FERNS. 521 

- “process, which I have often witnessed, is the only blossom- 
ing of the fern. It may grow for centuries and become an 
arborescent kind, such as formerly grew in the Coal periods, 
and such as now grow in the Sandwich Islands and at the 
Isthmus of Darien, but no other blossom or flower appears! 
The dust of rare and valuable ferns collected in foreign 
countries, and kept closely sealed in phials from the dryness 
or moisture of the outward atmosphere, and from freezing, 
has been transported to other parts of the globe, and sown 
successfully raising living plants for conservatories and 
: collections; those from the tropics being sedulously and 
_ carefully cultivated in hot-houses, kept at an uniform tem- 
perature the year round. Any one who may have become 
interested in this matter, may put it to the test by pursuing 
the plan here described, collecting the ripe dust from such ' 
species of ferns as may be within reach. 
“That ferns are very beautiful, highly ornamental, and 
Consequently attractive, will be admitted, but the utilitarian 
will be anxious to learn what are their uses? Such a querist 
i will hardly receive a satisfactory answer if he confines the 
meaning of his word use to market value or to economic 
Application. It is true that the materia medica derives 
_ Small additions from ferns; a kind of food, in extreme cases, 
has been found in the stems of a very few species, but for 
" clothing or shelter, resin, gum, oil, balsam, starch, dye- 
, oul, or any other product of the vegetable world which has 
ts use and its market, none of these can be traced to ferns.” 
(pp. 2, 3.) 
_A singular looking and rather pretty little fern, is the 
j der’s Tongue (Ophioglossum vulgatum), which has an 
“ect stem six to twelve inches high, terminated by a club- 
Maped head, which is a modified leaf, or frond, and which 
‘Stade up of the dust-cases or spores, such as usually grow 
On the back of the frond. Beside this, there is an expanded 
frond that is barren and devoid of spore-cases, and which 
looks not unlike the leaf of the dog’s-tooth violet when half 
AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. II. 6 










