86 THE WOODLANDS. 



CHAPTER V. 



FERNS, MOSSES, AND LIVERWORTS. 



THE cultivation of ferns has of late years become so 

 universal, that it has tended very much to spread a 

 more accurate knowledge of these interesting plants, 

 and at the same time not a little towards reducing the 

 number of plants growing wild of our rarer species. 

 The woodland ferns are in most instances widely dis- 

 tributed species, including the majority of the larger 

 and more imposing kinds. The mountain species 

 are small and comparatively rare. It is the latter 

 which are most suitable for growing under shades 

 and in Wardian cases, for which most of the wood- 

 land species are not fitted. Fern spores, analogous 

 to seeds, are produced in capsules, collected in tufts 

 on the underside of the fronds, or leaves. In olden 

 times fern-seed was supposed to possess magical 

 powers if gathered on Midsummer-eve. Grose says, 

 " A person who went to gather it reported that the 

 spirits whisked by his ears, and sometimes struck his 

 hat and other parts of his body ; and at length when 

 he thought he had got a good quantity of it and. 

 secured it in papers and a box, when he came home 

 he found both empty." 



