6 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS. 



This plant is scientifically known as Bryophyllum 

 calycinum. When the little plants have become 

 sturdy enough to develop roots, the mother-leaf 

 gradually shrivels up and drops away, leaving her 

 little ones, like orphaned children, to care for them- 

 selves. 



The curious and beautiful walking- ferns, per- 

 haps the most difficult of all ferns to raise in the 

 ordinary garden, are too rare to be found at many 

 florists. They are very fastidious and demand the 

 shade, drainage, and air to suit their particular 

 tastes that only the larger gardens and green- 

 houses can afford. They will not live "in captiv- 

 ity," except in the shadiest nook or corner, and then 

 they produce a sickly growth, with yellowish-green 

 fronds, which, after tapering to a dainty tip, like 

 tiny threads, drop to the ground and take root as 

 new plants. What actually takes place is this: 

 A bud forms at the extreme tip of the frond and 

 develops a cluster of small fronds and roots, while 

 swinging in the air. The increasing weight of the 

 young plant, especially when wet with rain or 

 dew, causes the long frond to bend its tip to the 

 earth, and there take root as a new plant, accord- 

 ing to its characteristic and very curious way of 

 walking. Thus the ferns spread and travel, each 

 little frond linked to its neighbour by the delicate 



