A Natural History Of Ferns [Paperback]

A Natural History of Fernsis an entertaining and informative look at why ferns and their relatives are unique among plants. Ferns live in habitats from the tropics to polar latitudes, and unlike seed plants, which endow each seed with the resources to help their offspring, ferns reproduce by minute spores. There are floating ferns, ferns that climb or live on trees, and ferns that are trees. There are poisonous ferns, iridescent ferns, and resurrection ferns that survive desert heat and drought. 

This book is only available through print on demand. All interior art is black and white.

Robbin C. Moran is curator of ferns at the New York Botanical Garden. He is the author or coauthor of many papers and four books about ferns, includingFern Grower's Manual, published by Timber Press.

In Shakespeare'sHenry IV, Falstaff, Prince Hal and Poins scheme to rob a rich merchant on his way to London in the dark hours of the early morning. Because they need help with the heist, one of Falstaff's henchmen tries to persuade another thief to join them. He says to the thief, We steal as in a castle, cock-sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible, to which the thief replies, Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholding to the night than to fern-seed for your walking invisible (act 2, scene 1, lines 95–98).

What do the thieves mean byfern seed? Anyone who has taken a botany course knows that ferns do not have seeds; instead they disperse by tiny dust-like spores. Did people in Shakespeare's day believe that ferns had seeds? And what is this about walking invisible?

In 1597 whenHenry IVwas written and first performed, the belief that ferns had seeds was common. To be sure, no one had ever seen a fern seed, but how could ferns — or any plant, for that matter — reproduce without such propagules. Therefore, the reasoning was that fernsmusthave seeds. Tl³á