i6 
THE FERN WORLD 
smaller ones being but the tiniest of delicate filaments. 
From various parts of the upper side of the creeping 
rhizomas spring the fronds, and it thus happens that, as the 
former advance — dividing sometimes into branches, and 
penetrating the soil in all directions — the Fern multiplies, 
often rapidly, throwing up a miniature forest of waving 
fronds, and sending into the earth at each point where the 
rhizoma develops into green life a mass of fibres, which 
serve at these successive stages to infuse more vigour into 
the plant. 
There is something very beautiful in the arrangement by 
which Nature provides for the collection by the rootlets of 
Ferns of the moisture which the latter require for their 
nourishment. In the earlier stages of growth it is found 
that the rootlets are mostly supplemented by fine hairs, 
which cover their surface, and, by capillary attraction — that 
most mysterious and wonderful power — absorb moisture from 
