8o THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



Fool's Parsley, etc. look like those of ferns at first sight. Most 

 people have seen the fern-like leaves produced by a carrot-top 

 which has been cut off, scooped out, filled with water, and hung 

 up by strings. 



In studying ferns, do not root up every new kind you come 

 across. Several of our rarer ferns have been almost extermin- 

 ated by hawkers, fern-growers, botanists, and even by members 

 of Nature Study classes, who ought to have had more sense ! 

 If you study ferns in their homes a single leaf is all that need 

 be taken away for the purpose of preservation (between sheets 

 of paper) and for identification. Besides, the very best way 

 in which to study ferns is to grow them from their spores, and 

 watch their development, this is real Nature Study, but the 

 tearing up of ferns and the spoiling of woodland banks is not. 



As a first fern type we shall take the Common Bracken (Pteris 

 Aquilina\ which is so abundant that no harm can be done by 

 pulling it up, or even digging out a plant, in order to examine its 

 underground parts. The bracken covers large areas, especially 

 on heaths and commons, but it also grows in woods and on high 

 moors, having a much wider range than any other British fern, 

 and being therefore adapted for growth in a greater variety 

 of situations or habitats. It often grows to a height of four 

 or five feet, while the bases of its large "fronds" may be buried 

 a foot or more deep in the soil. Being a social or gregarious 

 plant, it can grow in extensive patches in places, e.g. windy 

 hillsides, where isolated plants could not flourish, though in 

 such situations it is usually stunted and rough, whereas in more 

 favourable homes especially in woods that are not too densely 

 shaded and have fairly deep leaf-mould it grows as high as 

 seven feet, and is a more tender and graceful plant. 



The conspicuous " frond " is a single leaf, though its stalk 

 resembles a stem at first sight. If the " frond " were a shoot 

 we should expect to find buds on it, but comparison with other 

 plants especially with the bracken's cultivated relatives (the 

 " ribbon-ferns ") and other ferns will show that the " frond " 

 is a compound leaf, having a main stalk which bears secondary 

 stalks right and left in pairs, while these again bear paired leaflets, 

 which are deeply Jolped or even cut into separate pieces. The 



