collegium musicum. a group of usually amateur musicians, often connected with a university, who meet to study and perform chiefly old or little-known music.
Spores and Sporangium. Ferns differ from flowering plants and trees because they do not produce seeds. Instead, ferns reproduce using spores. The sporangium is the structure responsible for producing and releasing spores. Sporangium form in many different ways, sometimes appearing as brown fruitdots on the undersides of leaves. Others grow as slender stalks up from the plant. When the sporangia burst, the wind carries spores to new ground, where they form reproductive structures that, if fertilized, will grow into a new fern.
Fern leaves grow from a rhizome. Fern leaves are fan-shaped and also play an important role in reproduction. The production of spores occurs in structures called sporangia. These structures are found on the surface of the fronds, usually on the underside of the leaf. When the sporangia or spore casings dry out, the dispersal of spores occurs into the atmosphere. Certain fern species date back nearly 400 million years. There are about 12,000 fern species.