9 
THE STRUCTURE OF FERNS. 
What is a Fern ? This question, which many of our 
young readers will be ready to ask, we will endeavour to 
answer by means of a familiar comparison. 
We must presume that every reader of this little book, 
even the youngest or most inexperienced, would be able in 
all ordinary cases to recognize a flower ; not indeed by the 
aid of the technical intricacies to which the man of science 
would resort, but by means of that intuitive perception, 
which has grown up with the growing faculties, and ac¬ 
quired strength from the little experiences of childhood 
and youth. 
We take for granted, then, that all our readers are 
familiar with the buttercup, the poppy, the brier-rose, the 
daisy, the dandelion, and other common flowers, so pro¬ 
fusely dispersed over the meadows and cornfields, and along 
the hedgerows and by the waysides. The young ears of 
corn, as well as the spikes of the meadow grasses, must be 
well-remembered objects. These all afford examples of 
flowers, or of masses of flowers. Now, the plants from 
