132 The Fern Garden. 



The true ferns may be traced through many grada- 

 tions of physiological structure with comparatively 

 little trouhle. At all events when the botanists have 

 classified them, it needs no subtlety of perception to 

 determine that the adder's tongue and moonwort ferns 

 are the lowest in the scale, and that their very exist- 

 ence is suggestive of a gradation of similar forms late- 

 rally or vertically separated fr,om them to which these 

 least fern-like ferns serve as connecting links. The 

 plants that are closest allied to the ferns are the Lyco- 

 podiums, the Selaginellas, the Pepperworts, the Horse- 

 tails, and the Mosses. After these we get amongst 

 lichens and fungi, and as we must stop somewhere, 

 the foregoing five families are all we shall recognise for 

 the purposes of this chapter. Each family contributes 

 beautiful plants adapted for the fern garden, and as for 

 the selaginellas they are all beautiful, and we make 

 selections from amongst them, because usually we 

 cannot find room for the fifty or more species and 

 varieties known to cultivators. 



Lycopodiums and Selaginellas closely resemble 

 mosses in their branches and leaves, while in many of 

 their general characters and aspects they bear close 

 resemblances to ferns. They are, however, distinct 

 from either, and are especially characterised by the 

 nature of their leaves and their fructification. There is 

 one broad distinction between lycopodiums and sela- 

 ginellas, which the beginner may bear in mind with 

 advantage. Lycopodiums have imbricated leaves all of 

 the same shape spirally arranged. Selaginellas have 

 leaves of two sizes and slightly differing in form. You 



