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Pteridomania
Pteridomania or fern fever was a Victorian craze for ferns. Decorative arts of the period presented the fern motif in pottery, glass, metal, textiles, wood, printed paper, and sculpture, with ferns "appearing on everything from christening presents to gravestones and memorials". Description ''Pteridomania'', meaning ''Fern Madness'' or ''Fern Craze'', a compound of '' Pteridophytes'' and ''mania'', was coined in 1855 by Charles Kingsley in his book ''Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore'': According to one author: Collection and cultivation The collection of ferns drew enthusiasts from different social classes, leading naturalist Peter D A Boyd to write that "even the farm labourer or miner could have a collection of British ferns which he had collected in the wild and a common interest sometimes brought people of very different social backgrounds together". For some a fashionable hobby and for others a more serious scientific pursuit, fern collecting became commer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fern
The ferns (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta) are a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients, and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase. Ferns have complex leaf, leaves called megaphylls that are more complex than the microphylls of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns. They produce coiled Fiddlehead fern, fiddleheads that uncoil and expand into fronds. The group includes about 10,560 known extant species. Ferns are defined here in the broad sense, being all of the Polypodiopsida, comprising both the leptosporangiate (Polypodiidae (plant), Polypodiidae) and eusporangiate ferns, the latter group including horsetails, Psilotaceae, whisk ferns, marattioid ferns, and ophioglossoid ferns. The fern crown group, consisting of the leptosporangiates and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wardian Case
The Wardian case was an early type of terrarium, a sealed protective container for plants. It found great use in the 19th century in protecting foreign plants imported to Europe from overseas, the great majority of which had previously died from exposure during long sea journeys, frustrating the many scientific and amateur botanists of the time. The Wardian case was the direct forerunner of the modern terrarium and vivarium and the inspiration for the glass aquarium. It is named after Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791–1868) of London, who promoted the case after experiments. He published a book titled ''On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases'' in 1842. A Scottish botanist named A. A. Maconochie had created a similar terrarium almost a decade earlier, but his failure to publish meant that Ward received credit as the sole inventor. History and development Ward was a physician with a passion for botany. His personally collected herbarium amounted to 25,000 specimens. The fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ferns Of Great Britain And Ireland
''The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland'' was a book published in 1855 that featured 51 plates of nature printing by Henry Bradbury. Description The text was a scientific description of all the varieties of ferns found in the British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr .... The author of this work was the botanist Thomas Moore, the editor was John Lindley. The book was released at a time of so-called " pteridomania" in Britain. Along with William Grosart Johnstone and Alexander Croall's ''Nature-Printed British Sea-Weeds'' (London, 1859–1860), the book featured Bradbury's innovative nature printing process. The publisher of the work was Bradbury and Evans. Bradbury patented the process after seeing the invention of Alois Auer - though the identity of its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frond
A frond is a large, divided leaf. In both common usage and botanical nomenclature, the leaves of ferns are referred to as fronds and some botanists restrict the term to this group. Other botanists allow the term frond to also apply to the large leaves of cycads, as well as palms (Arecaceae) and various other flowering plants, such as mimosa or sumac. "Frond" is commonly used to identify a large, compound leaf, but if the term is used botanically to refer to the leaves of ferns and algae it may be applied to smaller and undivided leaves. Fronds have particular terms describing their components. Like all leaves, fronds usually have a stalk connecting them to the main stem. In botany, this leaf stalk is generally called a Petiole (botany), petiole, but in regard to fronds specifically it is called a Stipe (botany), stipe, and it supports a flattened blade (which may be called a lamina), and the continuation of the stipe into this portion is called the rachis. The blades may be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victorian Decorative Arts
Victorian decorative arts are the style of decorative arts during the Victorian era. Victorian design is widely viewed as having indulged in a grand excess of ornament. The Victorian era is known for its interpretation and Eclecticism in art, eclectic revival of historic styles mixed with the introduction of Asian and Middle Eastern influences in furniture, fittings, and interior decoration. The Arts and Crafts movement, the aesthetic movement, Anglo-Japanese style, and Art Nouveau, Art Nouveau style have their beginnings in the late Victorian era and gothic period. Architecture Interior decoration and design Interior decoration and interior design of the Victorian era are noted for orderliness and ornamentation. A house from this period was idealistically divided in rooms, with public and private space carefully separated. A bare room was considered to be in poor taste, so every surface was filled with objects that reflected the owner's interests and aspirations. The pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victoriana
Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, photography, machinery, architecture, fashion, and Victorian collections of natural specimens. The term can also refer to Victorian-inspired designs, nostalgic representations, or references to Victorian-era aesthetics or culture appropriated for use in new contexts. The term "Victoriana" was coined in 1918, just before a wave of interest in Victorian objects and artifacts began in the 1920s. Another increased period of collecting of Victoriana emerged in the 1950s. In 1951, the Festival of Britain commemorated the centenary of the Victorian era's first world's fair, the 1851 Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace. In the 1960s and 1970s, the eclectic character of Victorian era wood type inspired graphic designers like Seymo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Kingsley
Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working men's college, and forming labour cooperatives, which failed, but encouraged later working reforms. Life and character Kingsley was born in Holne, Devon, the elder son of the Reverend Charles Kingsley and his wife, Mary Lucas Kingsley. His brother Henry Kingsley (1830–1876) and sister Charlotte Chanter (1828–1882) also became writers. He was the father of the novelist Lucas Malet (Mary St. Leger Kingsley, 1852–1931) and the uncle of the traveller and scientist Mary Kingsley (1862–1900). Charles Kingsley's childhood was spent in Clovelly, Devon, where his father was curate in 1826–1832 and rector in 1832–1836, and at Barnack, Northamptonshire. He was educated at Bristol Grammar School and Helston Grammar School befo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athyrium Filix-femina
''Athyrium filix-femina'', the lady fern or common lady-fern, is a large, feathery species of fern native to temperate Asia, Europe, North Africa, Canada and the US. It is often abundant (one of the more common ferns) in damp, shady woodland environments and is often grown for decoration. Its common names "lady fern" and "female fern" refer to how its reproductive structures ( sori) are concealed in an inconspicuous – deemed "female" – manner on the frond. Alternatively, it is said to be feminine because of its elegant and graceful appearance. Description ''Athyrium filix-femina'' is now commonly split into three species, typical ''A. filix-femina'', '' A. angustum'' (narrow lady fern) and '' A. asplenioides'' (southern lady fern). ''Athyrium filix-femina'' is cespitose (the fronds arising from a central point as a clump rather than along a rhizome). The deciduous fronds are light yellow-green, long and broad. Overall frond shape tends to be elliptical, with the bottom p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polystichum Setiferum
''Polystichum setiferum'', or the soft shield fern, is an evergreen or semi-evergreen fern native to southern and western Europe. The stalks and most midribs are coated with cinnamon-brown scales. The Latin specific epithet ''setiferum'' means "with bristles". Distribution It is most abundant in Ireland, southwestern Great Britain, western France and northwest Iberia, where it benefits from the combination of mild winters and moist summers, but also occurs more locally north to northern Scotland and east to the Crimea and Turkey; in the Mediterranean it usually grows at high altitudes. It grows in woodlands, often but not always on steep slopes. Description The fern's bright green fronds are long, usually drooping downslope, with typically four to ten fronds on a mature plant. The fronds are soft-textured, bipinnate (single-pinnate on small, young plants), with the pinnae opposite on the stalk. Each pinna is long, with a large upward-pointing pinnule at the base, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Hybrid
In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Generally, it means that each cell has genetic material from two different organisms, whereas an individual where some cells are derived from a different organism is called a chimera. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents such as in blending inheritance (a now discredited theory in modern genetics by particulate inheritance), but can show hybrid vigor, sometimes growing larger or taller than either parent. The concept of a hybrid is interpreted differently in animal and plant breeding, where there is interest in the individual parentage. In genetics, attention is focused on the numbers of chromosomes. In taxonomy, a key question is how closely related the parent species are. Species are reproductively isolated by strong barriers to hybridization, which include genetic and morphologic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fernery
A fernery is a specialized garden for the cultivation and display of ferns. In many countries, ferneries are indoors or at least sheltered or kept in a shadehouse to provide a moist environment, filtered light and protection from frost and other extremes; on the other hand, some ferns native to arid regions require protection from rain and humid conditions, and grow best in full sun. In mild climates, ferneries are often outside and have an array of different species that grow under similar conditions. In 1855, parts of England were gripped by ' pteridomania' (the fern craze). This term was coined by Charles Kingsley, clergyman, naturalist (and later author of ''The Water Babies''). It involved both British and exotic varieties being collected and displayed; many associated structures were constructed and paraphernalia was used to maintain the collections. In 1859, the Fernery at Tatton Park Gardens beside Tatton Hall had been built to a design by George Stokes, Joseph Paxton' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
