CHAPTER VII 

 FERN-SEED 



FIG. 6. Under-surface of the frond of the common Polypody fern, 

 showing the circular spore-cases arranged in rows. 



" \ T TE have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible," 

 V V says one of Prince Hal's rollicking companions 

 in Shakespeare's play of "Henry IV." Ben Jonson, in the 

 'New Inn,' makes one of his characters say, "I had no 

 medicine, sir, to go invisible, no fern-seed in my pocket." 

 About the same time (1613) we read in a romantic poem 



