EARTH'S GARMENT OF GREEN 15 



wait until it is warmer, and then out of the earth 

 comes the baby frond all rolled up tight like a watch 

 spring. As it grows it unwinds until the graceful 

 feathery frond is free from its tight roll. These baby 

 ferns are called fiddle heads. Did you ever see any? 

 The humming birds know where to find them, for 

 they line their nests with the soft, brown, woolly 

 blanket that covers some of these baby ferns. 



We always think of ferns as growing in the deep, 

 dark woods, or on rocks or beside laughing, chatter- 

 ing brooks. But they grow in great, feathery masses 

 in the open swamps, and they cluster around the 

 bowlders in open pastures, and they even crowd 

 their way into the country roadsides. Wherever 

 they can tuck their feet in securely and get their 

 proper nourishment they send up their graceful 

 fronds and help to make earth's garment whole and 

 beautiful. 



All sorts of mosses grow on the forest floor and on 

 stumps of trees and on the rocks where the ferns 

 grow. They even grow where the ferns can find no 

 crevice large enough to tuck their roots into. If the 

 rock is moist and shaded the moss will grow so thick 

 that your feet sink away down into it. Some of the 

 mosses are so beautiful that you might wish you 

 were a fairy and could live in such a wonderful little 

 forest. Where the rocks are too dry and smooth for 

 the mosses the lichens put their pretty green and 

 brown and yellow rosettes. Does not nature clothe 

 her rocks beautifully? 



If a tree falls down in the forest and dies, losing all 

 of its own fine dress of leaves, the earth tries to put 



