(from filum, "a thread," quasi filatim incisa), FERNS; one of the seven tribes or families of the vegetable kingdom, according to Linnaeus, by whom it is thus characterized: "having their fructification on the back side of the fronds." They constitute the first order in the class cryptogamia; and consist of 16 genera, which are divided into fructificationes, spicate, frondose, et radicale. This order comprehends the entire 16th class of Tournefort, in whose system the filices make only a single genus, in the first section of the above mentioned class.

is also an order of plants in the fragmenta methodi naturalis of Linnaeus. See BOTANY Index.