like the fingers of a hand. PANICLE. A loose compound cluster of flowers or sporangia with irregular stems. PEDICEL. A tiny stalk, especially the stalk of the sporangia. PELLUCID. Clear, transparent. PERSISTENT. Remaining on the plant for a long time, as leaves through the winter. PÉTIOLE. The same as stalk or stipe. PINNA. One of the primary divisions of a frond. PINNATE. Feather-like; with the divisions of the frond extending fully to the rachis. PINNÀTIFID. Having the divisions of the frond extend halfway or more to the rachis or mid vein. PINNULE. A secondary pinna. In a bipinnate frond one of the smaller divisions extending to the secondary midvein. PROCUMBENT. Lying on the ground. PROTHÀLLIUM. (Or prothállus.) A delicate, cellular, leaf-like structure produced from a fern spore, and bearing the sexual organs. PTERIDÓPHYTA. A group of flowerless plants embracing ferns, horsetails, club mosses, etc. PUBESCENT. Covered with fine, soft hairs; downy. RÀCHIS. The continuation of the stipe through the blade or leafy portion of the fern. REFLEXED. Bent abruptly downward or backward. RENIFORM. Kidney-shaped. REVOLUTE. Rolled backward from the margin or apex. ROOTSTOCK. (Or rhizome.) An underground stem, from which the fronds are produced. SCAPE. A naked stem rising from the ground. SEGMENT. One of the smaller divisions of a pinnatifid frond. SERRATE. Having the margin sharply cut into teeth pointing forward. SÉRRULATE. The same only with smaller teeth. SESSILE. Without a stalk. SINUS. A cleft or rounded curve between two lobes. SÍNUATE. With strongly wavy margins. SORUS A cluster of sporangia; a fruit dot. (plu. SORI). SPÀTULATE. Shaped like a druggist’s spatula or a flattened spoon. SPIKE. An elongated cluster of sessile sporangia. SPÍNULOSE. Spiny; set with small, sharp spines. SPORANGE (plu. A spore case. A tiny globe in which SPORANGIA). the spores are produced. STIPE. The stem of a fern from the ground up to the leafy portion; the leaf stalk. STOLON. An underground branch or runner. SÚBULATE. Awl-shaped. TÉRNATE. With three nearly equal divisions. TRUNCATE. Ending abruptly as if cut off. TUFT. Things flexible, closely grouped into a bunch or cluster. VENATION. The veining of a frond or leaf. VERNATION. The arrangement of leaves in the bud. WHORL. A circle of leaves around a stem. WINGED. Margined by a thin expansion of the rachis.
Note
The student should have some idea of the terms genus, species and variety, although they are not capable of exact definition.
A species, or kind, is in botany the unit of classification. It embraces all such individuals as may have originated in a common stock. Such individuals bear an essential resemblance to each other, as well as to their common parent in all their parts. E.g., the Cinnamon fern is a kind or species of fern with the fronds evidently of one kind, and of a common origin, and all producing individuals of their own kind by their spores or rootstocks. When such individuals differ perceptibly from the type in the shape of the pinnæ, or the cutting of the fronds, we have varieties as frondòsum, incìsum, etc. Or if the difference is less striking the word form is used instead of variety, but in any given case opinions may differ in respect to the more fitting term.
A genus is an assemblage of species closely related to each other, and having more points of resemblance than of difference; e.g., the royal fern, the cinnamon fern, and the interrupted fern are alike in having similar spore cases borne in a somewhat similar manner on the fronds, and forming the genus Osmunda. In like manner certain members of the clover group—red, white, yellow, etc., make up the genus Trifolium.
Thus individuals are grouped into species and species are associated into genera, and the two groups are united to give each fern or plant its true name, the generic name being qualified by that of the species; as in the cinnamon fern Osmúnda (genus), cinnamòmea (species).