The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1880-12-16
Curious Facts About Ferns.

10 snow WnaC beauty can rest In leaf,
is none the less true at this season of
the year, when the golden rod is part
ing with its gold, the naples are hang
ing out their crimson sprays and the
ferns are DOMINIC their autumnal hues.
Where in the whole round of the SUBJ
kingdom of Towering plants is there
one whose beauty surpasses that of the
unassuming fern? Many there are
which in point of gorgeousness outyie
the fern, but for delicate, graceful, un-
ostentatious, genuine beauty of form
and foliage, the fern has no equal.
Probably the manner of growth of no
class Of plants is more interesting than
that of the fern. In the towering
plants we have the seed capable of re-
producing itself and containing not only
an embryo plant, but prepared nutri-
ment fitted to sustain the little plant I'M
til its roots have acquired strength to
draw its sustenance from the soil. The
fern has no seed. Its spore capable of
terminating is thrown so to speak up
on its own resources as soon as it ger
inmates and it produces plant quite
unlike fern and this second plant
only has power of reproducing a fern
like its grand parent, thus affording a
good illustration of that interesting
phenomenon alternate generation, also
seen in the animal kingdom.
As might have been expected, ferns
attracted attention in the old world
much earlier than here. 1t was only
eight years after the landing of the pill
grims that the maiden hair fern was in
PRODUCED into Europe and for time
the fern mania babe fair to equal the
famous and nearly contemporaneous
tulip mania, no less than $3.50 having
been paid for single fern. In England
fern cultivation has received much
greater attention than in this country,
and the collection of growing ferns in
Kew Botanical Gardens, London, num-
Der over 1000 species. In point of an
tiquity few plants can claim a greater
than the fern, which was among the
first, if not the first of the terrestrial
plants. (And it may be remarked in
passing that that domestic pest the
cockroach has lineage as ancient.) 1t
was the geologic age known as the
Devonian, or age Of fishes, that ferns
first appeared and in the succeeding age,
the age of coal formation, the carbon
ferrous, they obtained their greatest
variety and luxuriance, assuming the
proportion of forest trees. Many of the
fossils of coal regions are those of ferns
and a most beautiful object is fossil
fern, its graceful form and delicate
tracery of veinings as perfect in it's
stony self as when, innumerable ages
before Adams day, the living plant fell
into the plastic mud of the carbonifer-
Gus epoch.
The climatic conditions now most
nearly approaching those of carbonifer-
GUS times are found on the tropical
islands, and here, of all localities, ferns
grow most luxuriantly. On the little
island of Mauritius, almost under the
equator and with an area of about 700
square miles, no less than 235 species
of ferns grow, while all Europe, a ter
ritory of nearly four millions of square
miles, has but sixty-seven species. In
tropical Jamaica there is one fern to
every eight Towering plants. and in the
United States east Of the Mississippi the
proportion is of one fern to about ev-
cry fifty Towering species. The whole
number of species of ferns in the United
States and British America is about 100,
those of the Arctic regions number
twenty-five species, and the estimat ed
number for the whole world is not far
from 5000 species.
The economic uses of ferns are few.
They have been sparingly and with linz
tied success introduced among the rem
edies of the pharmacopm and the
maiden-hair has the honor to be includ-
ed in the category of Shaker herbs. In
some countries young fern fronds have
been eaten in place of asparagus, and
the pith of Sandwich Island species
is extensively used for purposes of up
holstery. So much in an economical
point of view, but the utility of ferns is
chiefly of an aesthetic nature, and that
who can submit to the limits of yardstick
or pint measured
Pressed fronds of curious ferns from
unfamiliar places are always acceptable
gifts to friends. and growing plants
transferred to ones own domain are
pleasant associations, or historic inter-
est, though the chances are that the
novice will bring home species which
grow within stone throw of his own
door. To be able to recognize and call
by name all the ferns of ones neighbor-
hood is q pleasure and task of by no
means the magnitude it seems-a little
time and patience will accomplish it.
The waste places of the yard. where
nothing else will grow, from being dis
figurements may be made Ornamental
by setting ferns in them. Many of the
species of our fields and woods will
thrive vigorously in such place proyi-
ded all the fowls of the vicinity. have
not just there selected site for new
route to the antipodes.
Physicians tell us that it is well for
every person to have some hobby.
something apart from the daily routine.
in which to take an intelligent interest
and pleasure, both on the score of
health and longevity, and even these
strict utilitarians. SO called, who cues
ton the raison d. etra of hobby will
at least admit that it is a harmless spe-
cles OF amusement.-Nev Enqland
Homestead.
The Mexican Burro.