234 LIFE HISTORY OF A FERN. 



and the highest forms of dicotyledonous plants, where the differen- 

 tiation of cells is most strongly developed. 



Perhaps there are no forms of plant-life more generally admired 

 than Ferns, alike for their graceful forms, variety of outline, and 

 cheerful colour. The various orders of flowering plants each have 

 their admirers, and popular fancy occasionally runs wild in the 

 pursuit of new varieties and rare forms. Tulips, auriculas, roses, 

 chrysanthemums, and orchids present examples of this partiality 

 for the costly and rare in the world of flowers. But Ferns claim 

 the admiration of all classes, and while the wealthy delight in the 

 cultivation of varieties introduced from tropical climes, the humble 

 cottager can enjoy the not less beautiful forms which luxuriate in 

 the hedgerow or dip their graceful fronds in the murmuring stream 

 which runs past the village green. 



While, however, in these temperate regions the Ferns are com- 

 paratively small and in some instances almost microscopic, in 

 tropical countries they grow to much larger dimensions and even 

 assume the proportions of lofty trees. It is impossible, however, 

 to form any conception of the marvellous size and luxuriant growth 

 to which the Ferns of a far past era in the world's history must 

 have attained, when, in company with gigantic Equisetums, they 

 flourished in the hot, steamy exhalations from the slowly cooling 

 earth, beneath a mantle of murky clouds which scarce permitted 

 the straggling rays of light to render visible the weird forms of the 

 denizens of the carboniferous era. The almost inexhaustible 

 measures of coal underlying the crust of the earth, however, bear 

 witness to the rank luxuriance and vast extent of those primeval 

 forests which the foot of man has never trodden. The Fern, 

 therefore, can boast an antiquity far beyond the genealogy of the 

 more highly developed flowering plants of our day. 



Before considering the characteristics which are peculiar to 

 Fern life, it may be well to remind ourselves of the conditions 

 common to all vegetable structures. The substance of all plants 

 is composed of small bodies usually so minute as to be indistin- 

 guishable to the unassisted eye, which are termed cells. Each of 

 these is capable, at least for a time, of an independent existence 

 complete in itself, and is composed of solid, semi-fluid, and fluid 

 parts, differing in their chemical properties. Usually large numbers 



