Page:Parsons How to Know the Ferns 7th ed.djvu/58



very recently the development of ferns, their methods of fertilization and fructification have been shrouded in mystery. At one period it was believed that "fern-seed," as the fern-spores were called, possessed various miraculous powers. These were touched upon frequently by the early poets. In Shakespeare's "Henry IV" Gadshill exclaims:

He is met with the rejoinder:

One of Ben Jonson's characters expresses the same idea in much the same words:

In Butler's "Hudibras" reference is made to the anxieties we needlessly create for ourselves: