FERNS AND THEIR RELATIVES 



by water; and it needs this protection, for it is often found 

 growing in places that are dripping with moisture for weeks 

 at a time. The leaves of the maiden-hair are very thin, 

 that is, the green cells are spread out so as to be well ex- 

 posed to what light they can get in the shaded canons 

 where they are found. You are likely to find the largest 

 leaves in the dimmest canons. 



Can you think why it is better for a thin, delicate leaf 

 like the maiden-hair to have its area broken up into little 

 leaflets, than to form an entire leaf? Of course these fine 

 divisions of the ferns make them very attractive to us, but 

 they must be of some use to the ferns themselves. Remem- 

 ber that even in sheltered canons, heavy rains beat on 

 plants, and winds might tear them. You know what hap- 

 pens to big banana leaves in such storms. It would be 

 very harmful, too, for fern leaves to shade one another. 

 If your maiden-hair leaves are old enough, you can see 

 where they keep their spore-cases. The little fragment in 

 the picture shows this. 



The coffee fern, No. 2, Fig. 27, turns back its leaf mar- 

 gins like a neat little hem to protect its spore-cases, and so 

 does the bird-foot fern, No. 4, Fig. 28. You can think for 

 yourselves what gives these ferns their names. They are 

 the most hardy of .all our common ferns. The bird-foot 

 fern grows in rocky places that are fully exposed to the 

 sun, yet the leaves usually survive the long dry season. In 

 the winter you will find, growing from the same thick, 

 fuzzy underground stem, tender new leaves that the rains 

 have called out, and the stiff, woody leaves of the past year. 

 The coffee fern seems to prefer more shaded places, but it is 

 usually able to keep its leaves during the dry season. Both 

 of these -ferns, in Southern California at least, make their 

 most rapid growth during the winter months, when their 

 food-making might be hindered by too much moisture. 

 But the rolled back leaflets prevent the water from clogging 



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