8 
CHOICE BRITISH FERNS. 
In considering, therefore, the economic value of Ferns, 
which is usually regarded as almost nil, we must place to 
their credit, not only a fair share of the advantages we 
derive from coal, but also of that wonderful and ever- 
increasing store of coal-tar products, in the shape of aniline 
dyes, of all the hues of the rainbow, and a few more to 
boot; of marvellous drugs, with their no less marvellous 
names (benzylidenmethylketol, for instance); and last, not 
least, the future delight of all rising generations. Saccharine, 
in every grain (of which dwells the sweetness of a hundred 
lollipops. In view of this enormous contribution to the 
delights of the eye and the palate, we can afford to ignore 
the half-apologetic ascription to our Ferns of a certain 
straw-like utility for packing purposes, and certain medicinal 
virtues of a very dubious nature and questionable value. 
Now, since the Ferns of the present day resemble those 
of the past not merely in structure but in their nature 
generally, we gather from the foregoing, as our first lesson 
regarding them, that a moist atmosphere and plenty of shade 
are the first essentials of their existence, and that, as they 
do not bear flowers, and yet have perpetuated themselves, 
they must be reproduced in some other way. The first 
fact gives us at once a clue as to the most likely places 
in which to find them, i.e., locally, in damp, shady woods, 
lanes, and glens, and generally in those parts of the world 
either where the rainfall is greatest, or where, owing to 
considerable elevation, a cloudy condition of the atmosphere 
exists. Hence, as far as Britain is concerned, we find the 
most congenial conditions to exist all along the west or 
south-west coasts, where Ferns are abundant, their numbers 
decreasing gradually, exactly as we might have anticipated, 
as we approach the east coasts, precisely in the same ratio 
as the winds become drained of the moisture they have 
gathered in their passage across the Atlantic. 
The next thing to learn, after knowing where to find Ferns, 
is how to distinguish them from other plants not in flower, 
and here the second fact above cited, regarding their repro- 
duction, comes in, and will aid us, in a general way, in their 
