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Home Nature-Studv Course. 



grouped under the folded-over edge of the leaf as is 

 the case with the delicate maiden hair (Fig. 6.1) and the 

 great brake or bracken (Fig. 6.2) which grows large, tri- 

 angular fronds in fence corners. 



Not all ferns bear the fruit dots on the back of the leaf 

 as does the Christmas fern. Some, like the ostrich fern 

 Fig. 5.-Frai7- (^ig- 1°) which covers quite large 

 tug leaflet of areas in more open places, sends up 

 wood fern. ^ Special fruit-stalk, while others, 

 like the interrupted fern (Fig. 7), 

 has a few of the leaflets of the frond constricted 

 until they do not look at all like their neighbor- 

 ing leaflets above or below them. If we could 

 smooth out any of these separate fruit-bearing 



Pig. 6. — i. Fruiting leaflets of the maiden-hair fern, 

 enlarged. 2. Fruiting leaflet of the bracken, enlarged. 



Fig. 7. — The interrupted 

 fern showing the three 

 pairs of fruiting leaflets 

 and a bit of one of these 

 leaflets enlarged. This 

 fern often has leaves four 

 or five feet high. 



leaflets, we would find them made on the same pattern as the other 

 fronds of the species, only they are very much smaller and are curled 

 up to protect the spore-cases. 



One of the prettiest of nature-study lessons is the watching of a 

 young fern leaf unfold. These young coiled-up fern leaves are called 

 " fiddleheads " or more properly crosiers. When they first appear above 

 ground they are wrapped in furry scales; and not only is the main stalk 

 coiled like a watch spring but every leaflet is coiled and every division of 

 every leaflet is also coiled. It affords one of the best instances I know 

 of the skillful way Nature does up her packages. 



Books of Reference: Gray's Manual of Botany, Our Ferns in 

 Their Haunts, by W. N. Clutc. Hozu to Knoiv the Ferns, by Mrs. Par- 

 sons. The Ferns, by C. E. Waters. 



LESSON ON THE CHRISTMAS FERN OR ANY OTHER FERN WHICH VOU MAY BE 



ABLE TO OBSERVE. 



Describe the central stalk, its color, appearance, covering, length, 

 and the distance between the lower leaves and the root-stalk. 



