Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns
    How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns
    How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns
    Ebook401 pages2 hours

    How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns

    By Marion Satterlee, Alice Josephine Smith and Frances Theodora Parsons

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns

    Related to How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Pot Of Patience

      Oct 20, 2022

      A Pot Of Patience
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Full Monty

      Mar 16, 2023

      If I knew I were to die in six months’ time, what would I do in the garden? Perhaps the notion of planting for a future I could not share would seem pointless. But I doubt it. Gardening transcends time. Gardens never exist in any one moment. They are

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Ray Of Hope

      Aug 26, 2021

      A Ray Of Hope
      3 min read

    • Article

      Fungi Fascination

      Oct 21, 2021

      Fungi Fascination
      5 min read

    • Article

      Plants We Love

      Aug 26, 2021

      Plants We Love
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Technicolor Tomato

      May 14, 2021

      Brad’s Atomic Grape tomato is truly stellar! Its innovative creator, Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms in Napa Valley, California, builds on a foundation of heirloom genetics and mutations to create the world’s most whimsical, colorful and delicious toma

      1 min read

    • Article

      Nancy Buley

      Apr 21, 2022

      Nancy Buley
      8 min read

    • Article

      Winter Reading

      Dec 22, 2022

      Winter Reading
      6 min read

    • Article

      Love Bugs

      Apr 30, 2020

      Love Bugs
      7 min read

    • Article

      Certified Sustainable

      Jul 13, 2018

      Certified Sustainable
      7 min read

    • Article

      PHENOLOGY: ~Be Observant~

      Nov 30, 2018

      PHENOLOGY: ~Be Observant~
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Importance Of Ecotype

      Apr 21, 2022

      The Importance Of Ecotype
      2 min read

    • Article

      Find Your Fermentation System

      May 14, 2021

      Find Your Fermentation System
      6 min read

    • Article

      Douglas Tallamy

      Feb 24, 2022

      Douglas Tallamy
      8 min read

    • Article

      Insect-friendly Gardens

      Dec 11, 2019

      Insect-friendly Gardens
      7 min read

    • Article

      Art as Multispecies Vibrancy

      Jul 1, 2020

      Art as Multispecies Vibrancy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Make a Rose Arise

      May 29, 2020

      Make a Rose Arise
      7 min read

    • Article

      Rooted In Nature

      Dec 28, 2020

      Rooted In Nature
      3 min read

    • Article

      Power Couples

      Mar 2, 2021

      Power Couples
      3 min read

    • Article

      Time To Plant

      Aug 18, 2021

      Time To Plant
      2 min read

    • Article

      Silent Weave

      May 30, 2023

      THERE ONCE WAS a woman from the mountain village of Breznitsa who was kidnapped by an Arabian prince. In the desert, she lay down her black feredjé cape, stepped on it, and recited a spell. This is how she landed back in her Balkan village wrapped in

      2 min read

    Reviews for How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      How to Know the Ferns A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns - Marion Satterlee

      Project Gutenberg's How to Know the Ferns, by Frances Theodora Parsons

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: How to Know the Ferns

             A Guide to the Names, Haunts and Habitats of Our Common Ferns

      Author: Frances Theodora Parsons

      Illustrator: Marion Satterlee

                   Alice Josephine Smith

      Release Date: July 9, 2013 [EBook #43167]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOW TO KNOW THE FERNS ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, Diane Monico, and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive)

      The cheerful community of the polypody.

      How to Know the Ferns

      A GUIDE

      TO THE NAMES, HAUNTS, AND HABITS OF

      OUR COMMON FERNS

      By

      Frances Theodora Parsons

      Author of How to Know the Wild Flowers,

      According to Season, etc.

      Illustrated by

      Marion Satterlee and Alice Josephine Smith

      NEW YORK

      CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

      1915

      Copyright, 1899, by

      Charles Scribner's Sons

      TO

      J. R. P.

      "If it were required to know the position of the fruit-dots or the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation to you, helping to redeem your life, this end is not so easily accomplished."

      —Thoreau

      PREFACE

      Since the publication, six years ago, of How to Know the Wild Flowers, I have received such convincing testimony of the eagerness of nature-lovers of all ages and conditions to familiarize themselves with the inhabitants of our woods and fields, and so many assurances of the joy which such a familiarity affords, that I have prepared this companion volume on How to Know the Ferns. It has been my experience that the world of delight which opens before us when we are admitted into some sort of intimacy with our companions other than human is enlarged with each new society into which we win our way.

      It seems strange that the abundance of ferns everywhere has not aroused more curiosity as to their names, haunts, and habits. Add to this abundance the incentive to their study afforded by the fact that owing to the comparatively small number of species we can familiarize ourselves with a large proportion of our native ferns during a single summer, and it is still more surprising that so few efforts have been made to bring them within easy reach of the public.

      I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the many books on our native ferns which I have consulted, but more especially to Gray's Manual, to Eaton's Ferns of North America, to the Illustrated Flora of Messrs. Britton and Brown, to Mr. Underwood's Our Native Ferns, to Mr. Williamson's Ferns of Kentucky, to Mr. Dodge's Ferns and Fern Allies of New England, and to that excellent little quarterly, which I recommend heartily to all fern-lovers, the Fern Bulletin, edited by Mr. Willard Clute, of Binghamton, N. Y.

      To the State Botanist, Dr. Charles H. Peck, who has kindly read the proof-sheets of this book, I am indebted for many suggestions; also to Mr. Arthur G. Clement, of the University of the State of New York.

      To Miss Marion Satterlee thanks are due not only for many suggestions, but also for the descriptions of the Woodwardias.

      The pen-and-ink illustrations are all from original drawings by Miss Satterlee and Miss Alice Josephine Smith. The photographs have been furnished by Miss Murray Ledyard, Miss Madeline Smith, and Mr. Augustus Pruyn.

      In almost all cases I have followed the nomenclature of Gray's Manual as being the one which would be familiar to the majority of my readers, giving in parentheses that used in the Illustrated Flora of Messrs. Britton and Brown.

      Frances Theodora Parsons

      Albany, March 6, 1899

      "The more thou learnest to know and to enjoy, the more full and complete will be for thee the delight of living."

      CONTENTS

      LIST OF PLATES

      ⁂ The actual sizes of ferns are not given in the illustrations. For this information see the corresponding description.

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      How to Know the Ferns

      New York Fern

      FERNS AS A HOBBY

      I think it is Charles Lamb who says that every man should have a hobby, if it be nothing better than collecting strings. A man with a hobby turns to account the spare moments. A holiday is a delight instead of a bore to a man with a hobby. Thrown out of his usual occupations on a holiday, the average man is at a loss for employment. Provided his neighbors are in the same fix, he can play cards. But there are hobbies and hobbies. As an occasional relaxation, for example, nothing can be said against card-playing. But as a hobby it is not much better than collecting strings. It is neither broadening mentally nor invigorating physically, and it closes the door upon other interests which are both. I remember that once, on a long sea-voyage, I envied certain of my fellow-passengers who found amusement in cards when the conditions were such as to make almost any other occupation out of the question. But when finally the ship's course lay along a strange coast, winding among unfamiliar islands, by shores luxuriant with tropical vegetation and sprinkled with strange settlements, all affording delight to the eye and interest to the mind, these players who had come abroad solely for instruction and pleasure could not be enticed from their tables, and I thanked my stars that I had not fallen under the stultifying sway of cards. Much the same gratitude is aroused when I see men and women spending precious summer days indoors over the card-table when they might be breathing the fragrant, life-giving air, and rejoicing in the beauty and interest of the woods and fields.

      All things considered, a hobby that takes us out of doors is the best. The different open-air sports may be classed under this head. The chief lack in the artificial sports, such as polo, golf, baseball, etc., as opposed to the natural sports, hunting and fishing, is that while they are invaluable as a means of health and relaxation, they do not lead to other and broader interests, while many a boy-hunter has developed into a naturalist as a result of long days in the woods. Hunting and fishing would seem almost perfect recreations were it not for the life-taking element, which may become brutalizing. I wish that every mother who believes in the value of natural sport for her young boys would set her face sternly against any taking of life that cannot be justified on the ground of man's needs, either in the way of protection or support.

      The ideal hobby, it seems to me, is one that keeps us in the open air among inspiring surroundings, with the knowledge of natural objects as the end in view. The study of plants, of animals, of the earth itself, botany, zoölogy, or geology, any one of these will answer the varied requirements of an ideal hobby. Potentially they possess all the elements of sport. Often they require not only perseverance and skill but courage and daring. They are a means of health, a relaxation to the mind from ordinary cares, and an absorbing interest. Any one of them may be used as a doorway to the others.

      If parents realized the value to their childrens' minds and bodies of a love for plants and animals, of any such hobby as birds or butterflies or trees or flowers, I am sure they would take more pains to encourage the interest which instinctively a child feels in these things. It must be because such realization is lacking that we see parents apparently either too indolent or too ignorant to share the enthusiasm and to satisfy the curiosity awakened in the child's active mind by natural objects.

      Of course it is possible that owing to the strange

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1