The Fern Bud or Crosier 



Of all "plant babies," that of the fern is most cozily cuddled; 

 one feels when looking at it, that not only are its eyes shut but its 

 fists are tightly closed. But the first glance at one of these little 

 woolly spirals gives us but small conception of its marvelous 



Fiddle heads, or crosiers. Young ferns unfolding. 



enfolding, all so systematic and perfect that it seems another 

 evidence of the divine origin of mathematics. Every part of the 

 frond is present in that bud, even to the fruiting organs; all the 

 pinnae and the pinnules are packed in the smallest compass — each 

 division, even to the smallest pinnule, coiled in a spiral towards 

 its base. These coiled fern buds are called crosiers; they are 



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