The upper part of the stem is a cone, having fronds, and below this cone the stem does not increase in diameter.

Sometimes small and parasitic, upon Sertularians and Polyzoasometimes independent, then of large growth, forming dichotomously divided fronds, with strap-shaped truncate, unequal divisions.

They are best seen in their proper home, buoyed up by the water, and spreading out their broad coloured fronds, or long waving threads.

Beholding them in their native haunts, adorning the rugged cliffs, gracefully fringing the water-courses, or waving their stately fronds on the borders of woodlands, he feels their call to a closer acquaintance.

I know a magic moorland with wild winds drifting by, And pools among the peat-hags that mirror back the sky; And there in golden bracken the fronds that toss and turn Are really little people pretending to be fern.

According to a Cornish tradition, the fern is in some mysterious manner connected with the fairies; and a tale is told of a young woman who, when one day listlessly breaking off the fronds of fern as she sat resting by the wayside, was suddenly confronted by a "fairy widower," who was in search of some one to attend to his little son.

On the rare occasions when they are received, a member of the family (one of the sons, or a brother-in-law who has "studied in Algeria") usually acts as interpreter; and perhaps it is as well that no one from the outer world should come to remind these listless creatures that somewhere the gulls dance on the Atlantic and the wind murmurs through olive-yards and clatters the metallic fronds of palm-groves.

There were many palms, both the burity with its stiff fronds like enormous fans, and a handsome species of bacaba, with very long, gracefully curving fronds.

In Nature's aquarium the light enters only from above; and the fish and delicate creatures have always, even then, the shady fronds of aquatic plants or the shelter of the rocks,as well as the power of seeking greater depths of water, where the light is less,to protect themselves from too intense a sunshine.

Like the crested fern its fertile fronds wither in autumn, while its sterile blades remain green throughout the winter.

Day after day we passed more and more of it, often in long processions, ranged in the direction of the wind; while, a few feet below the surface, here and there floated large fronds of a lettuce- like weed, seemingly an ulva, the bright green of which, as well as the rich orange hue of the sargasso, brought out by contrast the intense blue of the water.

By intertwining its roots the fronds cling together in "cheerful community," and a friendly eye discovers their beauty a long way off.

Ferns lifted their fronds in thick, wavy clusters.

[Illustration: "Fringing the stream at every turn, Swung low the waving fronds of fern.

For a time nothing but eyes, and then he speaks of tentacles streaming out and parting the weed fronds this way and that.

He picked a frond or so and gnawed its stalk and found it helpful.

The pulp, when prepared, is washed first with salt or sea water, through a sieve made of the fibrous web which protects the young frond of the cocoa-nut palm; and the starch, or arrow-root, being carried through with the water, is received in a wooden trough made like the small canoes used by the natives.

The old walls of Figeac are likewise tapestried with pellitory and ivy-linaria, with here and there a fern pushing its deep-green frond farther into the shadow, or an orpine sedum lifting its head of purple flowers into the sunshine that changes it to a flame.

At her feet the giant maidenhair raised its delicate fronds till they touched her cheek.

We recall the slender fronds climbing over the low bushes, unique twiners, charming, indeed, in their native habitat.

Five of these are from Waters' "Ferns" by permission of Henry Holt & Co. As the indusium, which often determines the name of a fern, is apt in some species to wither early, it is important to secure for study not only a fertile frond, but one in as good condition as possible.

Then the ferns shot up their fronds, rolled like a bishop's staff.

Possibly the suggestion of the poetic Davenport may be helpful to some that there is "An indefinable charm about the various forms of the lady fern, which soon enables one to know it from its peculiarly graceful motion by merely gently swaying a frond in the hand."

Up it, and down again, a climbing fern {133d} which is often seen in hothouses has tangled its finely-cut fronds.

In the deep valleys that intersect the country, the tree-fern attains a great stature, and throwing out its rich spreading fronds on all sides forms a canopy that perfectly excludes the piercing rays of even an Australian sun.