X INTRODUCTION. 



Shakespeare only reflects a prevalent belief of his time when 

 he says : 



" We have the receipt of fern seed ; we walk invisible." 



Others allude to the falling of the seed on the anniver- 

 sary night of the birth of John the Baptist. The old 

 simplers with their lively imagination were impressed by the 

 fancied resemblances of some parts of fern growth to various 

 organs of the human body, and introduced them into their 

 system of specifics. Traces of their influence still remain in 

 the names of some of our common ferns, as spleenwort and 

 maidenhair. 



To form a correct understanding of ferns we must study the 

 ferns themselves as well as the text-book, as it is only by direct 

 contact with nature that we gain definite and satisfactory informa- 

 tion. The text-book is useful only in giving directions how to 

 investigate. To understand thoroughly an animal we must study 

 its habits in its native haunts. To know its structure and posi- 

 tion in the animal kingdom we must carefully dissect a large 

 number of specimens, and study the development of the individ- 

 ual from its beginning. In like manner, to understand fully a 

 fern we must search where nature has planted it, watch it as it un- 

 coils from the bud, matures, produces its fruit, and finally returns 

 to the earth ; examine it with needles and lenses, and discover 

 its minute structure and its life-history. These pages, which 

 aim to give an outline of the forms of fern growth, the methods 

 of fruiting, the germination or growth from the spore, and 

 finally the more minute structure of the entire plant, can only 

 be thoroughly understood by taking the ferns in hand and 

 studying them in connection with the text. 



Let no one imagine that the study of ferns will be an easy 

 one. Patient application and careful observation are essential 

 to success, yet he who becomes once interested in the work 

 will find a subject that deepens in interest with every step, and 

 even becomes enchanting as he seeks to determine the mysteri- 

 ous processes of fern development and the marvels of fern 

 structure. 



