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THE USES OF FEPxNS. 



We cannot make out a Ion a; cataloo;ue of the uses of 

 Ferns. Indeed, compared i.vitli their numbers and size, 

 their usefuhiess to man is very limited ; and the frigid 

 utilitarian might be almost tempted to ask of Nature, 

 wherefore she gave them birth. Her reply would, however, 

 stay further interrogation : " They are given 



'To minister deligbt to man, 

 To beautify the earth.' " 



The Ferns are not, moreover, altogether without their 

 use ; for to the aborigines of various countries they furnish 

 a rude means of subsistence. The pith of the stem or 

 rhizome is the part usually employed for food, and this on 

 account of the starch deposited in its tissue. Among the 

 species which are thus employed as food — chiefly, however, 

 where civilization has not become the dispenser of better 

 fare — there is the CyatJiea medullaris, Marattiaalata and 

 elcgans, Angiopteris evecta ; Pteris escidenta, the Tasma- 

 nian Tara ; Ncphroh'pis tuherosa, Bipladum csculenticm, 



