FINDING FERNS TO TRANSPLANT 7S 
uncertain spring days. Hepaticas were: close by 
and bloodroots and dog’s-tooth violets were not 
far away. 
“Why not transplant a few of them in the moist 
point of your triangle?” Mr. Percy asked. “They 
will unfold into tall, strong fernSj and if we take 
them now they are almost sure to live. I have 
found the early spring a better time for transplant- 
ing ferns than the autumn. Their fronds are not 
unfolded now, so there is no danger of their break- 
mg. 
This seemed a splendid idea, as we were much 
in need of tall, green plants at the moist corner. 
Mr. Percy and Joseph then set to work to take up 
the fiddleheads. I had a basket with me, a trowel 
and a newspaper, as I thought I might find some 
wild flowers for transplanting. The trowel proved 
very light for taking up the firm, interwoven roots 
of the fiddleheads, which I thought must have been 
making roots in this spot for a great many years. 
Mr. Percy told us that, as the days grew warm, 
the woolly covering of the fiddleheads would turn 
a brownish yellow and gradually fall away. He 
showed us also its “heart of Osmond,” which is 
really the buds for years to come, and lies at the 
crown of the brush-like root-stock. This part of 
the fern, he said, tasted very much like raw cab- 
bage. But to gather it, the plant itself would have 
to be destroyed, and neither Joseph nor I care 
enough ■ about eating raw cabbage to make us do 
