THE GARDEN BOOK OF CALIFORNIA 



it is considered that of the adiantum alone there are over 

 eighty species and that of the three great divisions of the 

 fern family there are hundreds of forms known as decorative 

 plants, it would seem that a choice might be difficult, but 

 in California for out-of-door planting the selection of ferns 

 for a fernery may be summed up in this way : avoid so-called 

 hardy Northern ferns, because they do not like our dry air 

 and have too long a period of sleep. On the contrary, seek 

 for the ferns of tropical or warm countries and help them 

 adapt themselves to our conditions. 



Literature is full of allusions to the filices, or fern 

 family, and students of folk-lore of every land find fable 

 and tradition without end in which the mysterious way of 

 fern reproduction by spores is celebrated. What country 

 child does not know that if only you can get the fern-spores 

 at just the right time of early dawn and without any one 

 witnessing the act, then place them secretly in the soles of 

 your shoes that you may walk invisible among your kind 

 and listen to the wood-folk, the elves, the gnomes and 

 fairies in all their counsels which are held in a voice so fine 

 that ordinary mortal ears may not hear! In German folk- 

 lore you may be told that it was the fern root upon which 

 John the Baptist lived during all his long wanderings in the 

 wilderness, and since I have eaten the sweet roots of the 

 polypodiums of Northern Oregon I am inclined to think 

 I could subsist a few days on a diet of sweet fern roots. 



The medicinal qualities of some ferns are well estab- 

 lished, and aspleniums, Ceiarach oflicinarium, scolopendri- 



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