Evening star., 1902-08-09
Il
|
&1z Il
IODt>Rz,l

Dear Children: Your letters are begin
ming to reach me, and they are very well
come. l find You are interested in nature
stories. SO let me repeat to you a pretty
fern story that l have just received. Per
haps after reading it. you will be tempted
TO go to the woods or fields and look for
some of the interesting brown dots and the
tiny plants growing close to the ground
around the ferns you may find. If any Of
you should make such a search l shall be
glad to hear of your experiences.
About Ferns
The ferns have the strangest life story.
What would you think If you planted a
bean and there came up, not bean plant.
but curious little plant looking not in
the least like its mother?
Yet something like this really happens
in the ferns life. Its immediate offspring
do not resemble it the slightest. In fact.
/ doubt If the fern recognizes its own chill
dren.
There are two great groups of plants
those which bear flowers and those which
bear none. The fern belongs TO the lat
ter-the flUwerless group.
When you out in the woods these
summer days look on the under side Of the
fern fronds and see if you do not find there
some small brown dots. Perhaps you have
found them on your own ferns in the gar
den and thought they were something in
curious to the fern. Perhaps YOU have
spent hours in carefully scraping them off
No? Well, am glad you know better but
1 have seen some foolish people doing that
Very thing
Those brown dots are fruit dots From
them there falls TO the ground a brown
dust. each little particle of dust being what
We call a spore. Each tiny spore grows I'D
Int" little fiat green plant that lies close
10 the ground Look closely at the ground
around your ferns week or so after you
have seen the fruit dots on the fronds Yoa
VIII find It IS Carpeted with a pretty green
growth that looks somewhat like moss
but Is really great crowd of the ferns
children; each one grows from a spore.
Each child Is called a prothallium (which
means the plant that comes befOre)
If You watch still longer you will find
that out from each prothallum there
springs a new fern-a real fern plant very
small at first with but one frond, but
steadily growing larger and more like it's
grandmother fern AS II grows its mother,
the prothallium. slowly dies away and
finally disappears
So You see what it is that is so curious
in the family history of the fern First
there comes the fern; then her many chill
dren, which are wholly unlike her; then
her grandchildren, which are the exact
image Of her; next her great-grandchildren
which are prOthallia again, and their chill
0ren, which are ferns and so on, ad in
finitum.
Does any one want to know more about
terms? See the beautiful illustrations OF
Some OF them Gigs a and b and turn to
page POI of First Studies Of Plant Life by
George Francis Atkinson, Phi of Cornell
University. You will probably find the book
IN the children s section of the free library.
The Life Story OF Ferns ii is called and
1t is wonderfully interesting. II you cannot
lind the book, let me know and I'll tell YOU
the rest OF the story in one of my letters
as THIS one is already beyond our limit. We
must keep room for some other good things
Yours sincerely, AUNT DOROTHY