FERNS 



FERNS IN SPRING 



THE soft air and the warm sunshine seemed to say: 

 "Good news! Good news! Winter is going away! 

 Come out into the woods and fields." What do you 

 think we found? The robin and the bluebird had come. 

 Pussy Willow had taken the scales from her winter buds, 

 and they were all soft and furry. On some of the shrubs 

 and trees the leaf buds were starting out. The early 

 spring plants were beginning to put forth their delicate 

 blossoms. 



What is that down among the rocks and fallen 

 trees? A few weeks ago there was a mass of dead 

 leaves, mixed with brown papery or hairlike scales. 

 Now, something green is beginning to grow. The 

 parts are all coiled up like little watch springs! There 

 is only one kind of a plant that comes up in that way. 

 It must be a fern and those are its uncoiling buds. 

 They are called crosiers. 



The crosiers are not alike in all ferns. Some are 

 clothed with a coat of silvery-white wool. These are 

 sometimes called fiddleheads. When the weather be- 

 comes warmer, they will turn to a yellowish brown and 

 the woolly covering will disappear. Over there by the 

 roadside is another kind of crosiers. They are covered 

 with soft, short hairs of a silvery gray. Instead of the one 

 coil, there are three divisions, which unroll separately. 



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