The word fern is derived from the Old English fearn. The French term fougère is used in perfumery. Fougère is an important odor in perfumery. No natural oil is produced, and synthetic compounds are used.
Origin and Botanical Data
The major group of living ferns has fossil records; their ancestry can be traced with reasonable, but not absolute precision.
Fern belongs to numerous vascular plants of the class Filicinae. The plant is flowerless and seedless. It has fronds with divided leaflets and reproduces by means of spores.
The majority of approximately 10,000 species of ferns grow in moist and wet tropical and subtropical and montane rain forest regions, and relatively few are found in cold and dry regions.