6 THE HUMAN SIDE OF PLANTS 
This plant is scientifically known as Bryophyllum 
calycinum. When the little plants have become 
sturdy enough to develop roots, the mother-leaf 
gradually shrivels up and drops away, leaving her 
little ones, like orphaned children, to care for them- 
selves. 
The curious and beautiful walking-ferns, per- 
haps the most difficult of all ferns to raise in the 
ordinary garden, are too rare to be found at many 
florists. They are very fastidious and demand the 
shade, drainage, and air—to suit their particular 
tastes—that only the larger gardens and green- 
houses can afford. They will not live “in captiv- 
ity,” except in the shadiest nook or corner, and then 
they produce a sickly growth, with yellowish-green 
fronds, which, after tapering to a dainty tip, like 
tiny threads, drop to the ground and take root as 
new plants. What actually takes place is this: 
A bud forms at the extreme tip of the frond and 
develops a cluster of small fronds and roots, while 
swinging in the air. The increasing weight of the 
young plant, especially when wet with rain or 
dew, causes the long frond to bend its tip to the 
earth, and there take root as a new plant, accord- 
ing to its characteristic and very curious way of 
walking. ‘Thus the ferns spread and travel, each 
little frond linked to its neighbour by the delicate 
