WHAT IS A FERN f 
IOI 
country lane where ferns abound will be quite 
sufficient to accustom you at once to the difference 
between a fern and an ordinary plant. 
Some parts of a fern bear different names to 
those affixed by botanists to the corresponding — we 
use the word “ corresponding ” in its popular, and 
not in its strictly technical sense — parts of another 
plant. First of all there is the crown, which may 
be styled for the sake of simplicity the mainstay of 
the plant, or the base of its stem. From the under 
surface of this stem or root-stock proceed the long 
fibrous roots, which, diving down into the soil, or 
penetrating between the crevices in rocks and 
walls, seek and convey to the plant the abundant 
moisture without which it could not live. From 
the crown or root-stock upwards grow the 
stalks, which support what would be popularly 
called the leaves. Each of these stalks is called a 
stipes , and in most ferns both the upper surface of 
the crown and the stipes are covered with scales, 
a rust-coloured kind of excrescence. 
On each stipes, at a distance from the crown of 
the plant which varies in different specimens of 
