CHAPTER XXVII 
LIFE STORY OF FERNS 
The fern plant. There are no plants which mean 
more to us in our home life than ferns. There are no 
plants which are more generally loved. The refining 
influence of their presence is constantly felt. Their 
graceful forms, the beautiful shapes of their leaves, and 
the restful green of their abundant foliage interest us 
and satisfy us whenever we see them. If we could 
only get the maidenhair to grow in our gardens as 
abundantly and easily as the dandelion does, how 
charming it would be! Many of us would willingly 
part with some of the dandelions if we could have the 
maidenhair or polypody fern in their place. 
As we found on page 63 (see Fig. 93), the stems of 
most of our native ferns are either very short, as in 
the shield fern, or they are underground stems, as in 
the bracken fern or polypody fern. The rare little 
film fern which grows on mossy rocks near mountain 
brooks has thin, wiry, creeping stems, no thicker than 
horsehair. Its fronds rise up at intervals from these 
stems. ‘l'ree ferns with tall trunks, and other tropical 
ferns which grow high up on forest trees, may be seen 
in some large greenhouses. 
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