FERN HABITATS. 1 9- 



and the spore-cases are two-valved, and have no elastic- 

 ring, as will be seen on examining the figures given with, 

 the illustration, on page 7, of the Moonwort. 



Accompanying the figure, given on page 9, of the 

 European Bristle Fern, an enlarged diagram shows the- 

 urn-shaped and peculiar position of its receptacle. 

 Through the centre of this receptacle the prolonged 

 end of a vein passes, and on this vein are strung the- 

 spore-cases. The urn shape of the receptacle, in the- 

 case of the two Filmy Ferns, is also conspicuously shown, 

 in the illustrations, on page 18, of those ferns. 



III. FERN HABITATS. 



HO can doubt that much of the- 

 fascinating attraction of the pur- 

 suit of ferns arises from the love- 

 liness of the spots where they 

 grow, and, to those new to the 

 pastime, from the pleasurable sur- 

 prise attendant upon finding forms- 

 of beauty in places so dark and 

 shadowy as to be half gloomy ?* 

 Looking into such places, hol- 

 lows in rocks, openings in the leafy 

 shrouds of hedge-banks, and the- 

 shadowy spaces which lie beneath 

 the dense undergrowths of woods 

 the eye, at first, oftentimes sees- 

 nothing but the merest shadowy outlines. But, as it 

 becomes accustomed to the darkness, it begins to 

 discern the delicate, graceful, and feathery forms of" 

 some members of the great family of shade and mois- 

 ture-loving plants. Looking still, the forms become 



