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Handbook of Nature-Study 



find form in the most exquisite grace and beauty; and if perchance the 

 first fishes, so fierce, and terrible, did not mark the introduction of Satan. 



A sensitive fern, showing sterile and fertile fronds. 



LESSON CLXXVI 

 THE FRUITING OF THE FERN 



Leading thought Ferns do not have flowers, but they produce spores. 

 Spores are not seeds; but they grow into something which may be com- 

 pared to a true seed, and this in turn develops into young ferns. Each 

 genus of ferns has its own peculiar way of protecting its spores ; and if we 

 learn these different ways, we can recognize ferns without effort. 



Method July is the best time for this lesson, which is well adapted for 

 summer schools or camping trips. However, if it is desired to use it as a 

 school lesson, it should be begun in June, when the fruiting organs are 

 green, and it may be finished in September after the spores are discharged. 

 Begin with the Christmas fern, which ripens in June, and make the fruit- 

 ing of this species a basis for comparison. Follow this with other wood 

 ferns which bear fruit-dots on the back of the fronds. Then study the 

 ferns which live in more open places, and which have fronds changed in 

 form to bear the spores like the sensitive, the ostrich, the royal and the 

 flowering ferns. A study of the interrupted fern is a desirable preparation 

 for the further study of those which have special fruiting fronds; the 



