Flowerless plants; ferns, mushrooms, mosses, lichens, and seaweeds

FERNS
FERNS IN SPRING
The soft air and the warm sunshine seemed to say:
"Good news! Good news! Winter is going away!
Come out into the woods and fields." What do you
think we found? The robin and the bluebird had come.
Pussy Willow had taken the scales from her winter buds,
and they were all soft and furry. On some of the shrubs
and trees the leaf buds were starting out. The early
spring plants were beginning to put forth their delicate
blossoms.
What is that down among the rocks and fallen
trees? A few weeks ago there was a mass of dead
leaves, mixed with brown papery or hairlike scales.
Now, something green is beginning to grow. The
parts are all coiled up like little watch springs! There
is only one kind of a plant that comes up in that way.
It must be a fern and those are its uncoiling buds.
They are called crosiers.
The crosiers are not alike in all ferns. Some are
clothed with a coat of silvery-white wool. These are
sometimes called fiddleheads. When the weather becomes
warmer, they will turn to a yellowish brown and
the woolly covering will disappear. Over there by the
roadside is another kind of crosiers. They are covered
with soft, short hairs of a silvery gray. Instead of the one
coil, there are three divisions, which unroll separately.
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