IN CALIFORNIA 183 



peninsula to British Columbia. The fronds are 

 rather leathery in texture, triangular in outline, and 

 produced at the tip of clumps of chestnut-brown, 

 glossy stipes, and are remarkable for the golden 

 dust which abundantly covers the underside of the 

 fronds. Of all the filical fellowship, the gold-back 

 is the children's fern, taking its place in the list of 

 childhood favorites along with such cherished 

 flowers, for instance, as the buttercup, unfailing test 

 of butter loving, and the daisy the census of whose 

 rays reveals your infantile loves. The reason of 

 the gold-fern's popularity is this: you break off a 

 frond and press it firmly and evenly against your 

 trousers' leg or your sister's white waist, and there, 

 upon removing it, is the golden imprint of the fern 

 decorating that piece of clothing. Could any pas- 

 time be more fascinating? In some cases the pow- 

 der is white instead of yellow, and that form is pop- 

 ularly distinguished by the name of silverback. 

 Botanists, however, find no essential difference be- 

 tween the two sorts. The powder is an exudation 

 doubtless designed to help the plant to exist under 

 the dryish conditions which it seems to enjoy or 

 which at any rate it has to endure for sometimes it 

 is found growing at the desert's edge. With the 

 advent of the dry season, the fronds roll themselves 

 up into little yellow and white fists, the powdered 



