Once it was your great concern
In your lab, to grow a fern -
Like a straggly little plant
From a far and dusty land.
You couldn't let it just grow wild:
You had to tend it, like a child,
You had to baby it and nurse it
(And when it refused to grow, you'd curse it).
It needed its own soil and air,
Its private micro-atmosphere.
Finally you did succeed
And stored away each precious seed.
And then from Europe a man came
(It was a Dr. What's His Name),
And said, ”I readily confess
That this will be my model best!
This is botany's reply
To the use of the fruit fly!
So, please teach me how to grow it
For every botanist should know it!”
So, Fern Insignificant
Became the lab's most famous plant...