33 



THE USES OF FERNS. 



WE cannot make out a long catalogue of the uses of Ferns. 

 Indeed, compared with their numbers and size, their useful- 

 ness 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 inter- 

 rogation : " They are given 



' To minister delight 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 Cyathea, medullaris, Marattia alata and 

 elegans, Angwptens evecta; the Tasmanian Tara, Pteris 

 esculenta ; Nephrodium esculentum, Diplazium esculentum, 



D 



