CHAPTER V. FERNS, MOSSES, AND LIVERWORTS. THE cultivation of ferns has of late years become so universal, that it has tended very much to spread a more accurate knowledge of these interesting plants, and at the same time not a little towards reducing the number of plants growing wild of our rarer species. The woodland ferns are in most instances widely distributed species, including the majority of the larger and more imposing kinds. The mountain species are small and comparatively rare. It is the latter which are most suitable for growing under shades and in Wardian cases, for which most of the woodland species are not fitted. Fern spores, analogous to seeds, are produced in capsules, collected in tufts on the underside of the fronds, or leaves. In olden times fern-seed was supposed to possess magical powers if gathered on Midsummer-eve. Grose says, "A person who went to gather it reported that the spirits whisked by his ears, and sometimes struck his hat and other parts of his body; and at length when he thought he had got a good quantity of it and secured it in papers and a box, when he came home he found both empty." Brand narrates the experience of a man who in 1793, told him that when young he was often present at the ceremony of catching the fern-seed at midnight on the eve of St. John Baptist. "The attempt," he said, “was often unsuccessful, for the seed was to fall into the plate of its own accord, and that too without shaking the plant." Our ancestors imagined that ferns produced seed which was invisible; hence they concluded that those who possessed the secret of wearing this seed about them would become invisible. Ben Jonson writes, "I had No medicine, sir, to go invisible, No fern is better known than the "Brake," or "Bracken,"1 which is not only common on heaths and open places, but equally so in woods, so that it is difficult to say in which place it is most plentiful. It is a gaunt, ungainly plant, but when growing in large quantities is not without beauty. The name aquilina is from the Latin aquila, an eagle, because when the stem is cut across there is a dark mark shown on the section, which has been supposed to resemble a spread eagle. In an old English book printed in 1551, this supposition is alluded to: "Peraventure they ymagyne the symylytude of a tode to be there, evyn as we suppose when we cutte the fearnestalke there to be an egle." It has been said that this plant is of no use whatever; but in the North it was formerly the custom to mow it green, and, burn 1 Pteris aquilina. ing it to ashes, make those ashes up into balls with a little water, which they then dried in the sun and made use of to wash their linen instead of soap. It is also certain that they are, even nowadays, employed for packing fruit; and it has been stated on good authority, that apples stored for the winter, when laid upon and covered with bracken, are much better preserved than in any other way. The male fern1 is almost as common, but the plants are less gregarious in their habit. Plants found in woods are seldom so luxurious as those met with in damp shady lanes. In the latter situations fronds will be seen a yard in length, with a rootstock, formed by the remains of the fronds of previous years, standing up six inches above the ground, after the manner of tropical tree-ferns. Young plants transplanted from woods into gardens, speedily accommodate themselves to the change, and this requires scarcely any attention thereafter. The female fern 2 must be sought in damper situations. "Search for her in the summer woods, Where rills keep moist the ground." We have seen it growing at the head of Bala Lake with fronds five feet in length, and thirty to forty in a single tuft proceeding from the same root. It is a much more delicately cut and graceful fern than the male fern, but does not always succeed so well when transplanted. Perhaps none is more given to variation under cultivation. Some of the cultivated varieties are wholly unlike the original. Poets have 2 Athyrium Filix-fæmina. Lastrea Filix-mas. shown special attention to this fern, and in addition to the beautiful lines of Calder Campbell, which are too long to quote entire, there is a happy allusion to its haunts by Sir Walter Scott : : "Where the copse-wood is the greenest, There the lady fern grows strongest." Another fern with some external resemblance in its habit to the female fern, is found in damp woods. It has no good characteristic common name, but is known to botanists as Lastrea dilatata. It is often found with the male fern, and seems to affect similar localities. Less common than any of these is the Shield fern,1 both on hedge-banks and in woods. It is quite distinct in its habit of growth, and comparatively smaller. Of course the common polypody will be seen in old forests and woods on pollard trunks. The Hart's Tongue,2 with its glossy green, smooth fronds, like green ribbons, has sometimes been called the Seaweed fern. It loves moisture, combined with shade, but is very indiscriminate in its choice of locality. In some woods we have remarked it in great profusion, in others scarce a frond could be seen. Up an old wall, down a well, on a bank, under a rotten stump, it would be difficult to name all the possible places for this erratic fern. The Hard fern,3 or Rough Spleenwort, as it was called in olden times, will often retain some of its fronds green throughout the winter. Damp situations in woods, as well as heaths, sometimes furnish this plant plentifully, but it is by no means so successfully transplanted as the Hart's-tongue, and will often die off under cultivation. Those who would make a botanical collection of ferns must select clean perfect fronds which are fully mature, taking care that they are well in fruit, that is, that the clusters of spores are formed on the under surface. The entire length of the stipe, or foot-stalk, should also be secured down to its point of attachment. These fronds may be dried between sheets of bibulous paper in the same manner as other plants. 1 Polystichum angulare. 2 Scolopendrium vulgare. 3 Blechnum spicant. |