Year: 2011
Type: book
Abstract: HE entire vegetable world of great and small, from the Australian gum tree to the smallest microbe, is divisible, for scientific purposes, into two primary sections, which are termed respectively the Phanerogamia, or flowering plants, and the Cryptogamia, or flowerless plants ; but it is only with the latter that we are called upon to deal.It may be premised that they are designated as floiverless plants, because the organs of fructification are not developed into conspicuous flowers, as in the Phanerogamia, and are even so elementary in some cases that they are reduced to a simple ovary, or ovum, or repro- ductive cell.For general purposes, it is customary to speak of ons section of Cryptogamic plants as the Higher Cryptogamia, inferring that they approach nearest to flowering plants ; and the other section as the Lower Cryptogamia, intimating that it embraces the lowest, or simplest forms.The former includes 2 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS.the Ferns, and similar plants, the Mosses, and the Liverworts ; the latter includes Lichens, Fungi, and Algae, or water-weeds.The Higher Cryptogamia are possessed of an axis, more or less complete, descend- ing into rootlets, or representatives of rootlets, and furnished with foliaceous expansions, the analogue of leaves.In the ferns the resemblance to leaves is nearly complete, but their function is more complex, since they bear the organs of fructification on the under side, or some portion of their surface.The Lower Cryptogamia are much more variable in form, without terminal vegetation or rootlets, often very minute, and may even be reduced to a single cell.This must suffice as a general introduction, since more explicit description would lead us away from the main object of this work.It cannot be claimed for these humble vegetables that they emulate the glories of the primeval forest, wherein league after league of towering trees gives shelter and food to myriads of animals, and is eloquent with the song of birds.It cannot be urged on their behalf that they present the elegant forms, .hesplendid coloration, or the delicious odours of the innumerable flowers which festoon the trunks of the giants of the forest, or carpet the soil with a living arabesque.It cannot be written of them that they supply the staple food of the human race, the chief support of the animal world, and, either directly or indirectly, are the source of most of the essentials, and many of the luxuries, of civilized life.Nor can it be vaunted of them that they are the staples of a commerce which represents the wealth of the world, 4 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS.terrestrial vegetation.It could be indicated in what manner fungi are essential to the disintegration of dead matter, and its rejuvenescence in new forms of vegetable life.Past, present, and future, we may rest assured, that the humblest individuals of the lowest of the Cryptogamia have been, are, and ever will be, as essential in the great unity, which we call Nature, as the loftiest forest tree, or the most odoriferous of beautiful flowers."These are Thy wonders, Lord of power, Killing and quickening, bringing down to hell And up to heaven in an hour ; Making a chiming of a passing bell.We say amiss, This or that is : Thy Word is all, if we could spell." Number Four.It is well known that in Flowering Plants there is a typical number which represents the parts of the floral organs, and those of reproduction.In the larger group of Dicotyledonous plants, those having two seed-leaves, this number is five, which is repre- sented in the five petals, five sepals, five stamens (or some multiple of five), five carpels, etc.In Monocotyledonous plants the number is three, which in like manner is represented in the floral organs and in the fruit.There are, of course, some exceptions, but not sufficient to affect the general result.In the Cryptogamia there is also a prevalent or typical number, in which the organs, or products, of reproduction are chiefly concerned, and, in this case the number is four. FERNS, AND THEIR ALLIES.13 equal to half of the whole phanerogamic vegetation.In receding from the tropics (where, on the large con- tinents, D'Urville estimates the proportional number at -go) the relative frequency of ferns decreases rapidly as we advance into the temperate zone.The quotients are for North America and the British Islands -J5 , for France for Germany 5U, for the dry parts of Southern Italy 7\, for Greece -gV The relative frequency again increases considerably towards the frigid north.Here the family of ferns decreases much more slowly in the number of its species than docs that of phanerogamic plants.The luxuriantly aspiring character of the species, and the number of individuals contained in each, augment the deceptive impression of absolute frequency.According to Wahlenberg and Hornemann's cata- logues, the relative numbers of the ferns are for Lapland gb, for Iceland ^for Greenland ^g." 1 Great favourites as are the ferns, especially for decorative purposes, they are, as a whole, singularly deficient in useful properties, only furnishing a kind of famine food, either to man or the lower animals, and not attractive for any special odour, or furnishing to the arts, medicine, or commerce, any product of importance.Tree Ferns.Ferns are theoretically plants without stems, with a terminal vegetation, the crown continually pro- ducing new fronds from its centre, whilst those at the circumference fade and decay.By this continual ' Humboldt, "Views of Nature," p. 340. 1 George Bennett, M.D., " Gatherings of a Naturalist in Australasia," p. 417.(i860.)Perns, and their allies.i; species, Alsophila , attains a height of thirty feet, with a rough black trunk, and fronds of from twelve to fourteen feet in length.The giant of tree ferns, however, is found in Norfolk Island, where Alsophila excelsa will grow to the height of eighty feet.An experienced traveller, visiting the Aru Islands, declares that "the greatest novelty and most striking feature to his eyes were the tree ferns, which, after seven years spent in the tropics, he then saw in per- fection for the first time.All he had hitherto met with were slender species, not more than twelve feet high, and they gave not the slightest idea of the supreme beauty of trees, bearing their elegant heads of fronds, more than thirty feet in the air, like those which were plentifully scattered about this forest.There is nothing in tropical vegetation so perfectly beautiful." 1 Dr. J. D. Hooker says, in his "Himalayan Journals," that "the most interesting botanical ramble about Silhet is to the tree-fern groves on the path to Jyn- tespore, following the bottoms of the shallow valleys, and along clear streams, up whose beds we waded for some miles, under an arching canopy of tropical shrubs, trees, and climbers.In the narrower parts of the valleys tree ferns are numerous on the slopes, rearing their slender brown trunks forty feet high, with feathery crowns of foliage, through which the sunbeams trembled on the broad shining foliage of the tropical herbage below." 2 Humboldt has remarked it as singular that no 1
Author: M. C. Cooke
Language: English
Topic: Fern and Epiphyte Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W658400311
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