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VOL. XXXV. No. 21. 
WHOLE No. 1426. 
[Entered according 
Jloriniltiiral. 
_NEW YORK CITY, MAY, 26 , 1877 . 
tolct of Copyrcga, in the year 1877, to^he Kura! PnbliBhi t ^ (;„ m p„,^ in the office of thollbrarian of Couct at Wa^„Kton7 
f PRICE «I3C CENTS. 
I l‘J.50 l* Kit YEAR.l 
FERNS. 
Fehns belong to the highest order of crypto- 
gamous or floworless plants, and are divided 
into Bub-ordors, of which most botanists are 
content with enumerating only eight. These 
are determined by the structure, manner of at¬ 
tachment, and mode of opening of the sporangia 
or capsules containing the seeds. These are 
generally grouped into clusters, called sort, on 
the lower sides 
of the fronds 
or leaves, a 
fold of which 
covers each 
until it has 
grown ripe, 
when the en¬ 
veloping mem¬ 
brane is rup¬ 
tured, often 
with sufficient 
force to throw 
the inclosed 
spores to a 
short distance. 
Of these sub¬ 
orders, by far 
the largest is 
that of the 
Polypodicietx , 
or true ferns, 
which includes 
most of those 
with which the 
inhabitants of 
temperate lat¬ 
itudes are fa¬ 
miliar, oither 
in their wild 
state or under 
cultivation. 
Already 
2,235 distinct 
species of 
ferns have 
been described 
by standard authorities, while some industrious 
botanists, whose perceptions of differences one 
is disposed to regard as superfluously acute, have 
enlarged this number to upwards of three thou¬ 
sand. In size theyrauge from diminutive plants 
to graceful trees from 50 to 60 feet in bight, 
crowned with a terminal cluster of leaves. The 
stem is a flbrous, woody cylinder, growing only 
at the end, and therefore of equal diametei 
throughout, and is in reality merely a consoli 
dated bundle of loaf-stalks. In some species 
the leaves have an unbroken outline, and from 
this they graduate to miuutely sub-divided 
fronds. Their size varies from a diameter of 
less than a quarter of an inch, with length pro¬ 
portionately small, to an expansion greater than 
that of auy other terrestrial plant and a length 
of fully 25 feet. 
Members of this family are found all the world 
over, but in the greatest number and of the 
most luxuriant growth in tropical and semi-tro 
pical regions, where moisture and warmth com 
bme to stimulate them to exuberant develop 
ment. Of all parts of the globe, however, the 
spot where they flourish most abundantly is the 
island of Juan Fernandez, memorable as the 
abode of childhood's favorite—Robinson Crusoe. 
One-haif of the flora of the island consists of 
different species of the fern family, and it im¬ 
plies only a moderate acquaintance with the 
sconce on the part of Defoe that he should have 
failed to enlarge on the feathery beauty of the 
vegetation amid which so many years of his 
hero s solitary life was passed. 
Great, howevor, as is the number of these 
plants at the present time, it must have been 
vastly larger in bygone geological ages during 
the carboniferous period, when the materials 
concentrated in the coal fields of to-day, covered 
the earth in the form of trees and gigantic 
shrubbery. Of the six hundred and eighty-three 
kinds of plants known to have been found in the 
coal measures of the globe, noarly throe hundred 
were different species of ferns, and so numerous 
are the stems and fronds of those plants yearly 
met with in the coal strata that they must have 
formed by far the greatest part of the rank vege¬ 
tation of those torrid ages: but from the gen 
eral absence of fructification on these remains, 
it is seldom possible to determine to what species 
they belonged. 
On account of the delicate beauty and elegance 
of those plants, they have always been exten¬ 
sively cultivated for ornamental purposes, and 
no greenhouse is fully equipped unless enriched 
with some specimens of them. The Weeping 
Tree Fern <AlsopUla australis Williatnsii), a 
very excellent illustration of which is here given, 
is an extremely handsome variety of A. anslror 
Its, but very distinct from that species, owing to 
its pendent habit. It will be found to succeed 
well iu a greenhouse, as it is quite as hardy as 
s, tho ether members of the species to which it 
is belongs. This variety shows its pendent charac¬ 
ter in a seedling state, a quality which no other 
•o Tree Fern possesses, 
> • When grown in the open ah, reran require a 
d Roruowhat shaded situation, under trees, at the 
il north side of a fence or of any object which 
g will shelter them from tho midday sun. The 
a more robust species will thrive in any fresh gar- 
1 , deu-soil, without manure; but the more delicate 
.- kinds require, with the loam, a mixture of black 
o earth Buch as is found around rooks in wood- 
1 lands. The roots should he kept constantly 
s moist, and one of the best ways to gain this end, 
is to rnuloh 
tho ground 
where they are 
grown with 
sphagnum, or 
moss found 
growing iu 
moist woods. 
A compost of 
peat or bog 
earth, decayed 
leaf-mold, yel¬ 
low loam, and 
silver sand, in 
equal propor¬ 
tions, may be 
used, with ex¬ 
cellent effect, 
in potting 
ferns; but it 
Sg^ must he well 
uudordrained, 
Aj and if a few 
fragments of 
mortar or 
limestone are 
added, it will 
be an advan¬ 
tage. 
Forty- seven 
years ago, Dr. 
N. B. Ward of 
London, Eng,, 
while investi¬ 
gating the me- 
tamorph o s e s 
of an insect, 
buried its crysalis in some mold in a closed glass 
bottle. A fern and a blade of grass grew up in 
the confined air of the vessel. This led to ex¬ 
periments on the growth of plants, especially 
ferns, in air-tight cases, Rnd it was soon found 
that many plants would thrive under Buch condi¬ 
tions, while most ferns would flourish much 
better than in the open air. Wardian oases were 
the immediate result of this discovery, and these 
are now in general use for the cultivation of 
reins in dwelling-houses, and are, with their 
feathery contents, among the most beautiful of 
household ornaments. 
In every part of this country native specimens 
of these graceful plants can be easily found. Dr. 
Gray describes about 50 specieH of them to be 
met with between New England and Wisconsin, 
and as far south asPomiBylvania and Ohio. Any 
of them may he readily transplanted at no ex¬ 
pense except the cost of removal, and there are 
but few gardens to which a bed of them would 
not impart added beauty. Most of them grow in 
tufts which may be lifted entire and transferred 
almost any distance without injury. An un¬ 
sightly heap of rooks can be olothed with beauty 
by their aid, by filling the interstices with a good 
soil and planting a clump of fernH in each. For 
this purpose the common evergreen fern ( Poly - 
podiuru) is as handsome an ornamental plant as 
cao be employed, and even in the bleak days of 
witter its deep-green fronds, peeping through 
the snow, or uncovered by a tliaw, oheer us with 
a distant glimpse of spring and its exquisite 
foliage. 
