4 



A FERK BOOK FOR EYERTBODT. 



straw is used. And in controversion of the assertion that 

 ferns did not afford food for man or beast, she adds, " Our 

 Exmoor ponies crop its young fronds with avidity, and 

 donkeys also eat them and other common ferns. In India, 

 jSTew Zealand, &c., several kinds are used as food ; and it 

 is possible that the ferns of these countries may be more 

 tempting to the insect tribe than they are with us. In 

 the " Botanical Chart " of my lamented friend, Miss 

 Warren, it is stated, that in the north of Europe starch 

 is made from the roots of Osmunda, and bread from those 

 of the Bracken, and that, in the times of Henry VI., the 

 people of England were reduced to the use of this bread. 



JSTotwithstanding the above remarks, it cannot but be 

 admitted that ferns are of very little direct use to man in 

 the arts, or to furnish the necessities of life. Whether 

 this is not compensated for in other ways, and whether 

 we are to measure the value of everything by the standard 

 of meat and drink, is another question. " Let each be 

 persuaded in his own mind." 



A little experience will soon enable the most complete 

 novice to distinguish a fern from any other plant, and 

 this is especially the case with our own British species, 

 or those in common cultivation. One safe guide may be 

 noted for the majority of species when in a fertile condi- 

 tion, that the backs, or under side of the leav^es, have 

 clusters of minute brown cases in roundish tufts or elon- 

 gated patches, containing the dust-like seeds, or spores. 

 Other plants, not at all allied to ferns, are often attacked 

 by parasitic fungi, which burst through the cuticle of the 

 leaf in just such patches of brown dust, and so much 

 resemble ferns, at a casual glance, that even botanists 

 have in former times been deceived, and supposed them 

 to be a kind of fern. Another useful guide will be found 

 in the veins of the leaves. In most leaves one stout vein, 

 or mid-rib, runs from the base to the apex of the leaf, 

 dividing it into two nearly equal parts. Erom this mid- 

 rib other veins run direct to the edge of the leaf, or else 

 they become branched in a very irregular manner. In 

 ferns, on the contrary, the veins divide Regularly in a 



