WHAT IS A FERN 



how many thousands of houses there are in big- 

 London alone without gardens ! an attempt is 

 made to compensate for its absence. Sometimes, 

 as we have seen, the windows are filled with 

 plants generally with flowers. Even the poor 

 hovel, even the most wretched garret is usually 

 provided with at least one solitary flower-pot, 

 whose occupant, pining perhaps for the sun which 

 can never reach it, drags on its sickly existence 

 until at length it dies under the influence of its- 

 unnatural circumstances, struggling to the last 

 moment with its abnormal condition of life. But 

 it is rarely, as we have already said, that Ferns 

 are to be seen under the same conditions ; and it 

 is because we would show how it is that these 

 lovely plants are admirably adapted to live under 

 conditions which flowering plants cannot survive, 

 that we write these chapters. Here we feel that 

 it will be necessary, before we proceed any further, 

 to define the position Ferns occupy amongst that 

 great portion of the living world which we call 

 the vegetable kingdom. 



The simple question then at once arises: What 

 is a Fern, and how is it to be distinguished from 



H 217 



