July 1951 School Magazine

July, 1951

Brisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

July, 1951

llrisbane Girls' Grammar School Magazine

only turn the soil sour. Over this layer is the top soil which should contain an abundance of leaf mould. Fibre dust and wood shavings will also make a good compost which should be moistened and covered with a few inches of soil. These composts hold water and generate the heat required to give the humidity necessary for the growth of the plants . When preparing pots and baskets, the pots and bark intended for the baskets should be washed in Condy's Crystals, a lso the ferns growing in pots should not be allowed to become pot bound, if, however, this does happen, separate and replant the ferns. In growing more tender varieties under glass, the heat and moisture should be uniform with free ventila tion and adequate shade. Ferns are a perennial plant easily recognised by their leaves or fronds which usually consist of a mid-rib with leaf- lets branching off from either side. The leaf begins as a tightly rolled up bud which gradually unrolls from base to apex until it reaches full size. These leaves spring from a root consisting of a stem sending forth shoots at the upper end and decaying at the other. Ferns belong to the pterido- phytes which a lso include horse-tails and club mosses, and are distinguished from other pteridophytes by· means of their sporophytes, for the sporangia are borne in clusters called sori on the under surface of the leaf or on the margins. These sporophytes are also used to divide ferns into classes . The small brownish dots which are found on "sporophylls" Oeaves which bear sporangia) are called sori and are com- posed of clusters of spore cases each of which contains a number of spores. The spores are very minute dust like grains each one a single plant cell but unlike seeds do not contain any young plant. They are produced by one of the fronds of the adult fern, liberated by the rupture of the spore cases and scattered by the wind. When a spore falls in a favourable situation it grows into a small flat green body known as prothallus which sends off root hairs from its under surface and then vegetates for several months before giving rise to male and female organs called respectively "antheridia" and "archegonia' '. In the prothallus grow little cases con- taining very tiny movable bodies, called sperms which are able to swim by means of the hairlike projections. The sperms from the antheridia escape when water is present and fert- ilise the femal e organ or egg, but in no case does the proth- allus bear more than one plant. The female cell divid~s 23

Kendall BPoadbent Memo7'ia1 Prize FERNS

In 'Australia with its tropical and temperate regions is found an infinite variety of ferns .ranging from the lofty tree fern of fifty feet to the lowly plant of two or three inches. On account of their beautiful and graceful foliage, ferns make ideal decorations for gardens and houses, but otherwise they have no practical use except as a bedding for cattle and horses, as a dressing for some leathers, or as a substitute for hops in beer. There are only two forms which are now used for medical purposes. A type of flour (taroflour) cari be produced from the roots of bracken, but is only used by races of low culture, and at one time it was believed that ihe seeds of ferns could make one invisible; the believers in this fallacy did not realize that ferns produce spores in- stead of seeds. The history of · ferns goes back . millions of years. There are several fossil remains related · to present day families which go back two hundred million years and others more primitive go back three hundred and fifty million years so that today we have about - six thousand species of living ferns. Ferns ar.e widely distributed throughout the world and in Australia are most often found in fern gullies. They also grow in rock crevices, cliff faces, open woods and more -especially in tropical rain forests where certain types of ferns grow so profusely that they cover the trunks and branches of trees. Although ferns will grow under ordinary garden con- ditions they thrive best in cooL damp, shady places. The ideal spot in a home is a bush house roofed by ti-tree branches as this allows the rain to pass through to the ferns but pro- tects them from the hot sun. As most homes in Queensland are built on stumps this makes available many suitable spots for the cultivation of ferns. In these places attractive and inexpensive fern gardens can be made by surr'ounding the beds with large rocks and growing the ferns in pots and hang- ing baskets. These fern baskets and pots can also be placed on verandas to make them cool and .pleasant looking. These ·gardens can be made anywhere even on roof tops. In making a garden it is necessary to have adequate drainage which can be assured of by placing a layer of stones and pieces of old bricks or clay pipes on top of the sub soiL so that no matter how much water falls they will not become packed together and thus hold stagnant water which would 22