f in many ways."[2]

[Footnote 2: The scientific term for this method of reproduction is apogamy
(apart from marriage). Sometimes the prothallus itself buds directly from
the frond without spores, for which process the term apospory is used.
(Meaning, literally, without spores.)]

VERNATION

All true ferns come out of the ground head foremost, coiled up like a
watch-spring, and are designated as "fiddle-heads," or crosiers. (A real
crosier is a bishop's staff.) Some of these odd young growths are covered
with "fern wool," which birds often use in lining their nests. This wool
usually disappears later as the crosier unfolds into the broad green blade.
The development of plant shoots from the bud is called vernation (Latin,
_ver_ meaning spring), and this unique uncoiling of ferns, "circinnate
vernation."

VEINS

The veins of a fern are free, when, branching from the mid-vein, they do
not connect with each other, and simple when they do not fork. When
the veins intersect they are said to anastomose (Greek, an opening, or
network), and their meshes are called areolae or areoles (Latin, _areola_, a
little open space).

EXPLANATION OF TERMS

A frond is said to be pinnate (Latin, _pinna_, a feather), when its primary
divisions extend to the rachis, as in the Christmas fern (Fig. 1). A frond
is bipinnate (Latin, _bis_, twice) when the lobes of the pinnae extend to
the midvein as in the royal fern (Fig. 2). These divisions of the pinnae are
called pinnules. When a frond is tripinnate the last complete divisions are
called ultimate pinnules or segments. A frond is pinnatifid when its lobes
extend halfway or more to the rachis or midvein as in the middle lobes
of the pinnatifid spleenwort (Fig. 3). The pinnae of a frond are often
pinnatifid when the frond itself is pinnate; and a frond may be pinnate
in its lower part and become pinnatifid higher up as in the pinnatifid
spleenwort just mentioned (Fig. 3).

[Illustration: Fig. 1]

[Illustration: Fig. 2]

[Illustration: Fig. 3]

The divisions of a pinnatifid leaf are called segments; of a bipinnatifid
or tripinnatifid leaf, ultimate segments.

SPORANGIA AND FRUIT DOTS

Fern spores are formed in little sacs known as spore-cases or sporangia
(Fig. 4). They are usually clustered in dots or lines on the back or margin
of a frond, either on or at the end of a small vein, or in spike-like
racemes on separate stalks. Sori (singular _sorus_, a heap), or fruit dots