48 OUR NATIVE FERNS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE FERN'S PLACE IN NATURE. 



1 23. THE popular conception as to what constitutes a plant 

 needs to be considerably enlarged and otherwise modified, for 

 as soon as we commence to look about us after our eyes have 

 been really opened, we find a vast array of forms varying in size 

 and complexity of structure from the simple cells of the yeast- 

 plant that we use in bread-making to the highly organized tree 

 of the forest, and including such diverse forms of growth as the 

 green scums that accumulate on ponds in summer, the gray 

 lichens covering rocks and trees, the puff-balls and mushrooms 

 that seemingly develop in a single night, the mosses, ferns and 

 flowers in all their variety and beauty. Where in all this array 

 of plants do our ferns stand, and what relations do they sustain 

 to other plants ? In answering this question we will have to 

 give some account cf the various groups of plants, pointing out 

 their structural peculiarities and noting here and there in their 

 appropriate place in the system such forms as are likely to be 

 popularly recognized. 



1 24. Aside from the plants producing flowers, the ferns 

 and the mosses,* all of which are widely known and generally 



* It should be noted that even this name is often misapplied. The lichens, 

 which are in no way related to the true mosses, are sometimes popularly called 

 "gray mosses." In " Evangeline" where Longfellow speaks of the trees 

 " bearded with moss " he evidently alludes to the lichen, Usnea barbata ; the 

 " hanging moss" of the Pacific coast is also a lichen, Ramaiina reticulata, 

 which has a much more appropriate name in "lace-lichen." The "hang- 

 ing moss " of the Gulf States, on the contrary, is a flowering plant whose near- 

 est allies are in the pineapple family. Another flowering plant, Euphorbia 

 cyparissias, is often called " graveyard moss " in the Northern States. This 

 loose and confusing use of language is to be deplored, and those who know 

 better should assist in relegating these incorrect usages to a merited oblivion. 



