WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND FERNS 



It is in early spring that one likes to take up for 

 the first time an out-door study. But if you begin 

 your search for ferns in March, when the woods are 

 yielding a few timid blossoms, and the air, still 

 pungent with a suggestion of winter, vibrates to the 

 lisping notes of newly arrived birds, you will hardly 

 be rewarded by finding any but the evergreen spe- 

 cies, and even these are not likely to be especially 

 conspicuous at this season. 



Usually it is the latter part of April before the 

 pioneers among the ferns, the great Osmundas, push 

 up the big, woolly croziers, or fiddleheads, which 

 will soon develop into the most luxuriant and trop- 

 ical-looking plants of our low wet woods and road- 

 sides. 



At about the same time, down among last year's 

 Christmas Ferns, you find the roUed-up fronds of 

 this year, covered with brown or whitish scales. 

 And now every day for many weeks will appear 

 fresh batches of young ferns. Someone has said 

 that there is nothing more aggressively new-born 

 than a young fern, and this thought will recur 



17 



