WHAT IS A FERN? 
239 
how many thousands of houses there are in big 
London alone without gardens !—an attempt is 
made to compensate for its absence. Sometimes, 
as we have seen, the wdndows are filled with 
plants—generally with flowers. Even the poor 
hovel, even the most wretched garret is usually 
provided with at least one solitary flower-pot, 
whose occupant, pining perhaps for the sun which 
-can never reach it, drags on its sickly existence 
until at length it dies under the influence of its 
unnatural circumstances, struggling to the last 
moment with its abnormal condition of life. But 
it is rarely, as we have already said, that Ferns 
are to be seen under the same conditions; and it 
is because we would show how it is that these 
lovely plants are admirably adapted to live under 
conditions which flowering plants cannot survive, 
that we write these chapters. Here we feel that 
it will be necessary, before we proceed any further, 
to define the position Ferns occupy amongst that 
great portion of the living world which we call 
the vegetable kingdom. 
The simple question then at once arises: What 
is a Fern, and how is it to be distinguished from 
