THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol. i 6 September, 1920 No. 6 



Fern Study 



Of all plants, the ferns have the most beautiful leaves; this 

 seems the more wonderful when we realize that the ferns are 

 among the most ancient of plants; they are the most abundant 

 plants of the coal period both as to individuals and species. As a 

 child, I held the firm belief that the Creator so loved the exquisite 

 forms wrought by frost crystals on the window panes that He 

 repeated the patterns in the fern leaves as a sign that beauty was 

 an integral part in the plan of the universe. 



Few of us stop to think that the coal which warms us today 

 was made of the leaves, stems and spores of the ferns. Dr. David 

 Starr Jordan in his "A Story of a Stone" describes the ferns of 

 the coal measures thus: "The great ferns and rushes, big as an 

 oak and tall as a steeple, grew in the swamps. Their green plumes 

 were so long and so densely interwoven that the Man of the Moon 

 might have fancied the earth was feathering out. Then all about, 

 huge reptiles, with jaws like the gates of doom and teeth like cross- 

 cut saws, and little reptiles with wings like bats, crawled, and swam, 

 and flew. But the ferns died, and the reptiles died, and the rush- 

 trees fell in the swamps, and the Illinois and the Sangamon and 

 the Wabash and all the other rivers covered them up. They 

 stewed away under layers of clay and sand, till at last they turned 

 into coal and wept bitter tears of petroleum." 



In these later days the tree-ferns grow only in the tropics but 

 fortunately for us there are many species of lowly habits left to 

 gladden our eyes. As subjects for nature study the ferns are 

 most attractive. Any locality is rich that has twenty species and 

 therefore it is a great stimulant to interest the pupils to make a 

 collection of all the kinds of ferns in their environment. 



Since ferns are easily pressed and are beautiful objects when 

 mounted on white paper, the making of a fern herbarium is a 

 delightful pastime ; or leaf -prints may be made which give beauti- 

 ful results; but, better perhaps, than either collections or prints, 



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