TO THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN. 



No blossomed hues and perfumed breath conspire 



To win thee favor in the sight of man. 



Thy race in ancient lineage began 



Ere sunset golds and morning's ruddy fire 



Were caught in chalices ; or hearts desire 



In incense floated from the censer's pan; 



Or nectars from their secret fountains ran 



To pamper love or suage insensate ire. 



Thine is the simple grace of perfect form ; 

 Veiling beneath thy lightly penciled shape 

 The dainty spirit of a primal art, 

 (Thou fairest child of nature's early morn) 

 As 'though some saintly maiden should escape 

 And dwell in convent solitudes apart. 



— -Roland E. Conklin. 



AIR PLANTS. 



Among the most interesting of the for- 

 eign plants exhibited in city conservato- 

 ries are the air plants, one or more of 

 which every conservatory possesses. The 

 bark on which the air plant is growing is 

 cut from the tree in a large square so 

 that the plant remains uninjured. It can 

 then be suspended by a wire from the 

 ceiling of the conservatory, or attached to 

 a growing tree. Many persons, at first 

 sight, would mistake air plants for para- 

 sites, since both adhere to growing trees 

 in much the same way. But the differ- 

 ence between the two is distinct and lies 

 in the mode of obtaining nourishment. 

 Air plants, or epiphytes, gather food 

 from the air, their aerial roots, with 

 which they are provided in quantity, serv- 

 ing both as means of attachment and as 

 organs of absorption. Parasites, on the 

 other hand, derive their sustenance from 

 the body to which they are attached, — 

 their hosts. 



One of the most usual of air plants 

 exhibited is the Stag-horn Fern, P la ty ce- 



rium alcicome, which takes its name from 

 the fact that its broad-formed leaves 

 resemble horns — the name Platy cerium 

 meaning in the Greek, broad horns. This 

 plant is widespread in its distribution, 

 being* found not only in Australia and 

 Africa, but occasionally in the southern 

 states of our own country, in Florida 

 and in Georgia. 



Epiphytes, aside from the ferns, usu- 

 ally belong to the orchid family or to the 

 Bromeliaceae, a family of which pineap- 

 ples are members. Among the orchids, 

 epiphytes are beautiful and varied, espe- 

 cially in far-away countries. In the 

 United States they are represented by a 

 single wild species, Epidendrum conop- 

 sciim, which clings to the trunks of mag- 

 nolia trees in South Carolina. In our 

 finest conservatories many of the rare 

 species of orchid epiphytes are dis- 

 played. The long, black moss Tillandsia, 

 which hangs from the trees in Florida is 

 epiphytic, and represents the Bromeli- 

 aceae in this country. 



Mary Lee Van Hook. 



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