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oth are found in the genera Selaginella, Isoctes, and Marsilia, plants remotely allied to ferns.

A fern of the genus Adiantum (A. pedatum), having very slender graceful stalks. It is common in the United States, and is sometimes used in medicine. The name is also applied to other species of the same genus, as to the Venus-hair. Maiden grass, the smaller quaking grass. -- Maiden tree. See Ginkgo.…

f a hole; a male screw, etc. Male berry (Bot.), a kind of coffee. See Pea berry. -- Male fern (Bot.), a fern of the genus Aspidium (A. Filixmas), used in medicine as an anthelmintic, esp. against the tapeworm. Aspidium marginale in America, and A. athamanticum in South Africa, are used as good substitutes for the male…

An extinct genus of tree ferns with large, two-ranked leaves, or fronds.

A small European fern (Asplenium Ceterach) formerly used in medicine.

Any fern of the genus Botrychium, esp. B. Lunaria; -- so named from the crescent-shaped segments of its frond.

A fern of the genus Hemionitis.

age. It includes the bayberry or wax myrtle, the sweet gale, and the North American sweet fern, so called.

ivity. Ruth ii. 11. These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame. Milton.

of nerves and veins, especially those of leaves; neuration. The outlines of the fronds of ferns, and their nervation, are frail characters if employed alone for the determination of existing genera. J. D. Hooker.

An extensive genus of fossil ferns, of which species have been found from the Devonian to the Triassic formation.

per-red color and metallic luster; an arsenide of nickel; -- called also coppernickel, kupfernickel.

An alternately produced form of certain cryptogamous plants, as ferns, mosses, and the like, which bears antheridia and archegonia, and so has sexual fructification, as contrasted with the sporophore, which is nonsexual, but produces spores in countless number. In ferns the oöphore is a minute prothallus; in mosses it…

A fern of the genus Osmunda, or flowering fern. The most remarkable species is the osmund royal, or royal fern (Osmunda regalis), which grows in wet or boggy places, and has large bipinnate fronds, often with a panicle of capsules at the top. The rootstock contains much starch, and has been used in stiffening linen.…

e parsley, names given to various weeds of similar appearance to the parsley. -- Parsley fern (Bot.), a small fern with leaves resembling parsley (Cryptogramme crispa). -- Parsley piert (Bot.), a small herb (Alchemilla arvensis) formerly used as a remedy for calculus.

An extensive genus of fossil ferns; -- so named from the regular comblike arrangement of the leaflets.

special organ, as that of a capsule in mosses, an air vesicle in algæ, or a sporangium in ferns.

Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades. Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained. Milton. He keepth back his soul from the pit. Job xxxiii. 18.

w or break up the soil for other purposes; as, the subsoil plow; the draining plow. Where fern succeeds ungrateful to the plow. Dryden.

A genus of plants of the order Filices or ferns. The fructifications are in uncovered roundish points, called sori, scattered over the inferior surface of the frond or leaf. There are numerous species.