338 ] The Fascination of Flowers 



Now replace the cardboard and fasten it firmly. The frame is 

 ready to be exposed to sunlight at a window or outdoors from 

 two to five minutes depending on the intensity of the sunlight. 

 After exposure, remove the blueprint paper from the frame and 

 let it soak in the pan of clear water. In a few minutes, after the 

 background of the fern has turned white, transfer the paper to 

 the other pan of water to which the peroxide has been added. In 

 this second bath which fixes the print the background will turn 

 a deep blue and the outline of the frond will appear in white. 



You can now remove the paper, wash it again in the clear 

 water, and dry it. Dry the print between blotting paper or paper 

 towels and leave it for several hours pressed between books or 

 other heavy objects until it is completely flat and dry. This project 

 can be managed even by a fairly young child, and the process can 

 be used not only for ferns but for a collection of all kinds of 

 leaves as well. 



NATURE'S FERN PRINTS 



Countless ages ago nature made fern prints of a somewhat 

 different sort. Today workers in coal mines frequently find these 

 "prints" for they are a part of the great coal deposits in Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, and other regions. When our earth was several hun- 

 dred million years younger, ferns and their relatives were the 

 principal land plants. The massive but weak fern trees crashed 

 down and gradually filled swamps and marshes. 



Later the pressure of overlying sand and mud that drifted and 

 oozed over these regions turned the fern masses into peat and 

 finally into coal. As this was happening the outline of an occa- 

 sional fern frond was imprinted in the slate or rock which formed 

 from the muddy deposits as it pressed against the vegetation which 

 was changing into coal. These ancient prints reveal that the 

 appearance of ferns has not changed much in all these millions 

 of years. 



