THE FANTASIES OF FERNS 189 



no flowers with color and shape to suggest it," con- 

 tinued Flower Hat. "We used to go on 'botany 

 walks' when I was at school near Hartford. In 

 those days even, Ferns seemed such dumb plants; 

 and, to my obtuse mind, there were only three 

 kinds. One was Maidenhair, which is easy to 

 remember because it is quite unlike anything else. 

 Another, the Climbing Fern, with scalloped leaves, 

 is almost all rooted out by this time the kind that 

 twists its stalk around the wood Goldenrods and 

 weeds in moist places; the vine sometimes ends in 

 a spray covered with rusty dust, looking like seaweed 

 or leaves that had gone wrong. The third was 

 the Walking Fern, which grew high up on rocky 

 places; a Fern that we had to scramble on our 

 hands and knees to find. And when we found it, 

 every one cried 'Ah! Oh!' yet it was n't much of 

 a Fern after all, even though it had a reasonable 

 name. It was merely a tuft of lengthened -out 

 leaves, each one stretching as far as it could, then 

 dipping down to root at the end, and start another 

 plant, like a sort of vegetable measuring - worm. 

 The seed-dust, spores, or whatever you call them, 

 were scattered zigzag over the under side of some 

 of the leaves, for all the world like the caraway 

 seeds on cookies. These three Ferns I could re- 



