Nature Bulletin No. 60   April 6, 1946
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Clayton F. Smith, President
Roberts Mann, Supt. of Conservation

****:FERNS

Millions of years ago, in the Carboniferous Age, there were 
innumerable kinds of ferns and mosses. The giant tree ferns formed vast 
forests covering most of the earth and it is their remains that largely 
form our coal deposits. Of the 4,599 species of fern plants in the world 
today, only 26 are found in the Chicago region, principally because of 
the lack of rocky cliffs and ravines. Only a few are common The best 
places to see and study ferns are in the Fern Grotto of the Garfield Park 
Conservatory and at Morton Arboretum.

In olden times ferns were feared. They had no visible seeds yet, they 
sprang up abundantly. The belief was that there must be invisible seeds 
that some people, and witches, put these seeds in their shoes and 
became invisible. Midsummer's night, June 21, was a witches' night 
when the ferns shed their seeds, so everybody cowered indoors. No 
wonder! Julius Caesar in 58 A. D. found that the Druid priest s in 
England made human sacrifices of people caught out after dark, burning 
them alive in large wicker baskets.

It was not until 1520 that a German, Hieronymus Bock, spread white 
sheets under ferns, caught the dust-like spores that fell from the brown 
patches on the underside of the leaves (or fronds), and succeeded in 
raising ferns from these spores.

When a spore, sometimes carried by wind for many miles, falls on 
favorable ground, it develops into a flat, green, heart-shaped body about 
the size of your little fingernail. They may be found, this time of year, 
in shady moist places. Egg cells and sperm cells develop in little cases 
on the underside of the prothallus, which unite into fertilized eggs 
producing fern plants. In the spring the common varieties appear as 
hairy, brownish-green balls clustered together on the ground. As they 
grow they gradually unroll, the curled -up frond on top of the stem 
resembling the head of a fiddle.

They are decorative plants, in the house or out-of -doors, and a few 
have value for food or medicine. But now you know the secret of the 
gremlins and the little man who wasn't there.