As a rule the larger and coarser ferns grow in moist, shady situations, as
swamps, ravines, and damp woods; while the smaller ones are more apt to be
found along mountain ranges in some dry and even exposed locality. A tiny
crevice in some high cliff is not infrequently chosen by these fascinating
little plants, which protect themselves from drought by assuming a mantle
of light wool, or of hair and chaff, with, perhaps, a covering of white
powder as in some cloak ferns--thus keeping a layer of moist air next to
the surface of the leaf, and checking transpiration.

Some of the rock-loving ferns in dry places are known as "resurrection"
ferns, reviving after their leaves have turned sere and brown. A touch of
rain, and lo! they are green and flourishing.

Ferns vary in height from the diminutive filmy fern of less than an inch
to the vast tree ferns of the tropics, reaching a height of sixty feet or
more.


REPRODUCTION

Ferns are propagated in various ways. A frequent method is by perennial
rootstocks, which often creep beneath the surface, sending up, it may be,
single fronds, as in the common bracken, or graceful leaf-crowns, as in the
cinnamon fern. The bladder fern is propagated in part from its bulblets,
while the walking leaf bends over to the earth and roots at the tip.

[Illustration: MALE SHIELD FERN. Fern Reproduction by the Prothallium]

Ferns are also reproduced by spores, a process mysterious and marvellous as