32 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE FERNS OF ALLEGAN COUNTY. 



"I remember au afternoon botanizing tramp tlirongh the woods several 

 summers ago, during which I had come across niimerous patches or groups 

 of fragrant ferns of various kinds, and had been tempted by the beauty of 

 some of them to carefully take up by the roots a number of handsome 

 specimens, enveloping the roots with thin adhering mould in a newspaper, 

 intending to take them home and set them out in a pet fernery that I had 

 started in a damp, shady corner by the riverside. My freshly gathered 

 specimens made a good-size armful, which I was carrying carefully 

 through the fields out to the highway where my horse and rig had been 

 left, when suddenly I came upon the hearty old farmer — an acquaintance 

 of mine — who owned the land I had been trespassing on. Seeing my 

 burden, he accosted me with a ' Hallo ! what have you got there in your 

 arms? What are you going to do with those things — why they're hraJcesV 

 he said in a tone of surprise and disgust, much as if I had been cherishing 

 some of the 'pusley' or pigweeds that he was laboring to exterminate. 

 The fact is, I would have been as well pleased to have missed seeing him 

 on that particular occasion, for I knew the utter hopelessness of attemj)t- 

 ing to explain, with any satisfaction to him, what would seem like my use- 

 less occupation. I tried to pass the matter by as not worth talking about 

 — asked him concerning his crops, fields, etc. ; but no — his curiosity was 

 up and he persisted in having explained to him what I was going to do 

 with my ferns ; asked whether I was going to use them for medicine, and 

 said that he had never heard that 'brakes' were good for anything in the 

 world. And I went on my may, after such explanation as I saw fit to give, 

 with a feeling that I had fallen several points in his estimation in a prac- 

 tical point of view. 



"Well, we have not to go far back in the past — to travel over but a few 

 years comparatively^ — to recall the time when this kind of estimation — or 

 rather lack of estimation — of the beautiful and interesting family of ferns, 

 thus roughly voiced by my farmer friend — was that which generally 

 obtained, even among persons of education and cultivated tastes. Unless 

 it were the advanced botanist few if any saw aught of attraction or interest 

 in this family of ferns, which, yielding neither fiowers nor fruit, were 

 passed unheeded by, notwithstanding the delicate and graceful beauty 

 characterizing many of the shy woodland varieties, which are now regarded 

 as among the most charming denizens of the forest shades. And the lover 

 of beauty, and especially of the wild natural charms of our plains and 

 forests, can but be gratified that so general an appreciation has at length 

 grown up and been developed of the charms of an order of plants so well 

 deserving of our regard. Nearly every greenhouse or conservatory has its 

 fernery, in which will be found, if not our native varieties, many imported 

 ones from other parts of the world; in dwelling houses we often see them 

 potted and cared for; and it is not uncommon to find a fernery in some 

 shady corner of the dooryard, in village or country homes, where the 

 handsomest of our wild flowers, gathered and brought home from wood- 

 land excursions, are set out and tended, as seems fitting, by female hands. 

 They are favorite ornaments in the homes of the wealthy, and we read of 

 the deep banks of ferns as among the noticeable features of decoration in 

 the apartments of the white house at Washington on the occasion of presi- 

 dential receptions. And the delicate tracery of the fern fronds furnishes 

 a favorite form of ornament, especially in the feminine arts of emijroidery, 



