Flowerless-Plant Study 691 



LESSON CLXXIV 

 THE BRACKEN 



Leading thought The bracken is a fern which has taken possession of 

 the world. It is much branched and divided, and it covers the ground in 

 masses where it grows. The edges of its pinnules are folded under to pro- 

 tect the spores. 



Method Bring to the schoolroom large and small specimens of the 

 bracken, and after a study is made tell about the superstitions connected 

 with this fern and as far as possible interest the pupils in its literature. 



Observations i. Do you find the bracken growing in the woods or 

 open places? Do you find it in the cultivated fields? How high does it 

 stand? Could you find the rootstock? 



2. Take a bracken frond. What is its general shape? Does it 

 remind you of an eagle with spread wings? Look at its very tip. Is it 

 pinnate or merely lobed? Can you find a place farther down where the 

 leaflets, or pinnules, are not joined at their bases? This is once pinnate. 

 Look farther down and find a pinna that is lobed at the tip; at the base 

 it has distinct pinnules. This is twice pinnate. Look at the lowest 

 divisions of all. Can you find any part of this which is three times pin- 

 nate? Four times pinnate? Pinna means feather, pinnate therefore 

 means feathered. If a thing is once pinnate, it means that it has divisions 

 along each side similar to a feather; twice pinnate means that each 

 feather has little feathers along each side ; thrice pinnate means that the 

 little feathers have similar feathers along each side, and so on. 



3. Can you see if the edges of the pinnules are folded under? Lift up 

 one of these edges and see if you can find what is growing beneath it. 

 How do these folded margins look during August and September? 



4. Cut the stem, or stipe, of a bracken across and see the figure in it. 

 Does it look like the initial C? Or a hoof, or an oak tree, or another 

 initial? 



5. Discover, if you can, the different uses which people of other 

 countries find for this fern. 



HOW A FERN BUD UNFOLDS 



Teacher's Story 



Of all "plant babies," that of the fern is most cozily cuddled; one feels 

 when looking at it, that not only are its eyes shut but its fists are 

 tightly closed. But the first glance at one of these little woolly spirals 

 gives us but small conception of its marvelous enfolding, all so systematic 

 and perfect that it seems another evidence of the divine origin of mathe- 

 matics. Every part of the frond is present in that bud, even to the 

 fruiting organs; all the pinnae and the pinnules are packed in the 

 smallest compass each division, even to the smallest pinnule, coiled in 

 a spiral towards its base. These coiled fern buds are called crosiers; 

 they are woolly, with scales instead of hairs, and are thus well blanketed. 

 Some botanists object to the comparison of the woolly or fuzzy clothing of 

 young plants with the blankets of human infants. It is true that the young 

 plant is not kept at a higher temperature by this covering; but because 

 of it, transpiration which is a cooling process is prevented, and thus the 



