FERMOY

fermoy, a market town in the east riding of co. cork, ireland, in the north-east parliamentary division, 21 m. by road n.e. of cork, and 14 m. e. of mallow by a branch of the great southern & western railway. pop. of urban district (1901) 6126. it is situated on the river blackwater, which divides the town into two parts, the larger of which is on the southern bank, and there the trade of the town, which is chiefly in flour and agricultural produce, is mainly carried on. the town has several good streets and some noteworthy buildings. of the latter, the most prominent are the military barracks on the north bank of the river, the protestant church, the roman catholic cathedral and st colman's roman catholic college. fermoy rose to importance only at the beginning of the 19th century, owing entirely to the devotion of john anderson, a citizen, on becoming landlord. the town is a centre for salmon and trout fishing on the blackwater and its tributary the funshion. the neighbouring scenery is attractive, especially in the glen of araglin, once famed for its ironworks. fern (from o. eng. _fearn_, a word common to teutonic languages, cf. dutch _varen_, and ger. _farn_; the indo-european root, seen in the sanskrit _parna_, a feather, shows the primary meaning; cf. gr. [greek: pteron], feather, [greek: pteris], fern), a name often used to denote the whole botanical class of pteridophytes, including both the true ferns, filicales, by far the largest group of this class in the existing flora, and the fern-like plants, equisetales, sphenophyllales, lycopodiales (see pteridophyta).