CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



up the pores on the underside. So these rolled back leaf 

 margins serve at least three purposes ; they protect the 

 spores, lessen the evaporation from the leaves during the dry 

 season, and prevent the pores from being choked up during 

 the rainy season. 



In the drier parts of Southern California, and in moun- 

 tains in different parts of the state, there are found several 

 kinds of exquisite little ferns with leaves very finely 

 divided. They have various names, such as lace fern, lip 

 fern, woolly-back fern, and scaly fern ; No. 3, Fig. 28, is 

 one leaf of a lace fern. Generally these ferns have a thick 

 skin or a waxen coat, or else they are densely covered on 

 the under-side with tiny, overlapping, woolly or papery 

 scales, and besides this, some of them have the habit of 

 curling up quite snugly when the weather is too cold or too 

 hot, and uncurling again when better times come. 



I/arge, coarse ferns that grow in masses, are often 

 called bracken. There is one kind that is common in 

 California as well as in many other parts of the world. In 

 Southern California you will find it only in the mountains 

 among the pines, or in canons ; but in the regions of 

 greater moisture, it often forms thickets from four to six 

 feet high, and acres in extent. This fern seems to rejoice 

 in heat as well as in moisture ; it attains its full growth in 

 midsummer and dies down with the frost. In some 

 countries the leaves of this fern are used for thatching roofs, 

 and it is said that young leaves and underground stems are 

 sometimes cooked and eaten. 



Perhaps the most beautiful of all our California ferns, 

 is the Woodwardia, which grows in graceful clumps along 

 mountain streams. The great feathery leaves, sometimes 

 six or seven feet long, have a tropical look, but they are 

 really very hardy. In Southern California they survive 

 summer drought and winter frost, and cut leaves can be 

 kept in the house, fresh and beautiful, for weeks. No. i, 



80 



