Fern Allies . 
131 
CHAPTER XVII. 
FERN ALLIES. 
LYCOPODIUMS, SELAGINELLAS, PEPPER-WORTS, HORSE¬ 
TAILS, AND MOSSES. 
■ OWEVER slightly the cultivator of ferns may 
he interested in their technical classification and 
botanical affinities, it is impossible to proceed far 
in the practice without being attracted by the beauties of 
certain plants which are not ferns, but cousins-german 
to them. A tuft of club moss in a marsh or of horsetail 
in a damp and tangled hedgerow will arrest attention, 
and the beginner may ask the question—“Is this a 
fern?**’ and when assured that it is not one, will pro¬ 
bably ask again, “What is it V* In the greenhouse and 
the stove the moss-like selaginellas, usually called lyco¬ 
podiums, associate with ferns as their proper companions, 
requiring similar treatment and being obviously allied 
in structure and habits. On this border land there is 
entertainment for the curious; a knowledge of the dis¬ 
tinctive character of the tribes of plants that haunt it 
will prove, like many other kinds of knowledge, abun¬ 
dantly remunerative to those who will earnestly seek it, 
and the lover of vegetable beauty, who may be indis¬ 
posed to pore over books or labour with the microscope 
will discover here many gratifications. 
