Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/157

 FERNEY FERNS 149 the continent. They are of lighter complexion and better features, well made and muscular, and in disposition brave, generous, and amiable. Their dwellings are of very rude construction, consisting merely of palm-leaf mats thrown loosely over upright poles. This island was discovered by the Portuguese in 1471, and named after the leader of the expedition. In 1778 it w.as ceded to the Spaniards, who at- tempted to colonize it and carry on a slave trade, but were repelled by the natives. In 1827 Spain permitted it to be occupied by the British, who in 1834 abandoned it on account of its insalubrity ; since which period the Spaniards have again claimed it and changed its name to Puerto de Isabel, and now use it as a place of banishment for criminals. During the British possession a Baptist mission was established here ; but in 1858 the missionaries were expelled by the Spanish government. FERNEY, or Fernex, a town of France, in the department of Ain, on the frontier of Switzer- land, at the foot of the Jura mountains, 5 m. N. W. of Geneva; pop. about 1,200. It was a place of refuge for the Huguenots during the era of religious persecution in France, and was for 20 years the residence of Voltaire. When he bought the land, about 1758, Ferney was a miserable hamlet, consisting only of a few hovels. By his exertions it became a prosperous town, with nearly 1,500 inhabi- tants. He drained and cultivated the adja- cent grounds, and caused Geneva watchmakers and other industrious artisans to settle there, while the constant concourse of visitors and travellers contributed to enhance the general prosperity. The death of Voltaire proved disastrous to the industry of the place, the persons employed in the manufacture of watches being reduced from 800 to about 200. The chateau in which he lived has undergone many alterations, so that few relics of him re- main. Adjoining the chateau are two small edi- fices, one the theatre and the other the church built by Voltaire. Upon the porch of the lat- ter is the following inscription : Deo erexit Vol- tariua. In front of the chateau is the mauso- leum which he had built with the utmost atten- tion to artistic execution. FERNIG, Felicite and Theophile de, French heroines, sisters, born at Mortagne, depart- ment of Le Nord, Felicite in 1776, Theophile in 1779. They distinguished themselves by bravery on many occasions, especially at the battles of Valmy and Jemmapes, having enlist- ed without their father's knowledge in a com- pany of national guards which he commanded in 1792. Their services were officially recog- nized, and are commemorated in Lamartine's " History of the Girondists." Theophile, who had musical and poetical talents, died in Brus- sels in 1818. Felicite" became the wife of M. Van der Walen, a Belgian officer, whose life she had saved, and died much later. FERNKORN, Anton Dominik, a German sculptor and bronze founder, born at Erfurt, March 17, 1813. He spent a number of years in a foun- dery at Munich, and at the same time attended the academy of Schwanthaler. In 1840 he settled in Vienna, and having produced sev- eral excellent works was made director of a government bronze foundery. Among his best productions are the colossal equestrian statue of the archduke Charles, finished in 1860, and the monument to Prince Eugene in 1865. In 1866 he became insane, and was placed in a private asylum at Dobling, near Vienna. FERNS, the highest order of cryptogamous plants, forming a natural group distinguished for beauty and elegance, and much cultivated for ornament. Ferns are leafy plants producing a stem or rhizome, which creeps below or upon the surface of the earth, and sometimes rises to the height of 50 ft. as a tree trunk, crowned with terminal leaves or fronds. The rhizome is a fibrous woody cylinder, growing only at the end, and so of equal diameter throughout, giving out rootlets anywhere on its surface, and presenting on a cross section a hard fibrous rind composed of the angular bases of fallen fronds, enclosing a cellular tissue with a ring of woody plates, folded and curled, which are in fact the bases of the leaf stalks, and in the centre a cellular mass or highly developed pith. The stem is in fact a consolidated bundle of leaf stalks. The frond is circinate or coiled in ver- nation, and when unfolded is often of great size (25 ft. long). From this and the minute subdivision of the frond it has been considered rather a leaf-bearing branch than a proper leaf; but there are all gradations from an en- tire frond to one most minutely divided, and in the latter case the membranous portion proves on examination to be one, however deeply in- cised. The petiole is never sheathing or articu- lated at the base, although in some tropical species the base is much enlarged and forms an elastic joint, quite edible. The size of the fronds varies from a diameter of less than a quarter of an inch to an expansion unequalled by any other vegetable except some seaweeds. In several cases buds spring out on the surface or edges of the frond, and thus multiply the species; this is the case in the walking fern, camptosorus, where the tip of the elongated hastate frond bends to the earth and takes root, giving rise to new plants. The veins of the pinnse or leaflets of the fronds are various- ly arranged, and usually so definitely in each genus as to be used in generic distinctions. The fructification of ferns is always on the lower face of the fronds, which sometimes un- der its influence are reduced to simple supports in the shape of a spike or panicle ; it consists of sporangia or capsules, each containing many spores, and usually attached to the nerves or veins, but sometimes covering the whole sur- face. These capsules are grouped in clusters of various forms called sori, and each cluster is often covered until ripe by a fold of the leaf membrane called an indusium. The order of ferns is divided into suborders, most botanists