noun. Any of numerous flowerless, seedless vascular plants that produce spores giving rise to free-living gametophytes and that often have dissected leaves.

Long ago; long before.

Ancient; old; former; past; previous.

Distant; remote; far off.

noun. In Australia, Ophioderma pendula.

noun. The royal fern, Osmunda regalis, which grows in low, wet situations and is thus associated popularly with snakes. See Osmunda.

noun. In Australia, Grammitis australis, a small species with simple leaves.

noun. Same as floating-fern. See Ceratopteris.

noun. One of a large group of vascular cryptogamous plants, constituting the natural order Filices.

adverb. Long ago.

adjective. Ancient; old. [Obs.] “Pilgrimages to … ferne halwes.” [saints].

noun. An order of cryptogamous plants, the Filices, which have their fructification on the back of the fronds or leaves. They are usually found in humid soil, sometimes grow epiphytically on trees, and in tropical climates often attain a gigantic size.

noun. See under Christmas.

noun. a delicate North American fern (Lygodium palmatum), which climbs several feet high over bushes, etc., and is much sought for purposes of decoration.

noun. a fern thicket.

noun. The short-eared owl.

noun. undefined

noun. Any of a group of some twenty thousand species of vascular plants classified in the Division Pteridophyta (formerly known by some as Filicophyta) that lacks seeds and reproduces by shedding spores to initiate an alternation of generations.

noun. any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores

"We have had only one fall of snow, and that a light one; but the fern is already lying on the ground, prostrate, as in spring."

Boston fern  Christmas fern  baby fern  beaver-meadow fern  bird's-foot fern  

fern owl  fern shaw  

ferny  male fern  

nonflowering plant  pteridophyte  

Christmas fern  Pecopteris  acrostichum aureum  adder's tongue fern  adder's-tongue  

Bern  Berne  Hearn  Herne  Kern  

Herb  birch  bough  bramble  brushwood  

Calamites  Cycadofilicales  Filicales  Selaginellaceae  Sigillaria