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.
ANÁSTOMOSING. Connected by cross veins and forming
a network as in the Sensitive
ferns.
ÁNNULUS. 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.
EMÁRGINATE. 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.
LÁMINA. 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.
PINNÁTIFID. 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.
PROTHÁLLIUM. (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).
SPÁTULATE. 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.