-o- 
THE 
§ I, General.— Feins have attracted the attention of lovers of na- 
ture from time immemorial, since their gracefulness, delicacy, and varied 
forms place them among the loveliest of plants. The literature of the 
day is full of allusions to them ; several great departments of painting 
are not complete without them ; in our homes they are most eagerly 
sought to heighten the beauty of drawings and paintings, to ornament 
the walls, for v/reaths, vases and an infinite variety of uses. It is, there- 
fore, not surprising that people turn first to these beautiful plants to learn 
their names and manner of growth. 
Where shall we find them ? There is scarcely a place from which 
they are absent. In the far north and on lofty mountains above the limit 
of forests, the delicate bladder-fern and the firmer rock-brake and shield- 
fern peep from the rocks or wave over alpine rivulets. The woods, ra- 
vines, and rocky dells of the east are lull of their beautiful forms. 
From the rocks hang graceful bladder-ferns, blue cliff-brakes, lip-ferns, 
polypodys, and spleenworts; while along watercourses and shaded ravines 
are multitudes of maiden-hair, brakes, chain-ferns, spleenworts, walking- 
leaf, beech-, shield-, ostrich-, sensitive , climbing and flowering ferns. In 
the Southern States, especially in Florida, are the most beautiful ferns 
of the United States. But it is in the^ tropical countries that they are 
the most numerous and attain the greatest perfection. There are the 
moss-like Hymenophyllums and stately tree ferns whose great fronds, often 
twenty feet long, make a perfect canopy overhead. Between these ex- 
tremes are myriads of ferns of all degrees of beauty and size. 
^ 2. Our Region. — Of the three thousand species known, over two- 
