for November, 1921 



767 



Tropical Ferns 



RALPH C. BENEDICT 



WHAT special interest attaches to ferns that they 

 should be made the center of an exhibition such 

 as was held by the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society ? They bear no flowers ; they rarely show any 

 coloring other than some shade of green; they produce 

 no products of any real commercial importance. In what 

 particular traits or characteristics does their hold upon us 

 lie? 



"Nature made ferns for pure leaves." So wrote Tho- 

 reau, and today the scientist can scarcely better that e.x- 

 pression. Fern leaves represent the supreme develop- 

 ment of the leaf organ among plants. In no other group 

 of plants are leaves carried to so high a state of perfec- 

 tion. Other plants may bear flowers of rare beauty of 



mountains in search for rarer species. The fact that one 

 may in a season or two make the acquaintance of the 

 entire fern flora of a given state is perhaps one element of 

 interest. Our native ferns are generally relatively few 

 in number, select in their associations, and particular in 

 their surroundings. You have never seen ferns trouble- 

 some as weeds. 



One element of interest attaching to ferns lies in their 

 antiquity. Geologically they are the most primitive of the 

 larger land plants. The vegetation of the Palaeozoic 

 period included a considerable proportion of ferns. Coal 

 represents in large part the solidified carbon of fern plants 

 perhaps 100,000,000 years old. None of our flowering 

 p^ant types is half as old. 



iCoiirl 



General View of the Main Hall at the Boston Fern Shoiv. 



shape and color, but flowers are ephemeral. The most 

 highly prized of all flower types, the orchid, is shown for 

 a few days or weeks on a plant which throughout the 

 rest of the year is more often than not a vegetable mon- 

 strosity. A fern plant, from the period of unfolding 

 throughout healthy growth, is an object of beauty which 

 compels interest, a decoration at home in its native 

 woods, in a shady spot in the garden, or in the house or 

 conservatory. 



That "the chief charm of ferns is in their surround- 

 ings"' was the opinion of Mrs. Parsons, expressed in her 

 book on native ferns, and probable many lovers of our 

 native ferns would agree with this view. Hundreds of 

 individuals, scattered over the country, ride ferns as a 

 hobby through cool woods and ravines, up clifTs and 



Today ferns are found wild chiefly in the tropics, al- 

 though they can live wherever other plants can grow. 

 Two or three species range north of the Arctic Circle. 

 About fifty kinds are found in all Canada. In the United 

 States, almost any single state may count as many within 

 its borders, while Florida, partly tropical, has over one 

 hundred kinds. It is. however, only in the real tropics 

 that ferns abound. Given warmth, ample rainfall and 

 considerable range in altitude, even a small area may 

 have more than the whole United States. Jamaica, for 

 example, has about five hundred fern species, over twice 

 the number found in the United States. The Andean 

 mountain range, from Mexico into South America, is the 

 home of hundreds, thousands of species, many of them 

 vet to be collected and described. 



