“Ee” 7. + Ne Yel fe /G G. fs American Fern Journal A QUARTERLY DEVOTED TO FERNS Published by the AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY EDITORS R. C. BENEDICT E. J. WINSLOW Cc. A. WEATHERBY CONTENTS VoLuME 9, NuMBER 1, Paces 1-32, Issurp Marcu 14 Notes on American Ferns—XIII............. W. R. Maxon 1 Fern-hunting in Panama................. seeds. 2. Rep 5 Testes Prengopyta 1 ek, E. J. Palmer 17 TA Eso oe et oe ee eg oe oe oe ea 23 American Pern Mociety. 061566 .55 or ids eee 28 VoLuME 9, NuMBER 2, Paces 33-66, Issunp Jury 5 Early Days of the Fern Society............. E. J. Winstow 33 Ferns of the District of Columbia........... .W. R. Mazon 38 The Simplest Fern in Existence............. R. C. Benedict 48 ‘aes Prerinopnyta 1 es oe es ce E. J. Palmer 50 Botrychiums of Mobile County, Alabama....E. W. Graves 56 A Fern from the Battle-ground.............. H.C. Bigelow 58 ruabent Pere Titeraree no ae ea 59 American: Werty Maeiety et ro. ee a 69 VoLuME 9, NuMBER 3, Pacss 67-98, Issurp OcroBer 11 Notes on American Ferns—XIV.............. W.R. Maxon 67 Aspidium cristatum X marginale and A. simulatum Raynal Dedge 73 Texas Pteridophyta—lIll....2..........2. Lyi: Pemet St A crested Form of the Lady Fern............. L.S. Hopkins 86 Commercial Fern Gathering................. S.H. Burnham 88 Monomorphism in Equisetum Telmateia....... J.C. Nelson 93 Pars Tern BAY oe ko oe ee ee: 96 VotumeE 9, Number 4, Paces 99-130, Issurp January 24, 1920 Content of an Epiphytic Fern............... R. M. Harper . 99 Another “Freak” Equisetum................. J.C. Nelson 103 Willoughby Lake as “the Richest Fern Locality” E.J. Winslow 106 The Irresistible Charm of the Ferns.......... E.H.Clarkson 109 apetmns Form Tapert os ee 115 Cnt PR er ee eS 117 meen Neri rey. oo. 6 as ee eS 123 American Fern Journal Vol. 9 : JANUARY-MARCH, 1919 Nol. Notes on American Ferns—XIIP' WILLIAM R. MAXON PTERETIS NODULOSA (Micux.) NrbuwLtanp.—The American ostrich fern, which is essentially boreal in distribution, is one of the rarer ferns in the vicinity of Washington, D. C., occurring on a few islands of the Potomac River and on alluvial bottoms of both the Maryland and Virginia sides. The Virginia locality, in Fairfax County, was recorded in 1899? as a new southernmost one for this species. The southern range may now be extended by the record of specimens re- cently collected in West Virginia, as follows: Abundant in a meadow along Dry Fork, a branch of Cheat River, at a point about 3 miles south of Horton, Randolph County, West Virginia, July 10, 1918, #. T. Wherry & H. W. Trudell. A specimen of this collection has been deposited in the National Herbarium by the collectors. PELLAEA ANDROMEDAEFOLIA (KAvLF.) FEE.—This species, which is abundant at low altitudes through a large part of California, from Mendocino and Tehama counties southward to Lower California, occurs also in southwestern Oregon. The record is based on a characteristic specimen in the herbarium of the Oregon Agricultural College at Corvallis, collected at Roseburg, Oregon, in April, 1887, by Thomas Howell and labeled 1 Published with the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 2 Fern Bull. 7: [Vol. 8, No. 4 af ‘the JOURNAL, pages 97-130, Plates 5 and 6, was issued Jan. 20, 1919] 1 2 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL in his hand as P. andromedaefolia. This extension of range, though not remarkable, seems never to have been placed on record. The reported occurrence of this species in Arizona appears to have been based upon misidentified specimens of Pellaea intermedia Mett. SELAGINELLA SHELDONI Maxon.—The range of this recently described! ally of S. rupestris, of Texas and Oklahoma, is somewhat extended by the following Texas specimens, all in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden: Llano, October, 1847, Lindheimer 77; Llano County, on damp rocks, May, 1885, Reverchon; Hueco Tanks, July 1, 1895, A. Isabel Mulford 121; eanyon north of Van Hota: El Paso County, July 11, 1900, Eggert. Woopsia scopuntinaA D. C. Eaton.—A remarkable apparent extension of the range of this chiefly western species was brought to the writer’s attention some time ago by Mr. C. A. Weatherby, who noted that a speci- men in the Gray Herbarium said to have been collected September 14, 1903, “on a mountain 4 miles north of Old Sweet, West Virginia, altitude 850 meters,” by Mr. and Mrs. E. S. Steele (No. 306), and distributed as W. ilvensis, seemed to be W. scopulina. The occur- rence of W. scopulina in the West Virginia mountains was regarded as so unlikely as to suggest the een of mixed labels. The National Herbarium specimen could not at once be located; but Mr. Steele, while having no special recollection of the plant, referred to the interesting occurrence in the region mentioned of other types adventive from the west and saw no reason to doubt the authenticity of locality data in this in- stance. The specimen, since found, substantiates Mr. Weatherby’s identification. Specimens of the same number were doubtless distributed to other herbaria —_—_—_—_—_—_—_—_—— 1 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 31: 171. 1918. Notes ON AMERICAN FERNS—XIII 3 as well; and as there is no likelihood whatever that so large a series of individuals from some distant western region could have been introduced accidentally into the West Virginia collection, the latter locality data may properly be regarded as true. The station in question, which is on the boundary line of Virginia, extends the range of this species from Ontario and Quebec, a distribution not exactly paralleled by any other fern, so far as the writer knows. The distribu- tion and distinctive characters of W. scopulina and related species form the subject of notes to be published shortly. CHEILANTHES Eatonit Baxer.—This species, though shown by Eaton! to be amply distinct from C. tomentosa Link, has rather commonly not been so recognized but regarded instead as a variety of C. tomentosa, and inas- much as occasional specimens of each are still mis- identified as pertaining to the other, it seems desirable to point out again some of the characteristic differences. Cheilanthes tomentosa, described originally from culti- vated material, ranges from Virginia to Georgia, west- ward through Terine:see, Alabama, Arkansas, and - Oklahoma to central Texas, the Organ Mountains of southern New Mexico, the Santa Catalina, Huachuca, and Santa Rita Mountains of southeastern Arizona, and sparingly into northern Mexico. It seems nowhere very abundant and becomes decidedly rare in the western portion of its range. Cheilanthes Eatoni, founded on Wright’s No. 816 from western Texas, ranges from Oklahoma and central Texas widely through New Mex- ico to Colorado? and central Arizona, and southward far into Mexico, —o at least to the State of Puebla. 1 Ferns N. Amer. 1: 351, 352 2Specimen in the National Herbarium, collected at ‘‘Devils Hole, Canyon . ve Arkansas, 21 miles west from Canyon City, Colorado,” Noy., 187 y T. S. Brandegee. This locality is the only one listed by Rydberg aes Gia 4. 1906). 4 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL It is apparently as abundant in Arizona and New Mexico as C. tomentosa is rare in these regions. In a very few instances (namely, plants collected in Texas by Jermy, in the Huachuca Mountains by Lemmon in 1882, and in Mexico by Edw. Palmer) specimens of both have been brought together and distributed as one or the other species, but there is no certainty that they grew in close proximity. At any rate the characters dis- tinguishing the two species are constant and quite sufficient for their immediate recognition. These may be summarized as follows: . tomentosa and rachises rather St Stipe, primary rachis, and lower copienihe: clothed with lax side of secondary rachises imbri- tawny irs and numerous cate-paleaceous; relatively large, subflexuous, ae nearly flat, oblong-lanceolate, ascending orm, laxly spreading scales, scales of stipe and primary rachis these ern a a and at length forming a broad, white, distinctly mem- branous proper indusium. underlaid by numerous, appressed, minute, acicular, rigid ones; scales of secondary rachises ovate-acum inate, widely imbricate, nace s ly ma egments dense tted- tomentose eath, copiously and rather coarsely ntos ing and joining the fragile seg- ents. Herbaceous recurved margin of whitish, membranous border form- ing a very scant true indusium. There are additional characters found in the greater size of C. tomentosa, its more spreading and dissected pinnae, and the shape, number, and relative position - of the segments; but these variable features are so dependent upon age, vegetative vigor, and seasonal condition as to be scarcely of diagnostic importance. The Jamaican plant long passing as C. tomentosa is a new species, shortly to be described. FERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA 5 CHEILANTHES Wootont Maxon.—This species, lately described from Arizona and New Mexico material, extends also to western Texas, a specimen at hand having been collected at El Paso, by Marcus E. Jones, April 16, 1884, and distributed as C. Lindheimeri Hook. Because of their tomentulose upper surfaces, Cheilanthes Eatoni, C. tomentosa, and C. Lindheimeri have not often been confused with C. myriophylla or with the several species mistakenly referred to it. They were accordingly omitted from the recent paper! dealing with the United States forms associated with C. myri- ophylla. DryoptTeris Dryropreris (L.) Carist.—An extension of range is noted in New Mexico specimens recently received from the Biltmore Herbarium, collected in moist thickets near Chama, Rio Arriba County, Aug- ust 20, 1896, and distributed as No. 3136a of the Bilt- more series, the collector’s name not stated. The western area of this species has been known to extend from Alaska to Oregon, south in the mountains to Arizona and Colorado, but the plant has not hitherto been reported from New Mexico. WasHInGTON, D. C Fern-hunting in Panama ELLSWORTH P. KILLIP The following article relates to the more general features of the fern flora of the Isthmus of Panama. During eight months recently spent in this region I made extensive collections, and specimens of ferns and of grasses and other flowering plants have been referred respectively to Messrs. Maxon, Hitchcock and Standley, of the United States National Herbarium. A number 1 Proc, Biol. Soc, Washington 31: 139-152. 1918. 6 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL of the ferns found are new species, and many belong to genera that need critical study and revision, such as Selaginella, Pteris, Tectaria, Polystichum, and Adian- tum. It is impossible, therefore, to publish at this time a list of the three or four hundred different species collected. A brief account of the various regions visited may, nevertheless, be of interest. With the city of Ancon, at the Pacific terminal of the Canal, as a center during seven months of my stay on the Isthmus, the territory explored falls naturally under five general headings: Juan Diaz, the Chagres River, Frijoles, the Pacific end of the Zone, and the Island of Taboga. The first three regions are char- acterized by a dense wet jungle, where, mostly along the banks of streams, an extensive and varied fern flora is to be found; the last two by dry hillsides and Open woods, where.ferns are scarce. One month was spent among the high mountains of western Panama, where a totally different and extremely luxuriant flora exists. JUAN Diaz The small native village of Juan Diaz is situated upon a river of the same name, some ten miles east of the city of Panama. About a mile beyond this village the dense tropical jungle begins, and some fourteen miles further lies the Pacora River, the limit of the region explored. The jungle is broken at frequent intervals by open prairies, or sabanas. A road runs from Panama to Pacora, but only in the months of February and March—the dry season—is it passable its entire length. During the remainder of the year one cannot safely go in an automobile farther than the Tapia River, about four miles beyond Juan Diaz. It is in this region between the Juan Diaz and Tapia Rivers, extending north about five miles and south FERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA 7 to the Pacific Ocean, that most of my botanizing was done. Fortunately I had my automobile with me, and so was able to make about twenty-five trips be- tween the middle of September and the middle of May. A tropical jungle is well-nigh impenetrable, and the only way to go through it is by following occasional hunting-trails or by wading up and down the countless small streams. One of the best of these trails ran first through a dense palm jungle where various species of Adiantum and Lindsaya, Dictyoxiphium panamense, and Dryopteris refulgens predominated, then crossed a couple of sabanas and ran along the edge of “ Tree-fern Gully.” This was a deep ravine with a narrow stream at the bottom, very rich in ferns. Several specimens of a striking species of Cyathea occurred there, as well as unusual species of Dryopteris, Tectaria, and Lepto- chilus. Great plants of Mazonia apiifolia, with huge sterile fronds and strikingly different, skeleton-like fertile ones, were found in abundance, climbing tree trunks. The wet clay banks of the stream were cov- ered with many small ferns, while upon fallen logs various species of Polypodium, Vittaria, and Hymen- ophyllum were growing. Farther down this stream the handsome Diplazium grandifolium became the _pre- dominant fern, while at its junction with one of the main branches of the Juan Diaz River, the high rocky banks were covered with species of .Dicranopteris and Pteris. Another interesting trail passed through a forest, where, in addition to the many ever-present species © of Adiantum, the most striking fern was Lophidiwm elegans, a fern with sterile fronds greatly resembling a young palm. Among the rocks in the dry sabanas which are met with frequently on this trail, four differ- ent species of Anemia were found. (A. oblongifolia, A. pastinacaria, A. hirsuta, and A. humilis.) Along 8 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL the banks of streams in this vicinity the very rare Dryopteris cumingiana was collected in great abundance. The streams of the Juan Diaz-Pacora region fall. into two classes as regards the fern flora to be found along their banks. The larger rivers, as the Juan Diaz, Tapia, Tacumen, Tataria, and Pacora, with a width exceeding fifteen feet and a depth of two to five feet (at a time of average rainfall), are characterized by coarse species of Tectaria and Pteris, and by Dryopteris mollis, D. Mercurii, Blechnum occidentale, Asplenium obtusifolium, and the densely tufted Asplenium for- mosum. Probably the most abundant of the terrestrial ferns found in this habitat are Cyclopeltis semicordata and the many species of Adiantum. On the limbs of trees overhanging these streams are seen the giant Polypodium phyllitidis and Asplenium serratum, both in outline resembling somewhat our Scolopendrium vulgare. The steep banks of the smaller streams present quite a different fern flora. Two species of Leptochilus occur in great quantities, running on the clay soil and climb- ing over rocks and up trees. The narrow gorges are choked with specimens of the coarse ferns Danaea nodosa, Saccoloma elegans, Alsophila blechnoides, and Diplazium grandifolium. Climbing over shrubs and trees is Lygodium radiatum, a species nearly confined to the Isthmus. The first trip was made to this region September 30, 1917, and the last May 12, 1918, so that opportunity was afforded for studying the flora during the succession of seasons. The amount of rainfall increased rapidly from September to November, reaching its maximum about the end of November. In December it fell off considerably; in January there were only two or three showers; in February and the first twenty days of March there was practically no rain at all; while in TF ERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA 9 April and May three or four hard showers occurred each week. The ferns were naturally affected to a certain extent. Between September and December the - epiphytic species of Polypodium, Elaphoglossum, Dry- opteris, Asplenium, and Trichomanes were at their best, December being the month of their maximum fertility. During the dry season these shriveled up completely, and by the middle of March scarcely one could be seen. Of terrestrial ferns the more delicate species of Adiantum and Anemia followed a similar course. Hardier Adiantums and the bulk of the other ferns seemed to be in good condition throughout the eight months, new fronds continually unfolding to take the place of the dying ones. A number of species seemed to attain a certain development toward the close of the rainy season, remain “‘passive’’ during the dry season, and rebegin their growth with the first rains of April. THE CHAGRES RIVER The Chagres is the most important river in Panama, rising in the eastern part of the Republic (the Darien country), running west through the center of the Isth- mus, bending to the north in the Canal Zone and enter- ing the Atlantic to the west of the Canal entrance. The building of the dam at Gatun caused this river to overflow, forming Gatun Lake, the flooded area reaching Gatuncillo some ten miles up the original valley above the channel of the Canal. Above this point the river resumes its natural size, and its course lies through dense tropical jungles from the upper regions which man has seldom visite Through the kindness of Giisials of the Panama Canal, a party of us (all botanists, two being members of the American Fern Society) had placed at our dis- posal the Hydrographic Station at Ahlajuela, some ten miles above Gatuncillo. In the two days spent here 10 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL no adequate study of the ferns could be made, but a five-mile walk through the jungle along the south side of the river from Ahlajuela to El Vigia furnished a _ general idea of the country. Most of the ferns found here had been seen in greater or lesser abundance in the Juan Diaz country. The trees up the Chagres were much larger in every way than those in the Juan Diaz forests, and consequently there was an increase of epiphytic ferns. Quantities of Dryopteris patula, Elaphoglossum spathulatum, Polypodium phyllitidis, P. occultum, P. polypodioides, Vittaria, and Ananthacorus exemplified this. ‘FRIUOLES, CANAL ZONE The many short trips which I made in the Pacific section of the Canal Zone between Culebra and Balboa proved so uninteresting from a fern standpoint that I was rather inclined to belittle the whole Zone and con- centrate in the Juan Diaz country. In the latter part of January, however, I experimented in the neighbor- hood of Frijoles along the eastern shore of Gatun Lake. And such a wealth of ferns! Many of the Juan Diaz species were there, while a very great number not found elsewhere on the Isthmus were gathered. Here let me insert a word of advice to the fern col- lector who may be “passing through” the Zone with but a day or so for botanizing. Take the train to Frijoles, walk north along the tracks for a couple of miles and explore the ten or twelve little gullies which you will pass on the way. It isa very accessible region and thorough investigation will undoubtedly result in the discovery of many species new to science. As previously mentioned, the damming of the Chagres River at Gatun caused the waters to flood a vast area and to creep up the countless valleys of streams tributary to the Chagres. The presence of this great body of FERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA il water, kept at approximately the same level throughout the year, makes this region independent of the fluctua- — tion of rainfall and results in a most luxuriant vegeta- tion. The railroad swings around the eastern shore of the lake, crossing the many bays on long causeways. As one walks along the track, one comes at frequent intervals upon deep pools of water with gullies extend- ing back from them into the hills. Floating in these pools are logs covered with the coarse fronds of Acros- tichum aureum and Dryopteris serrata, with Nephrolepis pectinata and various grasses and sedges intermingled with them. The water in the pools is from fifteen to twenty feet deep, so one must hack one’s way by machete through the dense undergrowth around the pool to the valley in the rear. Here ferns of all sizes and shapes are to be found in great profusion. Giant specimens of Hemitelia, Cyathea, and Dennstaedtia, slightly smaller examples of Tectaria, Alsophila, Diplazium, Dryop- teris, aes and Asplenium, tiny Polypodiums and “‘filmies,”’ all are there. In addition to this luxuri- a tropical vegetation, a series of rapids and waterfalls serves to make this a most picturesque and interesting region. At present it is at its best; the waters of the lake have been at their present level sufficiently long to produce a wonderful vegetation, while the hand of man, which has been clearing away the jungle on both sides of this region to make room for pastures, in order that the Canal Zone may be self-sustaining, has not yet touched this spot. The western side of Gatun Lake is undoubtedly of a similar character and will probably remain in its native wild state long after the eastern shore has felt the effect of American energy. Tue Paciric Enp or THE CANAL ZONE The small amount of rainfall at the Pacific end of the Zone, as compared with other parts of the Isthmus, v4 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL together with the rapid disappearance of the forest, serves to make the fern flora of this region exceedingly sparse. The open woods from Empire and Summit (at the top of the Divide) to the Pacific present a certain sameness in fern flora. Some eight or ten species of Adiantum, Pteridiwm caudatum, Blechnum occidentale, Pityrogramma calomelaena, Polypodium costaricense, P. polypodioides, Dryopteris tristis, Asplenium auritum, Lygodium polymorphum, and Dicranopteris flexuosa make up the great bulk of the ferns. Ancon Hill, with an altitude of about 650 feet, is situated on the shore of the Pacific near the Canal entrance. The lower half of the hill is occupied by the towns of Ancon and Balboa; the upper half con- sists partly in dry fields and partly in woods. In addi- tion to many of the species mentioned above, three rather noteworthy ferns were found on the hill: Adian- tum filiforme, Anemia oblongifolia, and a species of Lindsaya. TABOGA The island of Taboga, situated in the Pacific some twenty miles off the mainland, lying similarly in the “dry” belt and consisting largely in grass-covered hills and more or less open woods, is not of great interest to the fern collector. In addition to the ferns usually characteristic of this habitat there occur on the island quantities of Nephrolepis biserrata and N. ezaltata, found chiefly on palm trees, Dryopteris longifolia, and a rather large Polypodium, possibly new. Et Boqvuers, Province or Curriqut One of the most interesting regions for ferns on the whole North American Continent lies among the moun- tains of the Cordillera, between the Provinces of Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro, in the western part of the Republic of Panama near the Costa Rican boundary. The FERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA 13 village of El Boquete is situated at an altitude of about 4000 feet at the foot of Chiriqui Voleano and about forty miles from the Pacific Ocean. The Chiriqui railroad, extending from the seaport, Pedregal, to Boquete, ascends gradually through dry prairies to the forest-covered mountains, following first the Rio Chiriqui and then one of its most important branches, the Rio Caldera. With the Hotel Lino, two miles above the village of Boquete, as headquarters, I spent the greater part of the month of February botanizing among the moun- tains. Four or five trips of one day each were made along Holecomb’s trail up the Rio Caldera for a distance of ten to twelve miles; four trips up the valley of the Rio Piarnasta and over the newly-cut Roballo trail to the east of Boquete; one along the Horquete Range; ‘one of three days along Holcomb’s trail to the summit of the Divide and down the Atlantic side; and one of three days to the top of Chiriqui Volcano, 11,000 feet high. The valleys of the Caldera and Piarnasta lie in a very wet belt. Almost every afternoon a fine mist blows over the Divide and keeps this region in continual moisture and epiphytic ferns naturally are in very great abundance. Although the volcano lies in the dry belt, south of the main cordillera, a number of very inter- esting ferns were found on the way up and on the barren rocks at the summit. From the fern standpoint the most interesting trip was that over Holcomb’s Trail to the Divide. This trail was originally planned to extend from Boquete to the United Fruit Company’s property at Bocas del Toro, but after reaching the top of the Divide and extending a short distance down the Atlantic side, was left uncompleted. The trail is not kept open and the two camps—one situated some twelve miles from Bo- AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Vou. 9, PLATE 1. CYATHEA DIVERGENS KUNZE. Horquete Mrs., Province or Currigur, PANAMA ~ FERN-HUNTING IN PANAMA 5 quete at the foot of the Divide, and the other several miles over the Divide on the Atlantic side—are in a state of complete ruin. A new camp has, however, recently been built a couple of miles south of the earlier Camp I, and this we made our headquarters. To avoid confusion, I have called this new camp Camp A, designating the site of the earlier one as Camp I.* As I had “combed over” quite thoroughly the region in the vicinity of Camp A on previous trips, our entire time was now spent north of Camp I. My guide opened up a hunting trail, long disused, leading from Camp I to the top of the Cordillera, extending along this a few miles to the east (with a view of the Pacific on the right and the Atlantic on the left), and then descending the north side a short distance. At every few feet of ascent a brand new lot of ferns would appear. My guide would open up my press while I would walk about within a radius of a few yards and gather a generous number of specimens of each species. As soon as we had amassed a sufficiently large bundle, we would tie it up and leave it by the trail to be picked up on the return trip. ..The accompanying photograph shows my guides in. the densest part of this jungle. The intensely” humid character of this, portion of the forest is almost beyond description. The whole atmos- phere was Wét-and clammy and bubbles of yellowish water were slowly collecting and dripping off the - of the ferns. ‘The tree-trunks were covered with m and masses of filmy ferns, all as saturated as the iad sponge. After spending two days in this portion of the Cor- dillera, we followed Holcomb’s trail itself to its summit and down the Atlantic side for three or four miles. * The localities along Holcomb’s Trail have been discussed melanie on Mr. Maxon in a paper entitled, ‘ ie — at oe from Pana Smiths. Misc. Coll., Vol. 56, No. 24, pp. 1-5, pls. » Nov. 22, seth: : = AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL VoL. 9, PLATE 2. MY GUIDES IN THE HUMID FOREST OF THE CorDILLERA, PROVINCE or CuHrriguI, PANAMA Texas PrermpopayTa—I 17 A somewhat less intensely humid forest was here met with, and the fern flora was slightly different from that of the two preceding days. The great quantities of ferns collected in the Cordillera region of Boquete have not yet been determined, so detailed mention of the species must be deferred. On some future trip to Panama I hope to have an oppor- tunity of exploring the Darien region, that vast, little- known country lying near the Columbian boundary, containing Indian tribes, through whose territory pass- age has been persistently denied to the white man. In conclusion I certainly must express my very great gratitude to Mr. William R. Maxon for determining the ferns collected, as well as to Mr. A. 8. Hitchcock and Mr. Paul Standley for going over other botanical specimens gathered. I very greatly appreciate, also, the kindness shown me by the Panama Canal officials, and by Mr. H. J. Watson and Col. and Mrs. E. H. Cuthbert, of Boquete. On Boarp §. 8. ‘‘ PanaMa,” EN ROUTE TO NEw York, May 28, 1918. Texas Pteridophyta—l. ERNEST J. PALMER While making general collections of plants in the Southwest for the Missouri Botanical Garden and Arnold Arboretum during the past few years, I have had an opportunity to observe many of the ferns of Texas in their native environments and to note their distribution over wide areas. Although the present list, perhaps, adds nothing new, unless it be Lycopo- dium, to the reported fern flora of the state, it may be worth while to place on record a number of new locali- ties for some of the species. 18. AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL The entire area of Texas, excepting that portion lying west of the Pecos River, was more or less thor- oughly explored. As many species of ferns are found only in that region they are necessarily excluded from the list. In the portion of the state east of the Pecos thirty-seven species of ferns and ten species and one variety of fern allies were found. There are two quite distinct fern floras in this region. The eastern part of the state receives an abundant rainfall; over most of the area east of the ninety-seventh meridian the annual precipitation ranges from forty to sixty inches. This is a region of low elevations, with few outstanding relief features, and for the most part it is heavily forested. The geological formations are comparatively recent, ranging from the Upper Cretaceous through the Tertiary and Quaternary. They consist largely of unconsolidated clastics, clays, sands, gumbo and alluvium covering most of the surface, but occasionally there are local outcrops of sandstone, ironstone or marly limestone. Swamps, bogs, bayous and sluggish streams prevail. In such a region moisture and shade-loving ferns naturally predominate. To the westward the rainfall diminishes gradually, the annual total amounting to only fifteen or twenty inches at the one-hundredth meridian. The north- western part of the state is occupied by the Plains, and is almost destitute of ferns except for a few species in the deep canyons. To the east is the somewhat broken, rocky and sparsely forested area of Paleozoic rocks, and the black prairies, underlaid by Upper Cretaceous deposits. Very few ferns are found in the prairie region. To the south is the Coastal Plain, extending far up the Rio Grande. To the north of this, and occupying a large area in the southwestern part of the state, is the rocky, semi-mountainous country of the Edwards Plateau, with bold relief features carved Pie s i jai ; pales peas Beaei i ee Seu Vee oe cat tbr Fea Oe an Mpeg seine: ate eT Pov eyie | Sn eee : a i 3 Texas PreripopHytTa—lI 19 from the limestones of the Comanchean series of Lower Cretaceous age. Over a limited area in Burnet, Llano and Mason Counties igneous rocks, principally — and ryolite, occur. The ferns of this region are largely yeraph ize, but a few species common to the eastward have been able to adapt themselves to changed conditions and to maintain themselves along the perennial streams in the. deep canyons of the Edwards Plateau, where there is abundant evidence that the forest flora of the Coastal Plain formerly extended. The serial numbers of collections refer to specimens deposited in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden, while several sets of duplicates were made of most of them. During two collecting seasons lists were made of ferns noted in addition to specimens collected. MARSILEACEAE MarsILea vesTitA Hook. & Grev. Southerland Springs, Wilson County, 10803; Campbelton, Atascosa County, 11245; Cotulla, Lasalle County, 11299; Uvalde, Uvalde County, 13350; Herrington, Brazos County, 13444; Byrd, Dimmit County, 13548; Quarry, Washing- ton County; Sabinal, Uvalde County; Brownwood, Brown County; Alice, Jim Wells County. This species appears to be quite common in South- western Texas. It is usually found in river bottoms, growing in stiff, black, waxy soil, in ditches and slight depressions, inundated during part of the year and becoming very dry later in the season. As the water recedes or dries up the Marsilea fronds spring up, the plants fruit and then die down and remain dormant until again irrigated. At Byrd, Dimmit County, it was found in rather well drained sandy soil. Some of the plants are quite robust and densely clothed with 20 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL white hairs on both surfaces, strongly suggesting Mar- silea macropoda, but wherever it has been found in fruit the sporocarps were solitary. MarsizEa uncinaTA A. Br. Uvalde, Uvalde County, 11038; San Saba, San Saba County, 11804; Manchaca, Hays County, 12148; Stone City, Brazos County, 13465; Byrd, Dimmit County, 13548; Blanco, Blanco County; Austin, Travis County. Marsilea uncinata is usually found along spring branches, margins of permanent pools, or where there is a perennial water supply. SALVINIACEAE CAROLINIANA. Willd. Liberty, Liberty ae 8560; Pledger, Matagorda County. Grows in still water of swamps and bayous. Prob- ably common near the coast and in Southeastern Texas. EQUuISETACEAE EQUISETUM HYEMALE L. Columbia, Brazoria County, 5011; Dayton, Liberty County, 9606; Lindendale, Kendall County, 9902; Blanco, Blanco County, 11571; Canyon, Randall County, 12522; Barksdale, Edwards County, 13527; Gamble’s Ranch, Armstrong County, 13931; Stephensville, Erath County, 14186; Houston, Harris County. Found along moist, usually sandy, banks of streams. EQUISETUM HYEMALE var. RoBUsTUM (A. Br.) A. A. Eaton. Menard, Menard County, 11851; Houston, Harris County, 11940. In similar situations to the species. EquisETuM LaEvicaTum A. Br. Junction, Kimble County, 10927. Specimens referred to this species, but may possibly be only a form of the last. Growing on moist, cal- careous banks of upper San Saba River. Texas PrermpopHyta—I 21 LYCOPODIACEAE LycopopruM ADPRESSUM (Chapm.) Lloyd & Undw. Grapeland, Houston County, 13187; Keechi, Leon County, 13400; Oakwood, Leon Caudby. 1416S: <: Growing in sandy bogs with Triantha racemosa, Pogonia divaricata, P. ophioglossoides, Sarracenia flava, Rhexia flava, Oxypolis filiformis, and several other southeastern plants, rarely found in Texas. SELAGINELLACEAE SELAGINELLA apus (L.) Spring. Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 9286; Utopia, Uvalde County, 11524; Blanco, Blanco Cocuty 11569; Boerne, Kendall County. 12244; Grapeland, Houston County, 13197. At Grapeland, Houston County, this species was found growing in sandy bogs. Throughout the Ed- wards Plateau it is found on springy. caleareous banks of streams. SELAGINELLA ARENICOLA Underw. Fletcher, Hardie County, 9540; Keechi, Leon County, 13411. Growing in deep, almost pure, sands. SELAGINELLA RUPESTRIS (L.) Spring. Leakey, Real County, 10146; Devils River, Valverde County, 11389; Del Rio, Valverde County; Utopia, Uvalde County; Blanco, Blanco County; San Saba, San Saba County; Boerne, Kendall County; Montell, Uvalde County; Rock Springs, Edwards County. On exposed limestone rocks and ledges. SELAGINELLA LEPIDOPHYLLA Spring. Del Rio, Val- verde County, 12364; Devils River, Valverde County, 11366; Montell, Uvalde County A Moxioat species found on a limestone ledges of high hills. e 22 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL OPHIOGLOSSACEAE OPHIOGLOSsUM vuLGATUM L. Marshall, Harrison County, 13215. This species appears to be quite rare in Texas and is probably limited to the moist, heavily forested eastern section. The specimens collected were growing in rich, alluvial soil of low woods along a small creek. This was compared with a large series preserved in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and, curiously, it, with an identical form collected by the writer at Natchitoches, Louisiana, 7482, and one col- lected by John H. Kellogg at Fulton, Arkansas, ap- proximate in form and general appearance specimens from central and northern Europe much more closely than they do most of the American material referred . to this species. OPHIOGLOSSUM ENGELMANNII Prantl. San Augustine, San Augustine County, 7102; Brownwood, Brown County, 11432; Houston, Harris County, 11447; Austin, Travis County, 13667. This species, although it has often been confused with the last in collections, is readily distinguishable by its fleshy, dull green sterile fronds, with apiculate apex, and its usually shorter, stockier habit of growth. It is generally found in large colonies, in thin soil, on limestone ledges or barrens. The specimens from Palestine were growing on knolls in low woods, and those from College Station and Houston in stiff, black soil, in woods near streams. The species is apparently common and widely distributed in Texas. WesB City, Mo. (To be continued) | gee = ee roti = | IS 741 Ba aint Notes and News Mr. G. P. Van Eseltine has published a study of the species of Selaginella allied to S. rupestris and occurring in the southeastern United States—that is, the region covered by Small’s Flora, extending from the southern boundary of Virginia to Florida and west to the 100th meridian.' He recognizes eight apparently well-dis- tinguished species. Most of them are local and of restricted range and, until recently, have been only scantily collected—facts which may help to explain why plants so different as these in appearance as well as in minute characters were for many years allowed to pass as belonging to a single species. Each species is illustrated by half-tone plates from photographs which show excellently its habit and what- ever else photographs can show, and also by line draw- ings of enlarged details. These are faithful and appar- ently exact in their representation of essential characters, but obscure rather than emphasize these characters by over-use of coarse shading. At the semi-centennial of the Torrey Botanical Club in 1917, Dr. J. K. Small presented a brief general paper on the ferns of tropical Florida which, he then stated, was to serve later as an introduction to a more detailed treatment. This- has now been published in a little book of 90 pages—a book which any lover of ferns who visits southern Florida will do well to take with him.? The preface, containing the substance of the semi- centennial paper, gives a brief but excellent account an Eseltine, G. P. The allies of Selaginella fogs in the south- pein United States. Cont. U. S. Nat. Herb. 20: 159-172, pls. 15-22, figs. 63-70. 1918. ?Small, J. K. Ferns of Tropical Florida. New York: published by the author. Pp. x, 80, pls. — oe text figs. 1918. The introduction, as Journ. 18: 126-134. Feb., 24 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL of the physical and geological features of the region covered. There follow descriptions of the 51 species known to occur there, with a text illustration of each and notes as to their habitat, date of discovery in Florida and range elsewhere. There are also five half-tone plates from photographs by the author, showing certain species of ferns in situ. Tropical Florida, as limited by Dr. Small, includes only the two groups of limestone and coral islands known as Keys—one situated in the southeastern part of the Everglades, the other off the coast. Their com- bined area is a very small portion of that of Florida as a whole, and the variety of soil and other physical conditions which they present is slight, yet they “ harbor more than fifty per cent. of the fern flora of Florida.” Of the 51 species recorded (46 of true ferns and 5 of fern-allies) only four—Osmunda regalis, Anchistea vir- ginica, Dryopteris Thelypteris and Lycopodium adpressum —appear in northern floras. The rest are species of tropical America, in a very few cases peculiar to this region, and in all occurring in the United States only in Florida, The text illustrations by Miss Mary E. Eaton deserve more than a word of praise. In spite of their small size, they are excellently clear; and they are both life- like and accurate. Sometimes, one suspects, they are almost too accurate for the author’s comfort—as where the precisely similar venation of Campyloneuron angusti- folium and Phymatodes exiguum, as figured, leaves only habital characters to separate these two genera and casts obvious doubt on their validity. Ever since D. C. Eaton’s time, various botanists have, on different occasions, expressed their dissatis- faction with the current classification of the lip-ferns of the southwestern United States, commonly referred Notes AND NEws 25 to Cheilanthes myriophylla and to C. Fendleri. Mr. Maxon has now dealt with the question thus raised; and, by attention to certain characters, chiefly of scales, rootstock and hairs, which were mostly overlooked or misunderstood by earlier botanists, he has produced a clear and logical treatment of this hitherto confused group, which accounts satisfactorily for all of the mate, rial now at hand.* He finds that true C. myriophylla, & species originally described from South America, does not occur in the United States; but that we have four species, two of them hitherto undescribed. They are: a plant related to C. Clevelandii, common in Cali- fornia and extending into Nevada and Arizona, which is now named C. Covillei and in which one subspecies, C. Coville intertexta, is recognized; C. Fendleri, of Texas, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona; C. Wootoni, of New Mexico and Arizona, similar in habit to the last, but distinguished by the ciliate scales of the under surface of the frond; and C. villosa Davenp., of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and adjacent Mexico, the only one of the four which is closely related to C. myriophylla. Present-day intensive study is rapidly reducing the number of reputedly cosmopolitan species and even of those which have been assigned a wide and dis- continuous range in more than one continent. This result is due, not so much to finer-drawn conceptions of species as to the growing use in classification of certain characters of scales, pubescence and structure of in- dusium which were very generally neglected by the earlier writers on ferns, but which, when tested with the large number of specimens now available, have proved to be among the most reliable and satisfactory § Maxon, W. R. The lip ferns of the atgettigeds Urited States re- lated to Ciitathes myriophylla, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washi ngton 31: 139- 152. Nov. 918. 26 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL means of distinguishing species. And the resultant breaking-up of too widely spread and heterogeneous groups is adding much to our knowledge of the real laws of plant distribution. The latest American fern to be separated from the European species with which it had long been associ- ated, is the local Polystichum of California, hitherto referred to P. aculeatum. This, Mr. Maxon finds after a study of abundant material, differs constantly from the European plant in its “invariably oblique, less strongly auricled and more copiously filiform-paleaceous pinnules and by its fimbriate-ciliate indusia.’”’ It must, he concludes, be considered a separate species and he names it Polystichum Dudleyi, in honor of the late Prof. W. R. Dudley.‘ Prof. E. W. Berry has discussed a fossil fern, Clathrop- teris platyphylla, which, if his tentative restoration of it is correct, possessed a most peculiar habit. The main rachis, as pictured by him, divides into two branches which diverge at a wide angle. Each branch bears near the base from ten to thirty lanceolate pinnae, all on one side, in a fashion irresistably suggesting the feathers on the leg of a chicken. Above these pinnae the branches are naked for a space and then carry out the chicken analogy by producing at the end a palmately arranged cluster of pinnae which does very well for the foot. Prof. Berry discusses interestingly the relationships of the genus Clathropteris. In the form of its pinnae - and its, for the most part, regularly reticulate venation it is very like the present genus Drynaria, though it seems actually not to be related to it, but to represent the ancestral type of Dipteris.® ‘Maxon, W. R. A new oo from California. Journ. Wash- ington Acad. Sci. 8: 620-622. Nov. 918. ‘ Berry, E. W. Notes on the fern ss sige pda Bull. Torrey Bot. iia 45: 279-285, figs. 1 and 2. July, ic papa Teas mee ‘ Sa Tae tas MNS Seat a Na i ae a llr aria eee Cs ek. Pate ro ae a : a 4 ; # Notes aNnp Nrews 27 Elizabeth Wuist Brown describes an experiment undertaken to see if regeneration (that is, the replacing of destroyed organs by the living plant) could be brought about in a fern—it having been reported by a previous investigator that this was possible with the young, but not the mature, leaves of certain ferns. The species chosen for the experiment was Phegopteris polypodioides. Spores were sown and when the young plants began to develop, leaves were cut from them and placed on sand wet with a nutrient solution and kept constantly in a damp atmosphere. Out of a large number of leaves so treated, one case of regenera- tion was obtained. In this instance, the petiole of the young leaf produced two cellular structures similar to prothallia. These bore no sexual organs, but pres- ently put forth rhizoids and young leaves very similar to those produced by the prothallia of this species under normal conditions. The author draws no particular conclusions from this single case, except that the possibility of regenera- tion and to some degree its extent and direction, are dependent on the nutriment available for the plant. Dr. W. N. Steil has described a method of staining fern antherozoids so as to show their structure, which should be interesting to those engaged in microscopical study.’ C. A. W. ADIANTUM CAPILLUS-VENERIS L. forma cristatum f. nov. Differing from the species in having the tips of the fronds more or less dichotomously forking and crested. Eaton Canyon, San Gabriel Mts., Los Angeles County, Cal., September -3, 1917. Geo. L. Moxley, ° Brown, Elizabeth Wuist ag orn seae in begga polypodioides. . Torrey Bot. Me an: 391-397, fig. 1918. 7 Ste teil, W. N. method for — poreaouialo of ferns. Bot. Gaz. 65: 562-563, a 1. June-18, 28 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 628a. While this form is not at all common, I found some dozen or fifteen fronds in the course of a half hour’s Search, growing with the species. Gero. L. Moxey. On June 30, 1918, while climbing Mt. Cushman in the town of Rochester,. Vermont, I came across Plants of Aspidiym Filiz-mas (L.) Sw. at an elevation of about 2400 fect. These plants were along an old roadway which leads from the Randolph divide road to the bare part of the summit of Cushman. But a few rods away was growing Aspidium spinulosum var. dilatatum (Hoffm.) Hook. forma anadenium Robinson. The Filix-mas was growing in partial shade. H. G. Ruae. American Fern Society Mr - Rayna] Dodge, known to the fern students as the discoverer of Dryopteris simulata and of the hybrid char- acter of D, cristata x marginalis, died at his home in New- buryport, Mass,, October 21, 1918. Mr. Dodge was born in Newburyport September 9, 1844, © Served in the Civil War, enlisting, at the.age of eighteen, ‘na Massachusetts regiment and serving in the expedition to New Orleans and at the siege of Port Hud- son. For many years he had been employed as a mach- Inist IN &@ Comb factory at Newburyport, and had shown no little bility in designing and constructing mechanical devices. Mr. Dodge's interest in natural history was life-long. peers his military service he devoted such time as ..- "mand to observations on the flora and fauna of Louisiana, O, his return home he set earnestly to work to prepare himself for serious scientific study. With little AMprican FerRN Society 29 assistance from Others, he learned sufficient Latin and Greek to understand their technical yses and acquired a good reading knowledge of French and German. For years most of his Spare time was spent in the fields and he built up an extensive knowledge of the natura] his- tory, in almost all jts branches, of the region accessible to him; knowledge which he put freely at the service of all inquirers. His special interest in fern-worts dates, he has said, from about 1890. With true scientific instinct, he was attracted to groups which were imperfectly known or offered especia] difficulties, such as the quillworts, some of the grape-ferns and the hybrids in Dryopteris; and he was able to add something to our understanding of each of the groups he particularly studied. He published several papers jn Periodicals and a well-known book on the ferns and fern-alljes of New England. ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE SOCIETY Not all of the officers’ reports for 1918 had been receiv- ed by the editors at the time of going to press. Such of them as are at hand are printed below ; the others will fol- low as received, Report of the Secretary for 1918 There is little to tell of the past year. Although it was the twenty-fifth since the founding of the Society, no ef- fort was made to Mark the anniversary, as might have been done in other times, except by a historical article Soon to appear in the JourNat, No meetings have been held and no special activities undertaken, But the Tegular work of the Society has gone on about as usual. 30 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL The Secretary has received information of three mem- bers of the Society who have been in active service during the war. They are: Mr. Walter Mattern, with the engineers, and Messrs E. P. Killip and M. E. Woodams with machine-gun units. All three have been in France. The Secretary earnestly requests any other members of the Society who have been in the Army or Navy to notify him, so that due record may be made. During the year two members, Messrs C. K. Dodge and Raynal Dodge, have died. Ten have resigned and six have been dropped for non-payment of dues. 13 new members have been received. The number of mem- bers at the date of this report (Dec. 31, 1918) is 265, a loss of five from last year. This loss is doubtless due to external conditions: it can soon be more than made up if all the members will work their neighborhoods for new recruits as thouroughly as a few have done theirs. __ After a service of five years, the present Secretary quits office the richer for many pleasant memories and new and valued acquaintances and with hearty gratitude to the officers and members with whom he has worked for their generally cordial codperation with and kindness toward him. He wishes the new Council and the Society under their leaedrship all possible prosperity and success. . A. WeaTHERsy, Secretary Report of the Editors for 1918 War conditions first and later influenza have consider- ably slowed up the work of ‘publishing the JourNAL both at the printers’ end and that of the editors, and also in the intermediate stage of transportation. As a result, all the numbers for the year have been more or less late. For this the editor chiefly concerned with the make-up of the JouRNAL apologizes (the other two have nothing to apologize for) and begs the indulgence of the members. He will try to do better in the future. AMERICAN FERN Socretry 31 War conditions and the new interests and duties which they have brought to many of us also tended to reduce the abundant stream of copy which has hitherto flowed in to the Journau. We end the year with about enough articles on hand to fill one number, but no more, and with the once flourishing notes and news department at the point of death from lack of sustenance. Articles and notes, long and short, from the members, will there- fore be especially welcome: “more copy”’ is our message to them this year. As for money, we always want that. R. C. BENEDICT K. J. WInstow C. A. WEATHERBY Editors Report of the Curator for 1918 If one may judge of the activities of the Society by the interest of its members in the herbarium, the past year has not been one full of enthusiastic study of Pterido- phytes. Only two members have made use of material in the herbarium and only two accessions have been made to it. Mr. D. LeRoy Topping has sent a splendid collection of about three hundred sheets mainly from North Bor- neo. Mr. J. B. Flett has collected some eighteen or twenty species of interesting material from Mt. Rainier National Park a set of which will be added to the Society her- barium. These, with a few miscellaneous sheets added by the curator, make up the sum total of the additions during the year. L. 8. Hopkins, Curator. Report of the Judge of Elections TO THE SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY: The undersigned, Judge of Elections by appointment of Acting President Mary A. Noble, respectfully presents the following report of the balloting for officers of the American Fern Society for 1919: Whole number of ballots cast. SUeabinns 4 eee tg Avec go ciee ts Number of complete ballots. . i Rtiibier of incomplete ballote.. Re tes oie RO ass a ia twee en : Necessary for choice: 21 Spe ate en eee URE Hane GRP SE ORT For President For Vice-President Witliam R: Maxon’,’. 3.4425, 72 Mrs. Mary A. SO 71 William Palmer Tg eats || William R. Maxo : hee eat Joka Vase Oe 1 For Secretary Stewart H.Burnham....... 71 For Treasurer CoA Weatherby: 20 J. G. Underwood «3... oe oe Miss Nellie Mirick . mS Desai 1 Biankos 3 a Ee eee I therefore declare the election of William R. Maxon President, Mrs. Mary A. Noble Vice-President, Stewart H. Burnham Secretary, and J. G. Underwood Treasurer, of the American Fern Society for the year 1919. M. A. MarRsHALL ‘STILL River, Mass. Nevenbar 12, 1918. aS a igh saa ee ee Tore aed grad eal pms ar Ta acs The Treasurer’s report, received to late for inclusion in this n ; ber of the JouRNaL, shows receipts of $291.65 a nd expenditures aes - The total balance on hace including all fun ie except the poten “oa is $167.33. The full seporé will Last year, from motives = Dresses and patriotism, the Council decided not to print a full list of — in 1919. A list giving all changes t date will, however, soon ee es Antericant Fern Journal Vol. ae APRIL-JUNE, 1919 No. 2. ee TREO Nero soca = Early Dei of the American Fern Society E. J. WINSLOW It is not especially fitting that I should assume the of- fice of historian, as it was not until after more than nine years of the Society’s existence that I became a member. And I find that not less than forty-four of the names on our membership roll have been there longer than mine. It is my hope that these disjointed fragments, recalled from the past in recognition of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the American Fern Soci- ety may be, as it were, a breaking of the ice, to be fol- lowed by contributions, perhaps from our three remain- ing charter members, or from some of the other forty or more who have “‘come down to us from former genera- tions. ”’ I began the study of ferns at about the beginning of the present century, and sometime early in 1902 discov- ered with some surprise that a flourishing society of one hundred or more members had been organized to pro- mote this study. My dollar was promptly sent in and in due time I received a very cordial letter of welcome from Treasurer James A. Graves. At the tenth anniversary of the founding of the So- ciety President B. D. Gilbert wrote a “ Historical Sketch of the Linnean Fern Chapter” which appeared in the Fern Bulletin for October 1902. This article contains the following account of the origin of the Fern Chapter, . No. 1 of the Journat, pages 1-32, Plates 1 and 2, was issued {Vol. Moereh ne 1619] 33 34 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL as it was then called. ‘Early in 1893, Mr. Willard N. Clute, Mr. J. A. Graves, Mrs. A. D. Dean and Mrs. T. D. Dershimer, all lovers of ferns, but not at that time skilled students of them, conceived the idea of starting a chapter of the Agassiz Association for the scientific study of ferns by correspondence. The charter was held open during the summer of 1893, and by autumn there were nineteen members with which number the Chapter started. At first there was no published Bul- letin to disseminate the knowledge gained, but written notes were circulated by mail among the members. This plan, however, was not found to be very satisfactory and in July, 1893, the first number of an exceedingly modest little pamphlet was published, bearing the in- scription; “The Linnean Fern Bulletin, No. 1. Pub- lished by the Linnean Fern Chapter. Price Five Cents. Binghampton, N. Y., 1893.” The Bulletin was edited throughout the twenty years of its existence by Mr. W. N. Clute, the first president and the leading spirit among the founders of the Society. It grew to be a noteworthy publication, and its period- ical appearances were landmarks in the history of the Society during many years. e fifth number of the Bulletin contained the con- stitution of the Chapter. That the makers of this con- stitution did not foresee the world wide expansion to which their organization was destined is evident from the following section. “ Art. III, See. 3—Applications for membership must be made to the Seeretary, who shall ‘ give notice to all members in good standing of such ap- . plication and request a vote thereon. Two adverse bal- lots shall exclude.” Among the contributors to the early numbers of the Bulletin were, besides the four foundersabove mentioned, C. E. Waters, C. F. Saunders, A. J. Grout and others whose names are familiar to many of us. The number Harty Days or THE FERN Socrety 35 for July 1896, contained an account of the discovery of Aspidium simulatum by Raynal Dodge with Plate i, a drawing of this newly discovered fern. In the same number was a paragraph on Aspidium cristatum « mar- ginale by Geo. E. Davenport. With the issue for July 1898 began A. A. Eaton’s series of articles on the Equise- tums. This ran through seventeen numbers and with the accompanying distribution of illustrative material, was one of the notable events of the history of the Soci- ety. Perhaps a matter of still greater popular interest was the series of fern floras of the states. Beginning in January 1903 with the flora of Louisiana by W. N. Clute and R. S. Cocks the series continued with Texas by Jul- ian Reverchon, Iowa by T. J. and F. L. Fitzpatrick, Washington by J. B. Flett, New York by B. D. Gilbert, California by §. B. Parish, Florida by A. H. Curtiss, Kentucky by Sadie F. Price, Montana by T. J. Fitzpat- - rick, Georgia by R. M. Harper, Vermont by W. W. Egg- leston, Connecticut by C. H. Bissell, Ontario by A. B. Klugh, Maine by Dana W. Fellows, Ohio by Lewis S. Hopkins, Pennsylvania by W. A. Poyser, Indiana by F. C. Greene, Michigan by C. K. Dodge, and Illinois by KE. J. Hill, The establishment of a Society Herbarium was first suggested by A. A. Eaton in his address upon assuming - the presidency in 1899. He assumed the work of Cura- tor and continued it until his death ten years later, when our present Curator, L. 8. Hopkins, was appointed. So there have been but two occupants of this office in twen- ty years. In June, 1903, I attended a meeting of the Josselyn Botanical Society in Skowhegan, Maine. At this time the Bulletin was running a series of photographs and short biographical sketches of well known fern students. And so it happened that I was able to identify a gentle- man whose keen spectacled eyes were constantly search- 36 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ing from the car window the banks and pools along the railroad as we journeyed toward our place of meeting. It was A. A. Eaton, who was on the program for an eve- ning lecture on the New England Ferns. At the Skow- hegan meeting I also made the acquaintance of Dr. Dana Fellows, a former vice-president of the Chapter, Mr. E. B. Chamberlain, for many years past the mainstay of the Moss Society, and several others whom I now count as old acquaintances. Eaton had recently named Botrychium tenebrosum which he described as a species and vigorously defended in the pages of the Fern Bulletin against the attacks of Geo. E. Davenport who insisted that it was a form of B. matricariaefolium. During the social hour following his lecture some of the lady botanists playfully rallied him upon his temerity in opposing so high an authority as Davenport. Eaton replied modestly, expressing great respect for Davenport’s knowledge of the subject, - but adding that he could not disregard the facts as he found them. A year or two later Eaton visited me in Vermont, where he had gone to look for certain orchids. And I called upon him several times at his home in North Eas- ton, Mass. to get his help on some fern problems. He was working upon a revision of the genus Isoetes at this time and had several species growing in pots in the door- . yard. He used to correspond by postcard in a telegraphic style designed to condense much into a few words. On a card dated June 12, 1905, he writes, ‘Found simplex in a meadow of Ophioglossum here. Surprised. Thought it grew in dry ground. But I am of opinion Dr. Robinson is right and tenebrosum is ecological form of simplex. Though to tell the truth it is hard to re- concile all differences. ”’ Much of my talk and correspondence with Eaton had reference to the various forms of Nephrodium, as we Earty Days or THE FERN SOCIETY ot were calling them at that time,—the odd spinulosums, Clintonianums and Boottiis. ‘‘They constitute the most interesting problem in New England ferns,’’ he declared. When I visited him in the Massachusetts General Hospital, during his last illness, he said, “‘Some New York fellows have been describing some of those Nephrodium forms as hybrids.”’ At about the same time with the Botrychium tenebro- sum controversy there appeared in the Bulletin a new phase of the irrepressible conflict between old Britain and young America in the form of a discussion between Mr. Chas. T. Druery of London and Mr. Clute on the comparative value of the American method of fern study and the British, which consists largely in seeking out and propagating sports or horticultural varieties. Al- though this discussion was brief, it was indelibly fixed in our minds by Clute’s two-headed rabbit simile, which immediately took rank as a classic in fern literature. In the year 1907, the Society lost three of its most valued members and most eminent fern students by the deaths of B. D. Gilbert, L. M. Underwood and Geo. E. Davenport. Gilbert had been president of the Fern So- ciety, and endeared himself to many of us beginners by his enthusiasm and lively interest in whatever problem we submitted to him. Davenport was vice-president in 1902. Underwood, as the author of the manual of Ferns and Fern Allies, was perhaps the most widely known authority on the subject in America. In 1910 it was decided that the Society should own and control its official publication, and the American Fern Journal, which had been started by Mr. R. C. Ben- edict, was adopted. This move was the subject of considerable controversy, but the event seems to have justified the venture. During the year 1911 the growth in membership exceeded that for any other year in the history of the Society. And though the four years of 38 - AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL the war have been unfavorable to the peaceful pursuit of fern lore, we have maintained our number somewhere near the 275 mark. _ With twenty-five years of our development passed into history, we have a body of memory and tradition worth cherishing. And if the recently suggested plan of reprinting the early numbers of the Fern Bulletin should prove feasible it would be of a fitting celebration of the opening of our second quarter century. AUBURNDALE, Mass. Ferns of the District of Columbia! WILLIAM R. MAXON The flora of the District of Columbia, first brought to familiar notice by Ward’s classic “Guide to the The area adopted by Ward and by later botanists for the “District flora” is a circle of 15 miles radius, with the Capitol as its center. This includes the city aryland and Virginia. Roughly obliquely, northeast and south- or common boundary Separating the Coastal Plain and the lower foothills logically and physiographically are widely different a xtent along the Atlantic Coast, PEt le sg With the permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian *? Bulletin 22 of the U. g. National Museum. 1881. hie We ln as FERNS OF THE DisTRICT OF COLUMBIA — 39 and are well known to support characteristic floras. The interlocking of these zones along the fall line in the vicinity of Washington and the various factors controlling to a great extent the local distribution of plant and animal life are interestingly discussed by W. L. McAtee in a recent volume entitled “A Sketch of the Natural History of the District of Columbia and Vicinity.’’? Similar data are presented also in the forthcoming ‘‘Flora of the District of Columbia and Vicinity,’’* by A. 8. Hitchcock and Paul C. Standley, with the assistance of the botanists of Washington. In both works the more important collecting localities and their characteristic vegetation are described, and to these the reader is referred for fuller information. The list of species given below is deemed of sufficient interest to fern students to justify its publication separ- ately, and it may besides serve a useful purpose to members of the Fern Society visiting Washington. The local Piedmont area lies chiefly northwestward and includes most of Rock Creek Park and the upper Potomac region, extending from the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown to Little Falls, High Island, Cabin J ohn, and the Great Falls of the Potomac, the last mentioned locality lying at the edge of the 15-mile circle. The soils of this region are derived by the disintegration of metamorphic rocks and are mostly neutral or but weakly acid. It is mostly broken country, character- ized by sharp declivities and by frequent streams run- ning rapidly between steep banks, and, especially in the near vicinity of the river, is beautiful and often picturesque. The abrupt wooded blufis of the Vir- ginia shore from Great Falls to a point opposite Cabin John are of especial interest as sheltering several of the rarer local ferns. Camptosorus occurs sparingly on 3 Bulletin No. 1, Biological Society of Washington. Pp. 142. 1918. ‘Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., Vol. 21. (In press.) 40 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL rock outcrops and mossy gneiss boulders of the shaded upper talus slopes; Filix bulbifera is found in two or three cool, well shaded situations at the foot of the talus; Asplenium pinnatifidum grows in earth pockets of the cliff at a single locality; Pteretis nodulosa occu- pies here and there considerable stretches of the shaded narrow belt of flood plain; and just above the last, especially at the mouth of the wooded ravines or “runs,” Athyrium pycnocarpon and A. thelypteroides are locally abundant. The more exposed rocks of the summit and upper slopes are often covered by Polypodium vulgare, and the moister, lower areas of the talus slopes every- where support large plants of Dryopteris marginalis. In one or two of the moist runs occur colonies of Dry- opteris Goldiana. Selaginella rupestris is found in sev- eral rocky, open situations near Great Falls, and with it Cheilanthes lanosa. A single colony of Aspleniwm montanum occurs here also. These records indicate very definitely the element of northern or mountain-loving species within the flora, and leave few additional species reasonably to be looked for, excepting Asplenium Bradleyi and Athyrium angus- tum. The Coastal Plain region, lying mainly east of Wash- ington proper and southward along the broad lower — Potomac past Alexandria to Mount Vernon and Mar- shall Hall, is low and more nearly level, with contours mostly gentle, marking broad open valleys. The soils are inclined to be strongly acid. Much of this terri tory, like that of the Piedmont, is under cultivation; but there are also wide stretches given over to poison Sumac and impassable cat-brier thickets, drained by = sluggish streams, which only the most enthusiastic collector will explore in Washington’s tropical dog- days, when the “jiggers” are at their worst. FERNS OF THE DistRIcT OF COLUMBIA 41 The most interesting single feature of the local Coastal Plain area is the occurrence of the so-called magnolia bogs, well described by MecAtee. These are small, : open, gently sloping patches of white gravel underlaid by an impervious stratum of clay, their surface con- stantly irrigated by a thin sheet of water flowing from springs at the upper swampy border. Here are found a considerable number. of typical pine barren plants, and here or in the near vicinity such ‘‘coastal’’ species as Lygodium palmatum, Dryopteris simulata, Anchistea virginica, Lycopodium adpressum, and, at a_ single locality, L. carolinianum—plants practically restricted to acid-soil situations. Since many such bogs doubt- less await discovery, it is not unlikely that Lycopodium alopecuroides will be added eventually to the District ora. : Aside from the species mentioned above as prac- tically limited to the Piedmont or to the Coastal Plain, there are many which occur generally throughout the local area, apparently showing no decided soil pref- erence if exposure and drainage conditions are suitable. ' These are discussed in the following notes, which list 56 species, distributed among 25 genera. The list is not an unusually long one, but nevertheless is equal to that of many larger areas. The city of Washington has grown rapidly in recent years, trolley lines stretching out to numerous small suburbs and far beyond them. Many still unspoiled woodlands are thus to be found within the city limits, and the more distant collecting grounds also are reached very quickly and easily. Two of the lines extend to Great Falls on opposite sides of the river, and a third parallels the river to Cabin John. The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal skirts the river, also, on the Maryland side, all the way to Great Falls, affording the easiest possible access to that wild region. Because of its 42 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL attractiveness, the upper Potomac gorge and adjacent bluffs have not unnaturally been explored more com- pletely than other local regions; but the entire territory of the “ District flora” is of very great interest, whether to the resident or visiting botanist, and will richly repay field study for many a year to come. OPHIOGLOSSACEAE OPHIOGLOSSUM vULGATUM L. Low moist woods or partially shaded, grassy slopes; nowhere common, though found at numerous localities. Just outside our area, at Chesapeake Beach, it occurs in great abundance, however. BoTRYCHIUM VIRGINIANUM (L.) Swartz. Abundant; best developed in rich hilly woods on the Virginia side of the upper Potomac. First of June. Borrycuium opLticuum Muuau. Low, brushy pas- tures and moist, thin woods; common. BorTrYcHIUM DISsECTUM SprENG. Moist woods and thickets; common, but decidedly less so than B. ob- liquum. (Botrychium neglectum Wood has been reported, prob- | ably in error OSMUNDACEAE OsmuNDA REGALIS L. Swamp borders and boggy or wet sandy woods; not uncommon, but as a rule lack- ing the vigorous appearance and large size of more northern plants. OSMUNDA CINNAMOMEA L. Wet weds: swamps, and low, partially cleared areas; abundant. - OSMUNDA CLAYTONIANA L. Swamp edges, moist wooded slopes, or sandy alluvial soil; not very com- mon, but found throughout. SCHIZAEACEAE Lycoprum Patmatum (BERNH,) Swartz. Wet “cat- brier’”’ thickets and borders of low woods; several re- ee ee FERNS OF THE DisTRICT OF COLUMBIA 43 stricted localities in the Coastal Plain, and probably of commoner occurrence. Occasionally offered for sale in Washington markets, where it is known as ‘ Alice’s fern.” POLY PODIACEAE Potypopium potypopiomeEs (L.) Warr. Shaded, flat, mossy rocks; gorge of the Potomac below Great Falls, Maryland side, the only locality. This species is here near its northern limit. PoLypopiIuM VULGARE L. Rocky banks or partially shaded cliffs; common along the upper Potomac and found in a few other localities. ADIANTUM PEDATUM L. Rich, well-drained, rocky deciduous woods and shaded hillsides; common. CHEILANTHES LANOSA (Micux.) Watt. Earthy crev- ices of cliffs or rocky bluffs of the upper Potomac; rare; only three stations known, two of these near Great alls PELLAEA ATROPURPUREA. (L.) Linx. Several scat- tered stations; abundant at only one (Georgetown), here growing profusely in the mortar of an old retaining wall PTERIDIUM LATIUSCULUM (Desy.) Maxon.® Sunny, sandy slopes, low thin woods, or old fields, and acid soil situations generally; abundant. (Pteridium aqui- linum of American authors, in part.) ’ Pteridium latiusculum yeni as Maxon. Pteris cacereaee Desy. Mém. Soc. oe 6: 303. This appears be the proper n ae ie common pols of ro eastern United hots which di Paes very denaitedy from the Euro P. aquilinum (L.) Kuhn in Sao and cut of blade and in its elattene or quite nonciliate outer indusium, P. aqui ana having the outer indusi conspicuously and i "Jong-ciliate. esvaux’s brief description i hacichatecy: A photograph of the type specimen (in the Paris Her- ona- - und! erre. foundland material at hand agrees with the fronds shown in the photo- 44 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ANCHISTEA virGINicaA (L.) Prest. Swamps; infre- quent, the known localities all in the Coastal Plain. LORINSERIA AREOLATA (L.) Prest. Swamps and other low, permanently moist, shaded situations; not uncommon, but nearly restricted to the Coastal Plain. Late summer. CaMPTOSORUS RHIZOPHYLLUS (L.) Link. Shaded, mossy rocks in cool situations; a few localities along the 3 Potomac, principally above Cabin John. ASPLENIUM PINNATIFIDUM Nutt. Crevices and earth : pockets of shaded clifis; Virginia shore of the Potomac : several miles below Great Falls; very rare. E ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES R. R. Scorr. Crevices of shaded rocks; two records, Plummers Island and Vir- ginia shore of the Potomac near Little Falls. ASPLENIUM PLATYNEURON (L.) OaAkeEs. Grassy OF ~ — rocky banks and thinly shaded situations generally; abundant. AsPLENIUM TricHoMANEs L. Crevices of cool, shaded cliffs and on mossy rocks; upper Potomac region chiefly; a infrequent. ASPLENIUM MONTANUM Witip. Crevices of dryish ; rocks; a single station, above Great Falls on the Vir- q ginia side of river. graph and with the plant ranging poeple through New England and an Appalachian region generally, ther nm be B no reasonable doubt as *s name in gee sense. The related lowland plant occupying the Pa eg of the Piedmont region from Long Island along the Coastal Plain ¢ © Florida and the Gulf egion (where it alone occurs), and extending some distance up the lower Mississippi Valley, while for the most part recognizable as different — d an P. latiusculum, is highly problematical. It described as Pteris aquilina pseudocaudata Clute (Fern Bull. 8: 39 1900), t fr bylon, Long Isl P eld y and the collection of further terial it ms b r ‘i subspecies only: Pteridium latiusculum pseudocaudatum (Clute) axon. ; ants of western North America also are very difficult of of classi- y, as it see en i A conditions. They fall into several variable categories, none of which 15 pr ecisely identical with the European plant, though they are for the most part more nearly related to that than to P. latiusculum ; FERNS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 45 ATHYRIUM PYCNOCARPON (SPRENG.) TIDESTROM. Moist, cool woods and shaded, alluvial banks; a few localities in Rock Creek Park and along the Potomac. (Asplenium angustifolium Michx.) ATHYRIUM THELYPTEROIDES (Micux.) Desv. Moist, rich woods, mainly in alluvial situations; fairly com- mon, especially along the upper Potomac. .(Aspleniwm acrostichoides Swartz.) ATHYRIUM ASPLENIOIDES (Micux.) Desv. Low woods, and moist thickets; abundant. (Athyrium filix-femina of most American writers, in part. DryYOPTERIS HEXAGONOPTERA (Micux.) C. Cur. Dryish or well-drained deciduous woods; abundant; especially luxuriant in the rich woods of the upper Potomac, on the Virginia side. DRYOPTERIS NOVEBORACENSIS (L.) A. Gray. Moist, low woods and thickets; abundant throughout. DRYOPTERIS SIMULATA DavENP. Woodland swamps; Hollywood Swamp and near Suitland, Maryland; probably occurs also in — similar situations below the fall line. Late sum DRYOPTERIS Tac FERNS OF THE District oF COLUMBIA 47 EQUISETUM PRAEALTUM Rar. Alluvial banks of the Potomac and tributary streams; occasional patches, but not common. LYCOPODIACEAE Lycopopium LucipuLuM Micux. Damp woods and springy wooded banks, sometimes in beds of sphag- num; infrequent. Livchbonidik CAROLINIANUM L. Macaolu bogs; only a single locality known, in Prince George County, Maryland. LycopopiuM ADPRESSUM (CHApM.) Luoyp & UNpERW. Bogs and low, open fields, often in the shallow overflow of springs; abundant at several localities in the Coastal Plain. Lycopopium opscuruM L. Moist woods and thickets; a few scattering localities only. Lycopopium cLtavatuM L. Moist thickets and pine woods; rare; known only from three widely separated localities. LYcOPpopIUM COMPLANATUM FLABELLIFORME FE NALD. Pine woods and thickets, with Pyrola, Pidaés: phila, and Mitchella; fairly common. LycopopIUM TRISTACHYUM PursH. Damp pine woods and thickets; not uncommon. SELAGINELLACEAE SELAGINELLA RUPESTRIS (L.) SprinGc. Exposed rocky bluffs; found only in the vicinity of Great Falls, on both sides of the Potomac. SELAGINELLA Apopa (L.) FERNALD. Low, moist situa- tions, usually in partial shade; locally abundant, but very generally overlooked. (Selaginella apus Spring.) ISOETACEAE IsonTeEs ENGELMANNI VALIDA ENGELM. ‘Temporary pools among rocks; Virginia shore of the Potomac near Great Falls; very rare. 48 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ISOETES SACCHARATA Encetm. Shallow water be- _ tween tides, in gravel and sand; banks of the Potomac between Alexandria and Mount Vernon; variable, sev- eral forms having been described. — Wasuineton, D. C. The Simplest Fern in Existence R. C. BENEDICT What is the simplest fern in existence? It is not Asplen- ium Trichomanes with its short wiry midrib and small pinnae. It is not even Trichomanes Petersii with not much more than a pinna of leaf tissue and leaves one cell thick. These are perhaps the simplest ferns in the United States from the standpoint of size and structure. The simplest known fern is a native of the tropical East Indies, a species of the genus Monogramme Schkuhr, M. dareaecarpa Hooker. In this plant, each leaf has but one vein and one fruit dot or fruiting line, set in a groove along one side of the leaf. The placing of the sporangia was responsible for the original specific name, dareaecarpa, after Darea, & group of ferns generally placed under Asplenium. The plants are epiphytic and grow mixed with mosses on the bark of trees. The stem, like the leaf, has a single solid wood fiber traversing it, only a few cells thick. The relationship of Monogramme is with the fern tribe Vittarieae. Vittaria, a single species of which, V. line- ata, occurs in Florida, always has two lines of sporangia while Monogramme has but one, but in venation, the largest species of Monogramme is almost a duplicate of the smallest Vittaria. The other species of Monogramme are almost as simple as M. dareaecarpa. The first species discovered, M. graminea, from the Bourbon Islands off the coast of Africa, is like M. dareaecarpa, but with leaves three or yee ena ete ate en by Seed Pee ye iy oe S AE ee Ve Met od a ge A alse were 4 eb Ses ARTY i es Oe koe Pere ar AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Vou. 9, Patz 3. McNoGRAMME DARBAECARPA (Figs. 1-3), ASPLENTUM TRICHOMANES (Figs. 4-5) and TricHoMaNnes Petersi (Figs. 6-7) 50 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL four times as large. M. subfalcaia of Borneo, is about the same size as M. dareaecarpa, but has a once divided vein. M. paradoxa, widely distributed in Polynesia and eastern Asiatic regions, is the largest of the group, sometimes as much as six inches long, and has one or two divisions of its primary vein. The fifth species, M. trichoidea, is, as its name means, actually thread- like in structure and size, but longer than M. dareaecarpa, and with one to three, fertile portions along its length. It is rather common in collections of Philippine ferns. The accompanying illustration (Plate 3) shows a plant of M. dareaecarpa, life size (fig. 1) an enlarged leaf showing the single vein (fig. 2)and a still more enlarged section of the leaf showing the groove in which the spor- angia are born (fig. 3). These figures are redrawn from the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 38, Plate 3. With them are also illustrated -a leaf of Asplenium Trichomanes, life size (fig. 4), and a pinna enlarged to show the venation (fig. 5), both drawn from an herbar- ium specimen, and a plant, life size (fig. 6 ), and an en- larged leaf of Trichomanes Petersii (fig. 7), redrawn from Plate 3 in Vol. 7 of the JourNat. Brooxiyn, N. Y. Texas Pteridophyta—II ERNEST J. PALMER BorrRyYcHIUM OBLIQuUM Muhl. Marshall, Harrison County, 8644; San Augustine, San Augustine County, 7102 and 12706. Found in low, wet woods at Marshall. A form, 8644a, growing with the other specimens, may be vari- etally distinct. A much reduced form, growing on rotten logs and hummocks in deep Tupelo and Cypress ~-swamps at San Augustine, appears to represent a dis- taet and perhaps undescribed variety. ier ene oe ss ee OM ete al = ae Bel a a Texas Prermopruyta—II 51 BOTRYCHIUM VIRGINIANUM L, Livingston, Polk County, 5270; Marshall, Harrison County, 5301 and 13227; Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 9981; Palestine, Anderton County, 13425; San Augustine, San Augustine County; 13240. Usually found in open woods or on rich, shaded hill- sides. The specimens from Kerr County are far out of its usual range, but it is there associated with a number of other eastern herbs and trees of the Atlantic forest belt, which seem to have survived from an earlier period, in the deep protected canyons. The plants were growing in rich alluvial soil, near a spring branch and in partial shade. SCHIZAEACEAE ORNITHOPTERIS MEXICANA (Kl.) Underw. Concan, Uvalde County, 10189; Leakey, Real County, 10139; Barksdale, Edwards County, 11001; Fischers Store, Comal County, 12180; Montell, Uvalde County; Medina Lake, Bandera County; Utopia, Uvalde County; Devils River, Valverde County. This species is usually found on dry, partially shaded, steep hillsides, on banks-of dry ravines or under over- hanging limestone ledges, in dry soil. It belongs to a flora that has come up from northern Mexico, and occupied the southern side of the Edwards Plateau. OSMUNDACEAE OSMUNDA REGALIS L. Milano, Milam County, 11683; Grapeland, Houston County, 12072; Marshall, Harrison County, 13216; Fletcher, Hardin County; Palestine, Anderson County; San Augustine, San Augustine County; Oakwood, Leon County. Grows in wet, sandy woods, margins of sandy bogs, and on hummocks in deep swamps. OSMUNDA CINNAMOMEA L. Milano, Milam County, 11684; Grapeland, Houston County, 12058; Palestine, 62 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Anderson County; Fletcher, Hardin County; Marshall, Harrison County; Oakwood, Leon County. Usually found with the last, but sometimes in rather drier situations. POLYPODIACEAE PoLyPopIuM POLyPopriomEs (L.) Watt. Columbia, Brazoria County, 4988; Livingston, Polk County, 5257; Houston, Harris County, 11446; Larissa, Cherokee County, 13365; Riverside, Walker County, 13171; Fletcher, Hardin County; San Augustine, San Augustine County; Huntsville, Walker County; Liberty, Liberty County; Oakwood, Leon County; Grapeland, Houston County. Throughout its range in Texas this fern is usually found growing on trees, and apparently it has little preference as to species, providing they grow in mod- erately shaded and damp situations and have a rough, porous bark and wide-spreading or horizontal branches or inclined trunks, where the spores can find lodgment while germinating and a supply of moisture for some time after rains. Near the Gulf Coast the Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) serves its requirements most ad- mirably, and it is often found upon species of Tra. Occasionally it is found growing on rocks, where the spores have found lodgment amongst moss or lichens. The specimens from Larissa were found on ferrugineous sandstone boulders, and those from Riverside on sand- stone bluffs. _PTERIS AQUILINA L. var. PsEUDOCAUDATA Clute. Livingston, Polk County, 5187; Milano, Milam County, 11690; Houston, Harris County, 11942; Marshall, Harrison County, 13217; Palestine, Anderson County; Oakwood, Leon County; Grapeland, Houston County; Huntsville, Walker _County; Jacksonville, Cherokee County. Texas PreripopHyta—lII 53 Very common in open, sandy woods and acid soils generally, throughout eastern Texas, where it some- times covers acres. of ground. -Apiantum CapiLius-VENERIS L. Boerne, Kendall County, 9269; Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 9980; Kerrville, Kerr County; Telegraph, Kimble County, 10941; Pulliam, Zavalla County, 11331; Devils River, Valverde County, 11381; Houston, Harris County, 11949; San Marcos, Hays County, 12103; Gamble’s Ranch, Armstrong County, 13914; Utopia, Uvalde County; Blanco, Blanco County; San Saba, San Saba County; Manchaca, Travis County; Fischers Store, Comal County; Medina Lake, Bandera County; Barks- dale, Edwards County; Paloduro Canyon, Randall County; Rock Springs, Edwards County. This widely distributed southern fern, although occurring in the Ozark region of Arkansas and Missouri, appears to be absent from a large area in eastern Texas, the isolated station near Houston being very excep- tional. In the canyons of the Edwards Plateau it grows in great luxuriance and abundance on the rocky margins of pools and limestone bluffs and ledges, kept perennially wet by seeping springs. The Houston station, discovered by Mr. Geo. L. Fischer, is along a deep, shaded spring branch, where there is an outcrop of somewhat calcareous Quaternary sandstone. In Randall and Armstrong Counties it is found, rarely, in deep spring-fed canyons, growing upon shale and sandstone of Triassic age. PELLAEA ATROPURPUREA (L.) Link. San Augustine, San Augustine County, 7896; Spanish Pass, Kendal County, 9868; Kerrville, Kerr County, 9932; Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County; Leakey,. Real County, 10158; Edwards County, 10967; Brownwood, Brown County, 11115; Blanco, Blanco County, 11572; Menard, Menard 54 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL County, 11789, 11887; Gamble’s Ranch, Armstrong County, 13913; Stephensville, Erath County, 14179; Barksdale, Edwards County. _ Grows amongst rocks and on rocky ledges of partially shaded ravines and hillsides. One of the most widely distributed ferns in the state. Petuana Wricutrana Hook. Llano, Llano County, 10284, Growing here in clefts of sandstone, on dry hill- sides. - PELLAEA AsPERA (Hook.) Baker. Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 10026; Laredo, Webb County, 11319; Menard, Menard County, 11886; Blanco, Blanco County, 12869, 13287; San Saba, San Saba County, 11799; Colorado, Mitchell County, 13778; Austin, Travis County, 13666; Kerrville, Kerr County; Sabinal, Uvalde County; Fischers Store, Comal County; Medina Lake, Bandera County; Barksdale, Edwards County. In rocky clefts or under protecting ledges. Usually in limestone formations, but at Laredo and Colorado found in sandstone clefts. PELLAEA PULCHELLA (Mart. & Gal.) Fée. Leakey, Real County, 10144; Conecan, Uvalde County, 11554; Montell, Uvalde County, 12991; Chalk Bluff, Uvalde County; Barksdale, Edwards County. Found on high limestone hills, on rather exposed ledges. PELLAEA FLExvOSA (Kaulf.) Link. Austin, Travis County, 9341; Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 10024; Leakey, Real County, 10140; Uvalde, Uvalde County, 11052; San Saba, San Saba County, 11790; San Marcos, Hays County, 12108; Sabina Creek, Kendall County, 13640; Manchaca, Travis County; Barksdale, Edwards County. Texas PrermpopHytTa—II 55 Grows in rather dry situations amongst limestone rubble or under ledges. At Uvalde it was collected amongst trap-rock (phonolite) rubble. CHEILANTHES ALABAMENSIs (Buckl.) Kunze. Boerne, Kendall County, 9268, 9836; Sabina Creek, Kendall County, 13640; Telegraph, Kimble County, 10953, 10964; Brownwood, Brown County, 11413; Concan, Uvalde County, 11555; Quarry, Washington County, 11707; San Saba, San Saba County, 11788; San Marcos, Hays County, 12107; Manchaca, Travis County, 12139; Blanco, Blanco County, 12868; Utopia, Uvalde County, 12948; Montell, Uvalde County, 12990, 13005; River- side, Walker County, 13161; Medina Lake, Bandera County; Barksdale, Edwards County. Usually found on limestone hillsides, in clefts and under protecting ledges. The specimens from Quarry and Riverside were growing in clefts of coarse, Tertiary (Corrigan) sandstone. Its occurrence on this forma- tion seems to be an eastward extension of its range in Texas. CHEILANTHES MICROPHYLLA Sw. Leakey, Real County, 10157; Comstock, Valverde County, 11065; Montell, Uvalde County, 13013; Chalk Bluff, Uvalde County, 13336; Devils River, Valverde County. In similar situations to last, but less common and more restricted in range, apparently occurring only in the southwestern part of the state. CHEILANTHES LEUcoPopA Link. Montell, Uvalde County, 12325, 13336; Chalk Bluff, Uvalde County. Found only on high limestone hills, on exposed slopes and ledges. CHEILANTHES FrE1 Moore. Leakey, Real County, 10141; San Angelo, Tom Green County, 11140, 11144; Bronte, Coke County, 11169; Menard, Menard County, 11857; Gamble’s Ranch, Armstrong County, 13930; 56 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Colorado, Mitchell County, 13777; Strawn, Palopinto County, 14239; Big Spring, Howard County; Sweet- water, Nolan County. ~ At San Angelo, Bronte, Colorado and Gamble’s Ranch this species was found on sandstone bluffs, although at the last named station it was more abundant on Cretaceous limestone rocks. All other occurrences noted were on dry limestone bluffs, which is its usual habitat. Wess City, Mo. (To be continued) The Botrychiums of Mobile County, Alabama E. W. GRAVES Mobile county lies principally in the coast plain. How- ever, there is a line of sand hills extending down through the northwest corner of the county, running about half way across and coming within seven miles of the city of Mobile. The east side is very low and marshy. Along the Alabama river and Mobile bay, which bound the east side of the county, is a continuation of swamps which also cover a large part of the south end of the county. The flora of this low country is very rich, for here we find Sarracenia flava, S. rubra, S. psittacina, S. drum- mondii, the yellow, red, and purple pitcher-plants. Also we find Pogonia ophioglossoides, P. divaricata, Limodo- rum tuberosum, L. parviflorum, L. pallidum, and L. mul- tiflorum, and a large representation of Habenaria and others of the orchid family. Here too are found eight species of the Rhexia or Meadow Beauty family. Among the ferns there are found the Woodwardias, Os- mundas, Dryopteris patens, and other of the marsh loving kinds. It is on the higher ground of the north and west part of the county that we find the subjects of this sketch. BotrrycHiums or Mosite County BT Botrychium biternatum (Lam.) Underw., which is found from North Carolina to Florida and westward into Alabama (as given by Mohr in his Plant Life of Ala- bama), is found only in Mobile county. Botrychium Alabamense Maxon, which was separated from B. biter- natum a few years ago and given specific rank by Maxon, is found growing with B. biternatum and B. obliquum on the high land ten miles west of Mobile near the village of Spring Hill. B. Alabamense is the more common of the two. It is found commonly around Spring Hill and four or five miles to the west: To the north, near the town of Whistler, I found several plants growing. B. biternatum is quite rare in the county, growing only on Spring Hill in two small col- onies. There are two distinguishing characteristics which show the wisdom of separating the two species. They are the character of the growth, and the time of fruiting. In growing, B. Alabamense lifts the sterile frond from three to ten inches above the ground, while in all the several dozens of specimens of B. biternatum I have seen, I have never found one that held the sterile frond more than an inch above the ground. Usu- ally it lies spread out flat on the earth. The time of fruiting differs by several months. B. Alabamense 1s seen coming through the ground about the middle of July, and by the middle of September it begins fruiting, which is usually complete by the 15th of October. By the last of August B. biternatum is pushing through the ground, and by December the sterile frond is fully de- veloped. But it is the first of January before the fertile frond begins to show itself through the ground. By the first of March it is in full fruit. By this time the fertile fronds of B. Alabamense have withered and the sterile fronds are turning red and begining to die down. In size B. Alabamense is the larger, reaching a height of fifteen to eighteen inches. B. biternatum runs from three to seven inches. 58 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL I have studied these ferns for about two years and this is the data that I have made from my study. I have a few specimens and I am willing to divide with members of the society if stamps are sent to cover pos- tage. Spring Hinz, Awa. Monastery Garpen, Noyon (before the war) A FERN FROM THE BaTTLE-GRouND.—I have in my herbarium a fine specimen of Dryopteris filix mas Schott. The frond was taken from a plant in the fern garden of Mrs. Wm. F. Brooks, New Britain, Conn. The plant was taken from the Monastery garden of N oyon Cathe- dral, Noyon, France, by Mrs. Brooks in July, 1913. It seems to me that battle-scarred country would be poor collecting ground for the fern collector to-day.—H. C. BigELow, New Britain, Conn. Recent Fern Literature Elizabeth Dorothy Wuist Brown has described a case of presumably induced apogamy among prothallia of ReEcENT Fern LITERATURE 59 the walking fern grown on a nutrient solution which was purposely not renewed for long periods, so that the pro- thallia were partially starved. Other investigators have concluded that, in cases observed by them, apog- amy was induced by too much light and too little mois- ture for fertilization. Mrs. Brown, however, considers that in this instance it was due rather to insufficient nourishment. - From the fact that only one case of apo- gamy could be obtained among many prothallia, she argues that under natural conditions this phenomenon is rare in the walking fern and not easily brought about.' Vaughan McCaughey has contributed to Torreya an account of the ‘“‘pala’’ or mule’s-foot fern (Marattia Douglasii,) now the only representative of its family in Hawaii, but perhaps the remnant of a once much more numerous marattiaceous flora. The species in question, abundant in the mountains, is a small tree-fern with a short trunk 1-2 ft. high and very large wide-spreading fronds. It is remarkable for the fleshy stipules at the base of the leaves, which remain adherent to the trunk and living even after the leaf has fallen. They are starchy and mucilaginous, were used as an article of food by the primitive Hawaiians and are said to be highly palatable when baked. ‘‘Mule’s-foot fern’ is Mr. Mec- Caughey’s own suggestion for an English name for this fern. Its appropriateness lies in the fact that the ‘‘en- larged leaf-base with the two thick, fleshy stipules curi- ously resembles in shape and size” the hoof of a mule.’ -1 Brown, Elizabeth Dorothy Wuist, Apogamy in gest quali rhizopiyl- lus. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 46: 27-30, pi. 2. Jan., 1919. ? MacCa aughey, Vaughan. The pala or mule’s-foot eosgeie Doug- ane bedi Baker) in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Torreya -8. Jan. American Fern Society Amedée Joseph Hans, a member of the Society since 1901, died at Locust Valley, Long Island, November 30, 1918. Mr. Hans was born Feb. 7, 1844, at Urbés, Al- sace. When he came of age, he entered the gardening pro- fession, having been a pupil of Louis van Houte of Bel- gium, proprietor of the most famous horticultural estab- lishment of that time. Later, he took a’ position with another celebrated horticulturalist, Louis Lemoine of Nancy. So it was with the very best of qualifications that he landed in this country. His first position was at Morningside Park in New York, then under construc- tion. This being a very rocky hillside park, Mr. Hans was in charge largely of a special class of alpine plants, with large moss phlox effects which were much apprec- iated by the general public travelling up and down the elevated road. He planted also thousands of the best alpine plants about the rocks of Central Park. He had a special talent for bringing forth the beautiful effects of color of the early varieties of moss phlox, with Arabis alpina and Lychnis alpina for white. He had a special love for alpine plants and felt himself in his element among them. Mr Hans left the New York Parks to take charge of the private estate of Mr. Lowell M. Palmer at Stamford, Conn., which, under Mr. Hans’s care, became celebrated for its beautiful evergreens and for a collection of hardy ferns probably not exceeded in America. Here Mr. Hans felt himself in his glory for many years; and I have Spent many a happy day with him on this beautiful place. Afterward, he was persuaded to take charge of a new estate at Locust Valley, Long Island, and here, also, he gathered a fine collection of plants and had the best fruit garden I have ever seen in this country. He. remained here until near the beginning of the two or 60 Sd cies 4 My AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY — 61 three years’ illness which ended. in the death of this great silent lover of God’s almighty nature, loved him- self by all who had the good fortune to know him.—JouNn F. Huss, Hartford, Conn. Mr. Hans was a real lover of ferns. Soon after he went to Locust Valley, he wrote with grief of the fact that ferns would not do well in that dry, brookless section of Long Island. His fern beds at Stamford were full of what were individual plants to him, and he was contin- ually adding species by purchase, and by sowings of spores received from abroad. He established the fact that the holly fern, Cyrtomium falcatum, if derived from - a north of Japan source, was hardy with slight protec- tion. Of even greater interest were his experimental spore plantings. As a result of one of these he obtained spore- lings of Nephrolepis from material of the commonly cultivated N. exaltata bostoniensis which is almost in- variably sterile. He published a brief report of this cul- ture in the Florists’ Exchange. At the Stamford place, in the small greenhouse, besides a small collection of greenhouse ferns, he had a section for spore growing, and every planting was made an experiment in hybri- dization, two or more varieties being planted together. At least once he obtained very interesting results, in the form of a distinct hybrid between Dryopteris filix- mas and D.marginalis, reference to which was made in the Fern Journal in connection with Mr. Winslow’s descrip- tion of the wild type of this hybrid. A specimen was deposited at the N. Y. Botanical Garden.—R. C. B. The death of Prof. George Francis Atkinson from influenza and pneumonia removes one of the most pro- minent botanists of the country. Prof. Atkinson had recently discontinued active work as professor of bot- 62 : AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL any at Cornell, where he had been Head of the Depart- ment since 1896, and had gone to the west coast of the U. S. to collect fungi, a group which had occupied his main attention for many years. Earlier in his career he had given considerable attention to the study of ferns and had contributed important researches on their morphology and physiology. Dr. Benedict has generously presented to the Society a number of copies of reprints of articles by him, for distribution to the members. The articles are as follows: Studies in the Ophioglossaceae—III: Key to Botrychium in North America: Group of B. ternatum. (Reprinted from Torreya, Oct., 1909. A peculiar Habitat for Camptosorus. (Reprinted from Torreya, Jan., 1910.) Some modern Varieties of the Boston Fern at their Source. (Re- printed from Journ. N. Y. Bot. Gard., Sept., 1915.) ‘ Some horticultural Fern Variations. (Reprinted from Amer. Fern Journ., March, 1916.) Copies of any or all of these reprints may be obtained by members on application to the Secretary, accom- panied by two cents for postage. The editors earnestly hope that the older members will be moved to action by Mr. Winslow’s example and accept his invitation to contribute to the JouRNAL reminiscences of the early days of the Society. We have already in hand something of this general character in the shape of a very interesting letter written some years ago by Raynal Dodge and describing in much more de- tail than anything hitherto published his work which led to the discovery of Dryopteris simulata and D. cris- tata x marginalis. Recollections of old times and the elder fern-lovers and fern-students, so many of whom have passed away, will be weleome for the JOURNAL. AMERICAN FERN SociEry 63 In this number, a slight change in the arrangement of the JqurNaL is made. The supply of notes for ‘the ‘Notes and News” department has greatly dwindled of late, and such news as comes in can very well be put with the Society matter. The heading ‘‘ Notesand News”’ is, accordingly, discontinued; all original contributions, no matter how short (and we want short notes as much as ever, or more) are run as separate articles with, however, only a ‘‘side-head”’ for title if they occupy less than a page; reviews are placed by themselves under the heading ‘‘ Recent Fern Literature;’’ and news items are put on the Society pages. If this arrangement proves satisfactory, it will be continued in future issues. For the benefit especially of new members and begin- ners in the study of ferns, the editors wish again to call attention to the fact that they are ready and anxious to answer questions and give all help possible. For the attractive illustration of the monastery garden at Noyon, the Journat is indebted to Mrs. William F. Brooks, who very kindly furnished the plate. Report of the Treasurer for 1918 RECEIPTS Cash on hand, Jan. Ee a een a eg a SO Membership dues for 1017 .--s--J.0s.sss se $19.00 191.40 1919 13.20 1920. 1.00 ——— $224.60 Subseriptions.for 19'7 20. Yee ei Se . Z neta 1 5 i | Samia nmes selena aege Pah a aot 9.9 Carriod: forward io io a a ae Eee | aes $142.05 64 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Briovmhd forward........ 2... ee es es es $270.38 $142.05 Emergency Fund, sale of back b : 10.80 i ae ee ged a lag pe aa ele 6.00 PENNE os Spee eg Se By gay se eee 4.00 MIRE poe cosy ered «Peet ns ns enw be AT Total reccints @uring the year. ..... 2... 6 1 lo ens SOS rein rc rs Ch a ge te a eee DISBURSEMENTS wegen i s eager postage, election of officers, list of embers, € $ 19.84 Suna expenses: postage ‘and prittting. UpWe gr Pipe mamta | 10.00 JOURNAL expenses: Prin Z 5 eyo ee OS: Tis rs c Soria coer: Meats satonn emt 2s 236.53 PotduvarcemGnts re ee ae oe ee Balance oa hand, Det 39; 1998 0. oo, in a ee eee This balance easiadee: Emergency Fund n . $ 65.99 yesiehenpe dlastw- RSD OIE 75 aside for printing vatwodes of the Herbarium. poet otic om 25.00 cae Fund, available for regular Bs Meee Ova 70.59 $167.33 The Special Fund created by the Life Memberships ‘and transfers from the Emergency Fund from sale of back numbers now amounts to $100, not having been increased this past year. COMPARISON OF BUDGET AND PAYMENTS I te em Allowance Payment — ecretary —— ET ee a ae $19.84 — pected ng pee a eee ec me ie 10.00 JOURNAL expenses......... . 232.00 236.53 eepetd submitted, J. G. UNDERWOOD, Treasure: Changes in the List of Members to Date Names of new members added: Arnold, William T., 2f Park Road, Wyomissing, Pa. Bear, Mrs. Charles U., 142 Putman Ave., Detroit, Mich. Beckwith, Miss Floveace’ 255 University Ave Rochester, N. Y. said Mrs. Ellis Parker, 242 State St., Flushing N. Y. Comstock, John Belden, New Britain, Conn. eee Mrs. Edward A., 155 Bryant St., Buffalo, N. Y. - House, Dr. Homer Dollives Education Reid Albany, N. Y. Jewell, C. J., Alstead, N. H. : Horne Hilary S., St. Procopius College, Lisle, Ind. Lorenz, Miss Ang se Garden St., Hartford, Conn. ia. Tene De Snyrna, N. Y. Poyser, W. A., 207 cuik 37th St., Philadelphia, Pa. Rose, Milton Sawyer, 187 Vieyeewasther St., Cambridge, Mass. Wikery, Edgar T., Bureau of Chemistry, U. 'g, Dept. of Agricul- ture, Washington, D. C. White, Kelton E., 4354 Maryland Ave., St. Louis, Mo. Fieger. SW. R. D. No. 4, Dover, ta, Changes of address: Anderson, Miss Flora C., R. D. 5, Crawfordville, Ind. Bates, Miss Ethel, Box 39, South Berwick, Maine Blake, 8S. F., Bureau of Plant Industry, U. 8. Dent. of Agricul- ture, Washington De: Cornman, Mrs. L. R., ‘Hot Lake Sanatorium, Hot Lake, Oregon. Durand, Dr. E. J., Pillsbury Hall, Univ. of Minnesota, Minne- apolis, Mina. Evans, J., Box 97, Kirkland, Wash. Heatley, Miss Margaret, Huguenot University College, Well- ington, C. P., South Africa Killip, E. P., 108 East 4th St., Oswego, N. Y. Newman, Rev. 8. M., R. D. No.5, Danbury, Conn. Phelps, Mrs . Orra P., R.D . 3, Gansevoort, N. Y. Prince, Prof. S. Fred, Kansas State Agricultural College, Man- hattan, Ka. Scott, Mrs. Willard, 10 Park St., ey Mass. tupp, F. J., 1 Sherman St., ‘Aube Ney: ee Mrs. J. B., 1713 I St., oe Dp. e. 65 66 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Names dropped: A. L. Brandegee, Mrs. James E. Cooper,* C. K. Dodge,* Raynal Bode: G. L. Fisher,* Amedée Hans, Mrs. W. B. Jolley, Miss H. E. Jones, Dr. E. I. Keffer, W. H. Leibelsperger, Miss Daisy J. Levy, Rev. H. G. Limric, Mrs. Charles P. Merwin, J. H. Pember, Prof. Ida L. Reveley, John W. Roberts,* Miss S. F. Sanborn, Mrs. M. W. Satchwell, Miss Blanche Turner,* Miss M. L. Utley Mr. Leston A. Wheeler has become a life a ae President Maxon has appointed the following com- mittee to nominate officers for the year 1920: Mr. © C. H. Bissell, Chairman, Southington, Conn.; Miss — Nellie Mirick; and Dr. Philip Dowell. All interested — are reminded that nominations made in writing by any three members in good standing and sent to the Chairman before August 20, will be placed on the —— official ballot. * Deceased. American Fern Journal Vol. 9 JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1919 No. 3. Notes on American Ferns—XIV.’ WILLIAM R. MAXON DICRANOPTERIS FLEXUOSA (ScHRAD.) UNDERW.—The occurence of this species, the only known representative of the family Gleicheniaceae in the United States, near Delschamps Station in the Mobile Bay region of Ala- bama, was first reported in 1914, the specimens having been collected the previous year by Mr. L. H. McNeill. As the plant was not subsequently reported from other parts of the near-by territory, in spite of painstaking search, this single station was visited repeatedly by local botanists, in particular by Mr. H. P. Léding and Mr. T. S. van Aller, of Mobile, who were interested in seeing that the fern at least maintained itself here. Mr. Ar- thur Howell’s visit to the locality, also, has been men- tioned in the JourNnaL.* News of the destruction of this locality, recently received, is confirmed by Mr. Lé- ding and Mr. van Aller. It will be recalled that the fern grew in a small depression in a clay railroad cut. Early in 1918, Mr. van Aller writes, the railroad com- pany removed all the clay bank in that vicinity for filling around a railroad bridge over the ‘‘narrows,’’ literally wiping the fern out of existence. At least no trace of it has been found on several later visits, and unless some of the small plants which Mr. van Aller had transplanted [Vol. 9, No. 2 of the Journal, p: ges 33-66, Plate 3, was issued July 5, 1919.] 1 Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- tion. Smaps Fern Journ. 4: 15-17. 87: 106. 1917. 68 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL to different places near by should thrive and perpetuate themselves, the species will unfortunately have dis- appeared from our United States flora. It was believed by Mr. MeNeill that the fern grew naturally where discovered and this opinion is shared by all who are fortunate enough to have visited the locality. ATHYRIUM AMERICANUM (BuTTERS) Maxon.—By an unfortunate clerical error the locality data for the recent Nevada record‘ of this species were stated wrongly. The record should stand as follows: Head of Caudle Creek, Pole Creek Ranger District, Humboldt Forest, Elko County, Nevada, alt. 2400-2550 meters, Aug. 18, 1917, W. W. Eggleston 14135. Woopwarp1a CHamissor Brack.—For nearly twenty years the American material previously included in Woodwardia radicans has very generally and properly been regarded as specifically distinct from that exclus- ively Old World plant. It has been assumed, however, that the plants ranging from the region of Puget Sound to eastern Guatemala represent but a single species, W. spinulosa Mart. & Gal. Recent study shows, neverthe- less, that the United States and British Columbia speci- mens differ consistently from the plant of Mexico and Guatemala; and while the distinguishing characters are variable, and to a certain extent comparative, they seem important enough to justify the recognition of two close- ly related species in the North American area. The name Woodwardia spinulosa, based upon Mexican material,* applies to the southern form; the northern species, which is especially common in the coast ranges of California, was well characterized long ago on California specimens as W. Chamissoi, by Brackenridge.* The main points of distinction are as follows: 4 Amer. Fern Journ. 8: 121. 1918. * Nouv. Mém. Acad. Sci. Brux. 155: 64. 1842. Wilkes, U. 8. Explor. Exped. 16: 138. 1854. Notes on AMERICAN Frrns—XIV 69 W. Chamissoi Tronds stiffly ascending from an oblique or erect rhizome, the stipes short and stout (up to 1.5 em. in diameter). Blades oblanceolate to linear- istant basal pinnae often only half as long as the middle ones. Pinnae (the basal ones ex- cepted) close, often imbricate, rigidly ascending, numerous, nder side of segments nearly naked, except at an early stage; veins bearing numerous large, pale yellow, transparent resin glands. Veins arising from fertile costal areoles oblique, once or twice forked, the branches mostly free (at least in upper half of segments). Indusia nearly homogeneous rous, = resinous-slandutes at the bas Ne, DEALBATA ( W. spinulosa Fronds laxly ascending from decumbent Blades broadly ovate, not narrowed downward, the basal pinnae large, nearly or quite as long as the middle ones, never distant and reduced. Pinnae adjacent or all slightly apart, ee or laxly as- cénding, Under mi of segments brown- ish-fibrillose along the veins, the minute scales filiform or fila- mentous, ior eaten large resin glands wanting. Veins feo costal areoles less sometimes two incomplete addi- tional rows of areoles. Indusia abruptly membranous in the outer part, never resinous- glandular, a few minute capitate hairs often borne upon the margin rsh) Kunze.—This spe- Pu cies, described by Pursh? as Cheilanthes dealbata upon specimens from the ‘banks of the Missouri,” was trans- ferred to Notholaena by Kunze in 1848,* who properly regarded his own Notholaena pulchella, founded on Missouri material a few years earlier,’ as the same, and commented upon N. deaibata as “nearly related to N. nivea, though essentially distinct.” Subsequently, true V. dealbata was found to extend from Missouri and Nebraska southward to central Texas; but there were 7 Fl. Amer, Sept. 2: 671. 1814. 8 Amer. Journ. Sci. “= sds 82. 1848, ® Bot. Zeit. 1: 633. 70 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL also referred to this species certain specimens from New Mexico and Arizona which are not the same. A part of these were eventually recognized as being dif- ferent; but on the basis of some of the others, which were regarded as connecting links with the typical form, N. dealbata was reduced to varietal rank under N. nivea, in 1883, by Davenport,!° who quoted Baker to the effect that “dealbata seems to me now to run gradually into nwea.” Underwood restored N. dealbata to specifie rank in 1900," but nominally only and without drawing any clear distinctions, as may be inferred also from his recognizing both N. nivea and N. dealbata as occur- ring in New Mexico and Arizona. The facts are, how- ever, that N. dealbata is a fairly well-marked species confined apparently to Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and that part of Texas lying from the central portion of the State northward; and that the plant of New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Utah, which has been rather vaguely understood as N. nivea, is specifically distinct alike from N. dealbata and true tropical American N. nirea. The distinctive characters of N. dealbata are mentioned hereafter in comparison with the Mexican Border plant, which may appropri- ately be known as: Notholaena limitanea Maxon, sp. nov.—Rhizome decumbent or horizontal, woody, relatively large, 1-4 em. long, 1-1.5 em. thick, conspicuously chaffy at the apex; scales loosely tufted, light castaneous, linear- attenuate, 7-10 mm. long, about 0.5 mm. wide, lightly flexuous, subentire, with a few stalked, turgid, marginal glands. Fronds humerous, cespitose, erect or ascend- ing, 8-25 cm. long; stipes 4-12 em. long, very dark castaneous or atropurpureous, usually rather slender, naked above the curved base, glaucous ; blades deltoid- 10 Cat. Davenp. Herb. Suppl. 44, 1 Nat. Ferns, ed. 6, 88. Notes ON AMERICAN FreRNS—XIV 71 ovate, subpentagonal, acute, 5-15 cm. long, 4-11 ¢ broad, 4—5-pinnate, the rachises blackish, delicate, the minor ones almost capillary; pinnae about 6 pairs, slightly ascending, subopposite, long-stalked, deltoid, contiguous; basal pinnae much the largest, about half as long as the blade, conspicuously long-stalked, sub- ternate, with the basal pinnules long-stalked, subternate, deltoid, the other pinnules smaller, less decompound and with shorter stalks; ultimate segments sessile or nearly so, mostly 2-3 mm. long, linear-oblong, appearing slightly broadest at the obliquely truncate or subcordate, inequilateral base, or at maturity often broadly oblong or bluntly ovate-oblong by the thrusting back of the widely revolute margin, the segments thus often plane; under surfaces thickly but flocculently whitish-ceraceous; sporangia numerous, extending at least half the length of the veinlets from their tip, only partially concealed at any stage. Leaf tissue spongiose-herbaceous, glau- cous above. - Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, No. 736532, collected on Tortugas Mountain, southeast o, Las Cruces, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, altitude about 1,400 meters, Sept. 14, 1902, by E. O. Wooton. Tortugas Mountain, sometimes called also Little Mountain, is an isolated limestone mass rising rather abruptly from the mesa which lies west of the Organ Mountains toward the Rio Grande. The following additional specimens are in the National Herbarium: New Mexico: Tortugas Mountain, Oct. 14, 1893, Wooton; July, 1906, Wooton & Stand'ey; Aug. 12, 1906, Wooton & Standley. Mogollon Mountains, alt. 2,400 meters, Metcalfe 1003. Arizona: Hand’s Trail, Chiricahua Mountains, alt. 2,100 meters, Blumer 1526. Dragoon Mountains, G. R. Vasey 6. Nogales, W. Palmer 1206; Evermann. Near Portal, Cochise County, in the Chiricahua National ia AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Forest, alt. 1,600-1,800 meters, Eggleston 10983. Hua- chuca Mountains, August to October, 1882, Lemmon; Holzner (Internat. Bound. Comm. 1718). Sonoita Val- ley, Rothrock 657. Dutch Charley’s Ranch, near Monu- men , Pima County, Mearns (Internat. Bound. Comm. 1851). Tombstone mines, Cochise County, Apr. 23, 1880, Lemmon. Ura: Mesa, between Bear’s Ears, Elk Mountains, and the Natural Bridges of White Canyon, alt. 2,000- 2,200 meters, Rydberg & Garreit 9386. The specimens just cited agree in essential char- acters, but vary considerably in size, however, from Holzner’s large Huachuca specimen to plants which, though by no means depauperate, are but half that size. In all these the broadly deltoid-ovate form of the blades is a constant and conspicuous character, the basal pinnae averaging at least half as long as the blade itself. Differing from them in minor particulars is the following form, which seems to merit recognition: Notholaena limitanea mexicana Maxon, subsp. nov.—Blades narrower than in the typical form, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 3-4-pinnate; pinnae more oblique, narrower, the basal ones only one-fourth to one-third as long as the blade; segments averaging larger. Type in the U. 8. National Herbarium, No. 42059, collected from limestone ledges of the Santa Eulalia Mountains, Chihuahua, Mexico, Sept. 15, 1885, by C. G. Pringle (No. 451). Agreeing with this are two _ Sheets collected by Wilkinson at the same time and place, and a single Arizona specimen (Wilgus Ranch, Chiricahua Mountains, alt. 1,800 meters, Aug. 31, 1907, Blumer 2390). The appearance of these specimens is rather distinctive, but the characters are only com- parative and the transition to typical N. limi.anea, though not complete, is definitely indicated. Plants collected in the Burro Mountains of New Mexico. by Mey a a id A. CRISTATUMX MARGINALE AND A. SIMULATUM 73 Rusby in October, 1880, are also to be referred here. Notholaena limitanea and N. limitanea mexicana are in all respects more robust than N. dealbata. That species differs particularly in its lesser size, its smaller rhizomes and smaller, often obtusely denticulate scales, its more slender (often capillary), paler stipes, its fewer pinnae, its narrow and much thinner segments (these for the most part with a narrowly cuneate base), its much more oblique veins (often apparent above), and in its very much fewer sporangia, these borne usually in a single row apart from the margin, commonly only one to an individual vein-branch. The relationship of N. limitanea and its subspecies with the variable complex of Mexican and South Amer- ican plants called N. nivea is about equally close. That collective species is distinguished in general, however, by its much greater size, its 2-3-pinnate blades, and its much larger, distinctly stalked, mostly cordate seg- ments, as well as by characters of soriation and rhizome scales. WasuinetTon, D. C. Aspidium cristatum x marginale and A. simulatum RAYNAL DODGE [The following extracts from a letter written to Mr. C. H. Knowlton by Mr. Dodge in 1907 give a more de- tailed account of his discovery of the Massachusetts fern and the hybrid between the crested and marginal ferns than has yet appeared and should be of interest to our readers.]| Since boyhood I have been interested in nature study and in making collections of natural objects. My first interest was in birds, bird-egging and gunning, then in 74 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL entomology and mineralogy and to some extent in bot- any, but it was not until about thirty years ago, 1876, that I began to pay especial attention to botany. I commenced with Gray’s “How Plants grow” and various books on floriculture. I then bought Wood’s “Class Book,” which I gave considerable study. About 1879 I renewed my aquaintance with Mr. Edward Moulton in whose company I had made many expedi- tions in quest of birds and microscopic material in years gone by. He had been absent from the city for some years, as I had myself. I found that he had been giving some attention to wild plants and so together we began to make botanical excursions into the surrounding towns and continued to do so for six or eight years or until he again removed from Newburyport. Our expeditions were made usu- ally on Sunday and we sought wild plants with a good deal of persistency. I remember that one season we made botanical excursions on twenty-seven consecutive Sundays, collecting and examining plants, both phaeno- gams and cryptogams, and as we used the fourth edition of the Manual, both musci and hepaticae were included. In the mean time we became acquainted with Mr. Al- vah A. Eaton of Seabrook, N. H., who was also interested in botanical matters and who introduced us to many fruitful localities in Salisbury, Seabrook and Hampton. During all this period from 1876 to 1892 and indeed up to the present time I was making a collection of pressed specimens of every plant I considered rare and have the collection yet. Many of these pressed speci- mens are fern fronds. I did not know the native ferns as well twenty-five years ago as I do now, but I was able to identify all the commoner species and especially I was able to distinguish between [Aspidium] Thelypteris and [A.] Noveboracense. A. CRISTATUMX MARGINALE AND A. SIMULATUM 79 In due course of time Mr. Eaton went to California and Mr. Moulton to West Newbury and for a while I pursued my investigations alone. I soon, however, be- came acquainted with Dr. William Noyes, a former den- tal surgeon of Newburyport. I found that Mr. Noyes had for several years been interested in collecting and cultivating ferns. . . . I made many botanical trips with him, sometimes going fifteen or twenty miles from New- buryport and on one eccasion we made an excursion to Mi... Toby) os: One Bieta in August, 1891, accompanied by my nephew, I made a trip to the town of Merrimac, visiting a locality where I had been once before, one of my ob- jects being to obtain specimens of Asplenium thelyptero- ides. In lookimg over the ferns of the locality, of which there were quite a number of species, I came across a clump of what at first I took to be an odd looking form of A. cristatum. A. marginale was abundant on the hill- side and A. cristatum equally so in the low land between the hill and a neighboring river and I could but notice that this fern new to me grew at the very foot of the hill. I made further search and about fifty yards further on found another clump in the same position—that is, at the foot of the hill. A long-continued quest for the fern both on the hillside and in the low land proved to be fruitless. I collected specimens and returning home looked up A. cristatum, var. Clintonianum in the Manual and later in Eaton’s “Ferns of North America” (Boston Public Library), but I rejected the idea that it was a variety of A. cristatum, having already made up my mind that the new fern was a mix between A. cristatum and A. margin- I continued my investigations into the new fern. I made a good many botanical excursions the next summer, always having in mind the question of the relative abun- 76 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL dance of the fern. I found that, given the proper con- ditions, a hillside with marginale and a swamp with crist- atum, the new fern, the hybrid, was nearly always to be found at the dividing line. On these excursions I was often alone, but sometimes accompanied by my nephew or by Dr. Noyes. I found the hybrid in Amesbury, Newbury, Topsfield, West Newbury and growing abun- dantly at Crooked Pond in Boxford. I got together my notes and in the summer of 1892, made up a package of specimens and sent both notes and specimens to Prof. Eaton of Yale. .... [Hel coincided .. . . with my views as regards the fern being a hybrid and advised me to publish an account of it. I answered that I preferred to have him do so. _ Prof. Eaton then sent the package to Mr. Davenport, from whom I a little later received a letter to that effect. I then invited Mr. Davenport to meet me at Topsfield depot, there to take conveyance to Crooked Pond in Boxford. . . . On arriving at Crooked Pond I showed the fern to Mr. Davenport, growing in as many as a dozen places. In fact, Crooked Pond is, or was, an ideal place for Aspidium cristatum x marginale. I made it clear to Mr. Davenport that the fern in question grew nearly always at the foot of the rocky hills next the marsh. I showed him that in several instances a large fern occupied the central posi- tion with younger ferns clustered about it, and that these smaller ferns had originated from radiating root- stocks, that the fronds resembled those of marginale at the tip and those of cristatum below, and that the plants had a remarkable tendency to produce misshapen and abortive fronds. I then left the case with Mr. Daven- port who lifted some of the ferns to, as he said, culti- vate and study them on his grounds at Medford. : In this connection, see Botanical Gazette, Dec. 1894, and Garden and Forest, Vol. IX, No. 454, wherein are eT lata ta hk RT Se art hal Sent ae A. CRISTATUMXMARGINALE AND A. SIMULATUM 77 contained articles by Mr. Davenport relating to this fern. It is the same which for years has been known as A. cristatum, var. Clintonianum which, however, does not grow in eastern Massachusetts. But, nevertheless, our fern, until I showed that it was a probable hybrid, had always been known as var. Clintonianum. Several specimens in the herbarium of the Peabody Academy of Sciences are tagged in this way, one or two of them are among the specimens of A. cristatum, and it is fair to presume that in the herbarium at Cambridge there are some fronds of this hybrid marked cristatum Clintoni- anum. But var. Clintonianum is as much a product of calea- reous soil as are A. Goldieanum or Cystopteris bulbifera. I have had a half dozen plants of Clintonianum under cultivation, some from western Massachusetts, and some from New York. One of these plants was sent me by an attorney of Buffalo after an examination of Judge Clin- ton’s specimens in the herbarium of the Buffalo Academy of Sciences. I received this fern with the understand- ing that it was taken from the identical swamp where Judge Clinton collected his plants. These plants of A. cris|tatum| Clin{tonianum] are unlike the plants of A. cris[tatum] x marglinale] although the books have made no distinction between them. The idea I have regard- ing the fern which has been named var. Clintonianum and especially regarding Judge Clinton’s plant is that it is a hybrid between Aspidium Goldieanum and Aspidium cristatum. They have every appearance of this and I think the subject should be investigated. ASPIDIUM SIMULATUM In August, 1891, Mr. William H. Swasey of Newbury- port showed me a peculiarly shaped frond which he had taken from a fern growing at the “‘ Pines,’ so called, at Newburyport. This frond had somewhat the appear- 78 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ance of one from a plant of Aspidiuwm Noveboracense. Its lower pinnae, however, were more like those of A. Thelypteris, but broader, ovate, acuminate and inflexed. The venation was that of Nove[boracense]. At his invitation, I accompanied him to the locality. We found but few ferns having fronds of this peculiar character and these not well grown, compared with many which I afterward found. A few days later, Mr. Swasey made another trip in quest of the fern, this time going to Salisbury. He returned with some finely grown fronds which he brought to me for examination. These fronds had the same general characteristics as those he got at the ‘‘Pines,”’ but all more intensified, so to speak. We discussed the fern on several occasions and I re-: member particularly that I once asked Mr. Swasey whether he thought the fern most like Thelypteris or Nove (as we used to term it.) He answered that he thought it most like Nove despite the general outline of its fronds. He said that he considered it to be a variety of Nove and I at the time coincided with his opinion. You will understand from Mr. Davenport’s article in Garden and Forest Vol. [X, that terming this fern a va- riety of Noveboracense was a long step in advance. Mr. Davenport in the article referred to gives several instan- ces where the fern had already been collected and re- ferred to A. Thelypteris, once indeed by himself. Prof. Eaton also gave me the impression that he considered the fern to be a form of Thelypteris. . . . I became much interested in the case, and began mak- ing excursions into the surrounding country in search of the fern. I found it in some cases growing by the acre, sometimes to the exclusion of any other species. I found too that when growing in localities where the trees had been cut away, thus exposing it to the direct rays of the sun, the fern took on the exact appearance of the narrow form of Asplenium Filiz-foemina with condup- Ber st eal Nh ie A. CRISTATUMX MARGINALE AND A. SIMULATUM 79 licate pinnae, which Thelypteris and Noveboracense never do. I found also that small plants of this fern were al- most identical in appearance with those of A. Filix-foem- ina. I communicated these facts to Mr. Davenport la- ter on and it was the resemblance of the fern in certain stages to lady fern that caused him to name the plant A. simulatum. I then remembered that I had seen what at the time I considered to be an immense amount of this narrow contracted form of lady fern growing years before at Folly Mill Woods in Seabrook, N. H., and had collected specimens. I made a trip to the place to look the mat- ter up. I found that in my old locality for the supposed lady fern there was to be found an abundance of the new Aspidium and very little of the Asplenium, the ground having become shaded by a growth of young trees, but in the immediate neighborhood I found a place where the trees had been cut away recently and there the new fern with conduplicate pinnae was abundant. I looked up my specimens and in doing so I also found that I had collected some fronds of the new fern which had grown under normal conditions as forms of Aspid- ium Noveboracense. These fronds were collected about 1880. My second visit to the locality about which I have been writing was made in August, 1892. . . When I sent the package of hybrid fronds and notes on the hybrid fern to Prof. Eaton in the autumn of 1892, I included in the bundle ffonds of this fern which Mr. Davenport has termed Aspidiuwm simulatum and also gave Prof. Eaton the results of my observations on it. Prof. Eaton requested me to send him plants of the fern for cultivating and I did so. When I made the appointment to meet Mr. Daven- port at Crooked Pond in Boxford, I placed some freshly gathered fronds of simulatum in my vasculum. After we had examined the hybrid plants at the foot of the 80 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL hills to the satisfaction of Mr. Davenport, and had tak- en a seat in the shade for awhile, I... . brought out my fronds of simulatum and asked him whether he considered they were fronds of Thelypteris or Nove. He replied that he considered they were fronds of neither. I then gave him a short account of my observations on the fern, tell- ing him it was very abundant in some localities, remark- ing that the differences between the fern and Thelypteris and Nove were evidently not produced by environment, as without searching particularly I had noticed several places where a person without changing position could lay hands on a clump of each fern. Mr. Davenport be- came interested and we made arrangements for an ex- cursion to the Small Pox woods in Salisbury a week from the following Sunday. Our trip to Crooked Pond was made on Saturday. This is my story, or as much of it as has not appeared in the botanical journals. See . . . Fern Bulletin, Vol. IV, no. 3, for an article by myself... . Anyone previously unfamiliar with this fern and who yet could easily distinguish between Thelypteris and Nove would, at the first sight of a growing clump, con- clude that the fern was Nove with a peculiar habit of growth. Further examination, however, shows that the fronds at the base are more like those of Thelypteris but with inflexed pinnae of a differing shape. When pressed these fronds become still more like those of Thelypteris in appearance and so are very deceiving. To be sure, the venation is not that of Thelypteris, but as some fronds of Thelypteris have pinnae with quite simple veins, the experts let this difference pass by. Many little details of differences between the three ferns I com- municated to Mr. Davenport and it was Mr. Davenport, be it remembered, that gave the final decision that the odd form was a new fern to be called Aspidium simulatum. NEwsuRyPorT, Mass., May 27, 1907. Texas Pteridophyta—III ERNEST J. PALMER CHEILANTHES TOMENTOSA Link. Granite Mountain, Burnet County, 10261; Milano, Milam County, 11689: San Saba, San Saba County: 11821; Brownwood, Brown County, 11908. In clefts or ledges, usually of sandstone or silicious rocks. The specimens from Granite Mountain were growing in clefts of granite, where it is commonly found. CHEILANTHES LinpHEIMERI Hook. Leakey, Real County, 10142; Uvalde, Uvalde County, 11047, 13503. Found at Uvalde amongst trap-rock (phonolite) rubble, and at Leakey ane dry limestone ledges of high hills. NOTHOLAENA DEALBATA (Pursh) Kunze. Brown- wood, Brown County, 10377, 11114; San Saba, San Saba County, 11805; Johnsville, Erath County, 14200; Strawn, Palopinto County, 14238; San Marcos, Hays Count In clefts of dry limestone cliffs and boulders, with partial shade. Most abundant in the Carboniferous area and appears to have extended thence into the edge of the Comanchean formations. NOTHOLAENA CANDIDA (Mart. & Gal.) Hook. Leakey, Real County, 10145; Barksdale, Edwards County, 11011 : Concan, Uvalde County, 11552; Montell, Uvalde County, 13001; Devils River, Valverde County; Junc- tion, Kimble County; Chalk Bluff, Uvalde County. Found on high limestone hills, growing on exposed slopes and ledges. NOTHOLAENA sinuaTA (Sw.) Kaulf. Leakey, Real County, 10143; Barksdale, Edwards County; Uvalde, Uvalde County, 11048; San Angelo, Tom Green County, 81 82 _ AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 11139; Bronte, Coke County, 11168; Campbelton, Atascosa County, 11235; San Saba, San Saba’ County, 11791; Manchaca, Travis County, 12152; Colorado, Mitchell County, 13780; Montell, Uvalde County; Medina Lake, Bandera County; Devils River, Val- verde County. Amongst limestone rocks or along dry ledges through- out the Edwards Plateau. At Uvalde it was found amongst trap-rock (phonolite) rubble, and at Campbel- ; ton on dry Tertiary sandstone hillsides. In its north- western range, as at Colorado, Bronte, and San Angelo, it is often found amongst sandstone rocks of the Per- mian or Triassic formations. NorHoLAENA Grayr Davenp. Uvalde, Uvalde County, 13504. This species appears to be very rare east of the Pecos River. It was found growing amongst rubble on the south side of a trap-rock (phonolite) hill, near Uvalde, where it is rather scarce. ASPLENIUM PARVULUM Mart. & Gal. Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 9955; Kerrville, Kerr County, 11504a; Upper Seco Creek, Bandera County, 10240; Brownwood, Brown County, 11113; Manchaca, Travis County, 12141; Sabina Creek, Kendall County, 13636; San Marcos, Hayes County; Montell, Uvalde County; Boerne, Ken- dall County. On limestone cliffs and ledges, in partial shade, but rather dry situations. ASPLENIUM PLATYNEURON (L.) Oakes. Columbia, Brazoria County, 5062; Marshall, Harrison County, 5305; College Station, Brazos County, 9352; Dayton, Liberty County, 11463; Quarry, Washington County, 11706; San Augustine, San Augustine County; Houston, Harris County; Riverside, Walker County; Palestine, Anderson County; Larissa, Cherokee County. TExas PreripopHyta—II1 83 Widely distributed in both the eastern and western parts of the state. Commonly grows amongst rocks on partially shaded hillsides, but where such conditions are not found it appears to be quite adaptable. At Columbia it was found on knolls and about stumps in low, wet woods, at: College Station and San Augustine on banks in sandy woods, at Dayton on superficial roots of Magnolia trees and at Palestine on tree trunks, three or four decimetres above the ground. ATHYRIUM FrLrx-FoEMINA (L.) Roth. Marshall, Har- rison County, 5307; Larissa, Cherokee County, 8626; Grapeland, Houston County, 12057; San Augustine, San Augustine County, 12714; Palestine, Anderson County; Fletcher, Hardin County. In sandy bogs or moist, sandy woods, throughout the southern and eastern portions of the state. WoopWARDIA VIRGINICA (L.) Sm. Grapeland, Hous- ton County, 12059; San Augustine, San Augustine County, 12705. Found in sandy bogs or low, sandy woods, but no- where very abundant. WoopWARDIA AREOLATA (L.) Moore. Marshall, Har- rison County, 5310, 8607; Milano, Milam County, 11682; Huntsville, Walker County, 12053; San Augus- tine, San Augustine County, 12704; Grapeland, Houston County; Palestine, Anderson County; Fletcher, Hardin County. Grows in similar situations to last, but is commoner and more widely distributed. ONOCLEA SENSIBILIS L. Marshall, Harrison County, 5306; Larissa, Cherokee County, 8625; Palestine, Ander- son County, 10729; Houston, Harris County, 11997; Huntsville, Walker County, 12052; San Augustine, San Augustine County; Grapeland, Houston County. In swampy, open woods or sandy bogs, throughout the eastern part. 84 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL TECTARIA TRIFOLIATA (L.) Cav. Montell, Uvalde County, 12328. This, one of the rarest of Texas ferns, was found growing near the entrance to a small, dry limestone cave. The opening is a narrow fissure in horizontal limestone strata on a level hilltop, and the plants were growing on a dry ledge below it, where they received direct sunlight only during a short time each day, and almost complete protection from the hot winds and scorching sun in summer and the extreme cold of winter. A specimen in the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden, collected by Lindheimer in 1847, “At the entrance of a dry limestone cave,” near New Braunfels, is the only other collection from Texas, so far as I am aware. POLYSTICHUM ACROSTICHOIDES (Michx.) Schott. Liv- ingston, Polk County, 5160, 5253; Houston, Harris County, 11995; Huntsville, Walker County, 12055; Marshall, Harrison County; San Augustine, San Aug- ustine County; Fletcher, Hardin County. On rich wooded hillsides or steep, shaded banks of ravines. Dryopreris THEtyprerts (L.) Gray. Liberty, Lib- erty County, 8554; Grapeland, Houston County, 13183. In open, sandy bogs. Apparently rather rare and restricted. Drropreris Normauis C. Chr. (Aspidium patens D. C. Eaton, not Swartz.) Columbia, Brazoria County, 9014; Brazoria, Brazoria County, 5111; Livingston, Polk County, 5167; San Augustine, San Augustine County, 7898; Marshall, Harrison County, 8646; Pledger, Matagorda County, 9699; Lacey’s Ranch, Kerr County, 9979 ; Telegraph, Kimble County, 10940; Devils River, Valverde County, 11380; Dayton, Lib- erty County, 11464; Blanco, Blanco County, 11570; TEXAS PreripopHyTa—I II 85 Houston, Harris County, 11941; Montell, Uvalde County; Medina Lake, Bandera Countess Manchack Travis County; San Marcos, Hays. County; Boerne, Kendall County; Pulliam, Zavalla County. In eastern Texas this species is found along the margins of sandy creeks and bayous, and is confined © to the southern portion. I did not observe it north of San Augustine. In the Edwards Plateau it is con- fined to deep canyons, where it grows about the margins of pools or at the foot of dripping limestone bluffs or on wet ledges. Here it is nearly always associated with Adiantum Capillus-Veneris. PHEGOPTERIS HEXAGONOPTERA (Michx.) Fée. San Augustine, San Augustine County, 14462. Sandy, wooded bank, on margin of bog. This is the only station at which I have found the species in Texas and I am not aware that it has been previously reported from the state. Woopsia ostusa (Spreng.) Torr. Marshall, Harri- son County, 5295; Longview, Gregg Rionty. 7128; Bryan, Brazos Gaaniy: 7809; Granite Mountain, Buriat County, 10260; Milano, Milam County, 11659; Quarry, Washington County, 11708; Huntsville, Walker County, 12036; Riverside, Walker County, 13160; Palestine, ‘Audewon County, 12083; Manchaca, Tavis County, 12140; Larissa, Cherokee County Aimonpe rocks or along oe dry shaded ledges. Most abundant in sandstone or granite regions. Wess Ciry, Mo. A Crested Form of the Lady Fern L. 8. HOPKINS In the summer of 1916, while on a field trip near Windham, Portage County, this state, I found a crested form of the Lady Fern. The form was new to me and sufficiently beautiful to make a rather striking appear- ance. I lifted the plant and brought it home. It was first given a place with several other ferns in a small bit of native woods on the college campus. Although assurance had been given that the ferns were in no danger and would not be disturbed during the construction of a new dormitory nearby, the work- men buried the entire bed under logs, scrap lumber, and rubbish to the depth of some six or eight feet before their plight was discovered. After half a day of very strenuous labor on my part, which was a source of considerable amusement to those who had been guilty of the carelessness, the roots of perhaps half of the ferns, all of which were the very rarest species known to the state, were recovered and transferred to a hastily pre- pared fern-bed by the side of the house in which I am now living. The crested Lady Fern was one of those which was rescued. It took kindly to its new home and has be- come more cristate each year until it is now a plant of real beauty. Dr. Butterst has shown that there are two species of Lady Ferns instead of one in the eastern half of the United States, neither of which is identical with Athyrium fiz-foemina (L.) Roth, of Europe. He concludes further that Athyrium asplenioides (Michx.) Desv. is prevailingly southern in its distribution, while Athyrium angustum (Willd.) Presl is prevailingly northern in its distribution. ‘Contributions from the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. Butters, F. K. Rhodora 19: 189-207, pl. 123. Sept., 1917. 86 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Vou. 9, Fuate 4. ATHYRIUM ANGUSTUM, VAR. CRISTATUM HOPKINS 88 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL I am not aware to what extent, if any, crested forms of the Lady Fern are represented in the various her- baria and fern gardens. However, in the light of Dr. Butters’ conclusion, it is improbable that this par- ticular form has ever been given its proper name. I therefore wish to suggest that it be called ATHYRIUM ANGUSTUM var. cristatum var. nov. It is at once readily distinguished from the type and all other varieties by the crested pinnae and apex. The numerous (2 to 10) subdivisions of the pinnae are often again crested, giving the pinnae a plume-like appear- ance. The apex of many fronds bears such numerous crests that they are almost rosette-like in appearance. All of this is lost however in preparing specimens for the herbarium. Fruiting fronds have been produced freely but the spores have not been tested to determine their fer- tility. If by chance this form has been properly named elsewhere, the present notes will at least serve to call attention to what is likely to become known as the most beautiful form of this popular species. Quite a number of herbarium specimens have been prepared and will be given to those who care to send postage. State Norma Couiecs, KENT, OHIO. Commercial Fern Gathering STEWART H. BURNHAM Mr. Frank B. Tucker has published in American Forestry! an article on “Gathering the Spinulose Shield Fern,” the picking of the fronds of which paid for his 1 Am. Forestry 25: 1226-2128, illus. July, 1919. COMMERCIAL FERN GATHERING 89 vacation in Vermont several years ago. The name of the hamlet where he stopped is not given, but ‘‘it is delightfully situated in a dilation of a valley of a branch of the Deerfield River, some nineteen hundred feet above sea level, with encircling summits rising another ten hundred feet.” “About ten years ago, a shrewd-eyed native of the locality saw a fortune in the perennial crop of the spinu- lose shield fern’? that grew in the moist woods abun- dantly, conceived the idea of marketing the fronds and now has become an acknowledged “benefactor of the community.” Ordinarily, “picking begins about two weeks before Labor Day and lasts about five weeks.” “During the height of the picking season some families earn as much as ninety dollars a week, clearing some five hundred dollars during the season.”’ The men gather the ferns from early morning until late at night in large hampers which are brought in several times during the day to their women for bunching. The ferns are bound, in bunches of twenty-five, by a piece of thread, each bunch containing an assortment of sizes varying from about nine inches to eighteen inches. Some men bunch their ferns as they pick; however, most of the bunching is done by women or at night. Some difficulty is experienced at the beginning, it is said, to distinguish the spinulose shield fern from other ferns growing with it, but a novice soon becomes pro- ficient. An “expert gauges the size and quality of the ferns almost by the feeling of their stalks; and, instead of gathering them one at a time, his busy fingers take, in one operation, all those of the cluster that are of proper size. The ferns are not pulled up by the roots, but are broken off a few inches below the lowest frond.” The dealer and his agents to whom the ferns are deliv- ered ship these bunched ferns as far west as Chicago and Denver, and the wastage from being kept in cold 90 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL storage is often very great. It is stated that from this hamlet 90,000,000 fern fronds were picked in one year. One’s first thought, after reading this article, is that the spinulose shield fern, presumably Dryopteris inter- media (Muhl.) Gray, is doomed in the localities where it is so prodigiously picked. However, from what one can glean from the facts stated, the industry continues year after year with no apparent or appreciable ex- haustion of the fern. This is without doubt due to the fact that the fronds are picked or broken off so that the rootstocks are uninjured, although one might sus- pect that yearly picking of the fronds would eventually weaken the vitality of the plants to a marked degree. Might not this be true with the half-evergreen spinulose shield fern? Mr. W. N. Clute has copied? from the American Botanist, December, 1903, an article, “Destroying the Ferns.” It relates largely to an attempt to pass a measure in the Massachusetts Legislature early in 1903, requiring that each commercial fern gatherer in the Berkshires and that State be required to have a license for fern picking, and to make other laws restricting the collecting. It is there stated, “not more than $50,000 worth of ferns are harvested in Berkshire every year,” and “it is estimated that more than 100,000,000 ferns are gathered each year and put in cold storage at Spring- field to be sent broadcast over the country.” Un- doubtedly this bill was killed in the Legislature, as a stiff fight was to be waged to defeat it. Prof. Clute ends the article by saying: “It is a mistake to think that removing the fronds, even in autumn, does no harm to the plants. Gathering the fronds late in the year injures the plants less than at other seasons, but it may be safely assumed that so long as the fronds are * Fern Bulletin 12: 55-57. April, 1904. : COMMERCIAL FERN GATHERING 91 green the plant has use for them. . . . Any person willing to exterminate our ferns at $2.50 a wagon-load ought to be converted.” Mrs. Orra Parker Phelps writes? from Salisbury, Connecticut, of seeing large bales of ferns waiting for shipment at a little country station. ‘The ferns were Aspidium marginale, A. spinulosum and its varieties, and Polystichum acrostichoides. On none of the fronds did the spores seem to be ripe and some of the fronds were still so young that the tips were not fully devel- oped.” She asks, “‘How long does it take a fern to come from the spore to maturity? Surely no less than six years, probably much longer. But suppose the fronds were carefully collected, what of the scattering of spores for the production of new. ferns?” Mrs. Phelps also speaks of the fact that “in the year 1869, the Connecticut legislature passed an act prohibiting the gathering of the climbing fern, Lygodiuwm palmatum. Prior to that time, this beautiful fern had been exten- sively collected and sold for decorative purposes’’; but since the passing of the act it has recovered from its threatened extinction in the regions where it grows. Mr. Harold Goddard Rugg speaks‘ of the collecting of Polystichum acrostichoides, known to the collectors as the “dagger” fern, at Cavendish, Vermont, where “in one year three hundred and twenty-five thousand fronds were shipped to a Boston florist. This one florist, in the course of a year, uses one million fern fronds and one thousand pounds of ground pine or Lycopodium of various varieties.” Mr. Rugg speaks of the collecting of Dryopteris intermedia, known as “fancy” or “lace’’ fern, in southern Vermont, where collectors have picked the fern in some localities for twenty-five 3A Plea for Fern Protection. Am. Fern Journal 2: 22-23. Jan., 1912. ¥F Journal *Fern Protection Needed. Am. Fern 3: 93-94. July—Sept., 1913. SZ: AMERICAN FERN JoURNAL years; and states that the pickers say “they can see no diminution in the quantity or even the quality of the plants.” Mr. Rugg raises the question: “Does this collecting of fronds injure the plants themselves and in time kill them? As yet I have been unable to answer this question in a satisfactory way. It is true, doubt- less, that careless pickers are apt to disturb the roots, which may become exposed to the dry surface air. In time this exposure may cause the death of the plant.” It is further stated that ferns “are in more or less danger, from the many nurserymen who are now dealing in our hardy plants” and who “buy their plants directly from the collectors who despoil our woods of roots.” A reprinted newspaper clipping® states that ‘‘more than $30,000 has been paid out in the months of Sep- tember, October and the first part of November to gatherers of wild ferns in the four Bennington County towns of Woodford, Stamford, Searsburg and Reads- boro. The pickers were paid by the piece, four cents a hundred, and as there have been more than 6,000,000 ferns shipped out of the mountains this season, the sum total is easily reached.” The hamlet Frank B. Tucker refers to is evidently one of these villages or in that vicinity. The clipping, as does Mr. Tucker in his article, speaks of lumber companies and _ individual property owners of “the mountain land on which the ferns are gathered” leasing ‘‘the picking privileges, instead of permitting free access to the property, as was formerly the case.’ Mr. E. J. Winslow quotes* from an article by F. E. Robertson in The Vermonter for October, 1915, regard- ing the fern picking industry ‘in the towns of Wood- ford, Searsburg, Stamford and Readsboro,” where ‘‘over * $30,000 Paid Fern Pickers. Am. Fern Journal 4: 28-29. Jan.—_March, spr of Ferns. Am. Fern Journal 6: 19-20. Jan.—March, 1916. MonoMorPuisM IN EouiserumM TELMATEIA 93 50,000,000 ferns are gathered annually. These have a local value of something over $20,000. . . A good picker will gather 10,000 to 12,000 ferns dey? It is stated: “Over 50 carloads of ferns have been sent this season from Bennington County to refrigerator head- quarters in Pittsfield, Mass. Two carloads are sent from Bennington village each day.” Mr. Winslow was not prepared to say whether the collecting of the fronds of ferns would seriously injure the plants, if it was done in the latter part of summer, and if proper care was used for separating the fronds from the crown; and asks that some Vermont reader in position to observe the methods and conditions under which this industry is being carried on report to the JouRNAL. This review of the available evidence seems to show that the ferns which are used commercially are bearing up well under the strain of annual pickings. This is indeed encouraging, both from the point of view of the fern-lover and that of the industry. But it may be partly due to the abundance of the species in ques- tion and to the chance that the same plant may not lose all its fronds every year, even with pretty thorough picking. It is to be hoped that some one with the opportunity to do so will take kindly to Mr. Winslow’s Suggestion and make accurate observations of the real effect of commercial picking. Hupson Fauts, N. Y. MONOMORPHISM IN EQuiseTUM TELMATEIA EHRH.— This typically dimorphic species, which is the most abundant representative of the genus in Western Ore- gon, occasionally shows a tendency toward. mono- morphism, possibly indicating a reversion to a primi- tive type in which fertile spikes were borne on branching green stems. Ordinarily the pale-brown unbranched 94 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL fertile plants appear very early, and are followed some weeks later by the branching green sterile plants; but not infrequently along with the latter are found indi- viduals with whorls of green branches, but bearing a fruiting cone at the apex. Three specimens ot this sort were collected during a walk of less than a mile along the trac!s of the Oregon Electric Railway between Orville and East Independence in Marion County, Oregon, on May 3 of the present year. All of them were growing in very dry gravel between the tails. On June 18, about a hundred similar plants were found in finely crushed rock ballast of the Southern Pacific tracks near Divide Station, Lane County—again, in a situation of unusual dryness. The typical form seems to prefer a low, moist habitat. This difference in hab- itat gives rise to the conjecture that the variation may be due to a deficiency of moisture and absence of shade. A similar specimen sent the writer by Professor J. K. Henry from Vancouver, B. C., is determined by him as the variety frondescens A. Br. I have not seen the type-specimen, but it is a question whether such forms should be recognized as forming a true variety, or merely as teratological ‘“‘sports’’ like four-leaved Trilliums. The cones seem to be normally developed, and the green branches fully as long as in the ordinary sterile plants. A fourth specimen collected on May 3 shows a whorl | of branches at each of the four lower nodes, a fully developed fruiting cone at the fifth node (about 18 em: above the base) and a continuation of the stem with at least four more whorls above the cone.’ All these specimens will be deposited in the herbarium of the Fern Society, and it would be interesting to know if this tendency to monomorphism has been observed by other collectors either in this country or in Europe.—J. C. Netson, Salem, Oregon. 1 This specimen appears in the middle of the group of plants represented in Plate 5. AMERICAN FERN JCURNAL Vou. 9, Puate 5. BRANCHED FRUITING STEMS CF FEQUISETUM TELM \TEIA Photograph by L. 8S. Hopkins of specimens collected by J. C. Nelson American Fern Society A short time before her death, Mrs. Judith H. Coffin, of Newburyport, Mass., donated to the American Fern Society, in memory of old friends of the Linnean Fern Chapter, Vols. 13 to 18 (from 1905 to 1910) of the Fern Bulletin and Vols. 1 to 7 (from 1911 to 1917) of the AMERICAN FERN JoURNAL. These magazines are given to the Fern Society either to keep or to sell, the pro- ceeds to be added to the funds of the Society, or used in any way desirable. The American Fern Society is indeed very grateful for this kind and generous gift. Mrs. Blanche Turner White, a member of the Society since 1916, died January 17, 1919—one of the many victims of last winter’s epidemic of influenza. Mrs. White was descended from some of the early French settlers of St. Louis: one may imagine that their friend- ship with the wilderness had, in some degree, come down to her. She was a naturalist by nature—one who, it seemed, “as by instinct knew where, in far fields, the heather grew”’—and she possessed the charm- ing enthusiasm of her kind. Much of her brief life of thirty years was spent in the country about Arcadia, Missouri, where her desire to know about the rocks, plants and birds could be, and was abundantly, gratified. Eager to learn and to help others, she was much sought after. A member of several natural history societies, she was most actively connected with the work of the St. Louis Bird Club, serving that organization not only as officer, teacher and leader of excursions (especially of children), but in certain larger practical aspects of its work which touched on the planning of parks and residence districts and the teaching of the value of out-door life. She herself learned and put into her own life the best nature has to give. £6 AMERICAN FERN Socrery 97 Mrs. Judith Hopkins Coffin died at Newburyport, Massachusetts, July 22, 1919. She was born in Novem- ber, 1831. Mrs. Coffin became a member of the Lin- naean Fern Chapter early in 1896 and was much inter- ested in the American Fern Society to the last of her life. She not long ago donated to the Society several volumes of the Fern Bulletin and of the American Fern Journal. She had collected and mounted speci- mens of the ferns and fern allies of Essex County, Massa- chusetts, and to the end of her life retained her mental faculties and interest in everything. She was a woman of rare graces of character and much could be said of the sweet simplicity of her life, of her kindliness and thoughtfulness for others, her courage and high ideals. | New Members— Swain, Rev. James Ramsay, 4223 Osage Ave., Philadelphia, Pa. Trudell, Harry W., 2030 East Madison St., Philadelphia, Pa. Change of Address— Heatley, Miss Margaret, University of South Africa, P. O. Box 1176, Johannesburg, South Africa. The Journat is indebted to the generosity of Pro- fessor L. 8. Hopkins for Plate 4 in this number and also for the photograph from which Plate 5 was made. By one of those typographical errors which form the subject of every editor’s nightmares, the asterisk which should have gone with the name of Miss Blanche Turner in the additions and corrections to the list of members in the last number, was transferred to that of Miss Sarah F. Sanborn. The editor in charge of the proof- reading can only tender Miss Sanborn his most contrite apologies and wish her long life and happiness.—C. A. W. 98 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL With the issue of this number, the JoURNAL’s copy- drawer is again nearly empty. We trust the members will continue to be on the look-out for matter of in- terest: the JouRNAL cannot be issued until we have the | wherewithal to fill it. The editors have received from one of our new mem- bers a query as to general works on ferns. He mentions Lyell’s Geographical Handbook of the Ferns, and asks if there is anything better. We have answered this question by letter according to our ability, but we should like the help of the members in answering it and per- haps future questions of the kind more fully. We wish everyone who can would write to the JourNaL (if pos- sible, in time for the next number) telling what fern books each has found most interesting and helpful— not merely the general works directly asked about, but fern books of any character. If enough members con- tribute to it, the resultant list will have considerable value. American Fern Journal Vol. 9 OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1919 No. 4. Water and Mineral Content of an Epiphytic Fern. ROLAND M. HARPER Current botanical textbooks usually say little or noth- ing about the inorganic constituents of epiphytes, and tend to leave the impression in the student’s mind that most of these plants derive their nutriment en- tirely from air and rain, and therefore consist wholly of gaseous elements and carbon (whose oxides are gases).* But every living organism contains protein, and every molecule of protein contains about 2% of phosphorus, none of whose compounds are vapors at ordinary temperatures, so that they are not found in the atmosphere. Furthermore, chlorophyll contains a small amount of iron, and the presence of potassium in small amounts is supposed to be necessary for the formation of starch, so that every green plant must con- tain some of these two metals, if not others. {Vol Me ne 3 of the JouRNAL, pages 67-98, plates 4 and 5 was issued Oct. 11, 9.] Exi owledge about epiphytes is summarized very well in Schimper’s Plant Geography (English edition, 1903), pp. 197-201, 317- 329, oe in Cowles’s text-book of Ecology (1911), pp. 511-514, 614-616, 657-6) The ee servations * this paper are intended to apply primarily to the io geen of temperate regions, most of which grow on the bark of sb eadipoapde no ‘Special ‘organs for ‘Scounieting water or humus. In the paeen diversified, includi plants that grow in \ large tufts adapted for catching falling leaves and other debris, some Dases t rain-water and even as a rs omes of small animals, Is, and some that grow in me rove vi palm leaves, on smooth barkless trunks of palms an m evergreen leaves: and some of the statements made herein ooull. Save i be modified to cover all such cases. 99 100 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL However, the seurce of supply of these non-volatile substances for epiphytes must be rather limited, and it is presumably for this reason that all epiphytes (so far as known to the writer) are evergreen. For it is obviously out of the question for an air-plant of any size to get enough solid “food”? to make a complete new set of leaves every year, as most terrestrial herbs and all deciduous shrubs and trees do, and consequently such plants have leaves (or fronds or thalli in the case of some cryptogams) that last more than one year. Or the proposition might be reversed by saying that plants growing in fertile soils take up so much inorganic matter, which is deposited in leaves and other ex- ternal parts by the process of transpiration, that they have to shed their leaves periodically to get rid of it. It has been suggested that air-plants get some of their solid nutriment from dust, which is probably true; but in the heart of a vast trackless forest the quantity of dust that falls on any one herb in the course of a year must be quite infinitesimal, and there is no reason for believing that true epiphytes are less abundant in such places than near highways and habitations. Pollen of anemophilous trees is another possible source of food, just as available in a wilderness as elsewhere, but whether it contains iron and potassium or not the writer is not informed. A much more likely source of inorganic matter for epiphytes of the type here discussed is the bark on which they grow. The bark of most trees contains 2 to 6% of mineral matter, and as it increases little in thickness with the growth of the tree it must be continually scaling off and decaying on the outside. One could with a little trouble make a rough estimate of the amount of mineral liberated in a year by a unit area of bark of a given species under normal conditions. The terrestrial herbs and deciduous shrubs that one CONTENT OF AN EpipHytic FERN 101 occasionally sees growing in the crotches of old trees must feed on bark detritus accumulated there, supplemented by a certain amount of dust, for such plants seem to be more frequent in and around settlements than far out in the woods. Falling leaves doubtless contribute a small quota too. The most widely distributed vascular epiphyte in the United States is the little resurrection fern, Poly- podium polypodioides (formerly known as P. incanum, and more recently as Marginaria polypodioides), which grows abundantly on living trees of various kinds from Virginia to Texas, mostly within 1000 feet of sea level. Like some other epiphytes, it is occasionally found also on non-calcareous rocks, not flat rocks on which water may stand and soil accumulate, but shaded cliffs and boulders (as in the case of its non-epiphytic northern re- lative, P. vulgare). There it has no connection with the soil (and is therefore inaccessible to earthworms, which seem to be detrimental to most evergreens), but probably gets all the nourishment it needs from decay- ing tree leaves that lodge around its roots. Another thing which its tree and rock habitats have in common is that they are rarely covered by snow or falling leaves; but whether that has any significance or not is not at present apparent.* As everyone who has seen this fern alive knows, it re- sponds readily to changes in atmospheric moisture. In dry weather the fronds shrivel up and look dead, but during and shortly after a rain, at any season of the year, they are fully expanded. The change from one con- dition to the other may take place in less than a day. Temperature seems to have little effect on it, except that the northern limit of the species may be deter- mined by the minimum temperature, or the duration *See Torreya 15: 30-31. 1915. 102 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL of freezing weather. It seems to withstand more cold than any other vascular epiphyte in North America, however. Just how much water it can lose and still survive is not known, but it evidently contains less than most herbs, though perhaps not less than the average ever- green herb. In March, 1919, in moderately dry weather, I gathered 13 grams of the plant in its shriv- eled condition, and after soaking it in water over night, until the fronds were fully expanded, and then drying off the adhering water, it weighed 30 grams, or 2.3 times as much as in the dry condition. The total water content and ash were determined in February, as follows. On Feb. 21, about 24 hours after a rain, I gathered about 340 grams of the fern from two or three species of oaks and one of elm in and near Tuscaloosa, Ala. The fronds were then fully ex- panded, and presumably free from dust, though not moist to the touch. The material was weighed about half an hour later, and then chopped up to kill it, and dried for about a week, much of the time on top Of a steam radiator, where a thermometer inserted in the bag of fern hay registered 46° C. or 114° F. It had then probably parted with practically all its uncOmbined Water, for when removed from the heat it slowly gained in weight from absorption of moisture. The dry weight amounted to 42% of the fresh weight. Fifty grams of the desiccated material, in two portions, Were then thoroughly burned in a platinum crucible, and the ash weighed. One portion gave a little less than 57% of ash and the other a little more, so that we may Call 5% the average. This is less than most ter- restrial herbs have, but more than some. A partial analysis of the ash made for me by the chemist of the Geological Survey of Alabama, showed approximately 277% Of potash and 14 of 1% of soda, which figures are ANOTHER “FREAK”? EQUISETUM 103 neither very high nor very low when compared with other kinds of foliage.* It would be interesting to try this simple experiment on other epiphytes, not only ferns, but mosses and lichens and flowering plants too, in warm climates where aerial spermatophytes are. available. Possibly few botanical laboratories are provided with the re- quisite incinerating apparatus, but in the case of those connected with colleges there is usually a chemical laboratory near by, If the services of a competent chemist could be enlisted the ash of many such plants might be analyzed, with results not only interesting from an Ecological standpoint, but perhaps also of diagnostic value in distinguishing related species. For accurate results certain precautions should be observed, such as collecting all the material from the Same tree or same kind of tree, washing off any pos- sible dirt and dust, testing jt at different seasons of the year or taking old and young foliage separately, etc. It would be a simple matter also to determine at the Same time the ash content (with analysis if possible) of the bark on which the plants grow. UNriversrry, ALA, Another ‘‘Freak’’ Equisetum J. C, Ne.son While collecting on the southwest slope of Mount Jefferson, in Linn County, Oregon, on Aug. 13, 1919, in company with Professor M. FE. Peck, we found that the delta at the east end of Pamelia Lake (altitude 4000 feet) was occupied by an almost pure growth of a tall Equisetum with freely-branching, rather weak * For ash determinations of several types of herbaceous vegetation on Long Island see Plant World 21; 43-46, 191s. 104 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL stems, of the section Euequisetum, which was unfamiliar to both of us. This delta, formed by the entrance of a considerable mountain-stream from the melting snows in Hunt’s Cove, occupied an area of perhaps five acres, making a vivid patch of dark green in the rather arid region surrounding it. The Equisetums averaged about 10 dm. in height, naked below, with 5 to 10 whorls of rather long flexuous branches above, and covered the ground as closely as wheat in a grain-field. The only associates that we observed were Carex sitchensis, Calamagrostis canadensis and Cinna latifolia, none of which were at all frequent. An examination of the specimens that I brought home led me to the conclusion that the plant was E. flwiatile L—a determination kindly confirmed by Professor L. S. Hopkins. This is a species of very wide range both in North America and Eurasia, al- though not to my knowledge previously collected in Oregon. The range for the Pacific Coast given by Piper in his Flora of Washington (p. 86. 1906) is “Alaska to Washington.” Henry in his Flora of Southern British Columbia (p. 9. 1915) gives it as “Alaska to Oregon,” but cites no specimens to confirm it. The herbarium of the University of Oregon contains no specimen from the Pacific slope. The fact that this is its first oceur-— rence in five years of assiduous collecting shows that it is _ at least not frequent here. Of the plants observed, not above one in fifty bore the fruiting cone, the apex of the others being wholly sterile. The “freak” specimen, to which our attention was specially directed, may be briefly described as follows: otal height of stem, 8 dm., naked for 5.3 dm. above the base, then 7 whorls of branches and a normal strobile at the apex. The uppermost whorl was com- posed of 16 branches, the longest measuring 8.5 em. Fifteen of these branches bere strobiles at the tip, AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Vou. 9, Pate 6. EQUISETUM FLUVIATILE, VAR. POLYSTACHYUM Photograph by L. S. Hopkins of specimen collected by J. C Nelson. 106 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL smaller than the normal one at the apex of the plant, the latter being 2 em. long, while the largest of the 15 on the branches measures only 8 mm. The next whorl below this was made up of 22 branches, the longest 9 cm. Sixteen of these also bore cones, the largest being about 1 cm. long. No cones were ob- served on any branches below those of the two upper whorls. Mr. C. A.. Weatherby, who has very kindly looked up the literature of this interesting form, informs me that it is known as E. fluviatile var. polystachyum (Briickn.) A. A. Eaton, Fern Bull. x. 74(1902), and that at the time when Eaton published the new combi- nation but one specimen had been known to occur in the United States, collected by J. B. Flett at Tacoma, Wash. The form seems to be well-known in Europe, however, having been originally described by Briickner as Equisetum polystachyum in 1803 (Fl. Neobrand. Prod. 63), and has since his day acquired a synonymy quite too formidable to be reproduced here. In one other specimen collected, the terminal cone, instead of being solitary, bore a smaller one on each side of it, giving a sort. of fleur-de-lis effect to the apex of the stem, and seeming to indicate that the evolution of the species is still in a state of very unstable equilib- rium. The specimen with the fruiting branches has been deposited in the Herbarium of the Fern Society (my no. 2781/4), and the writer is indebted to the kindness of the Curator, Professor L. S. Hopkins, for the illus- tration here presented. SALEM, OREGON. Willoughby Lake, Vt., a Candidate for the Title of ‘‘Richest Fern Locality”’ E. J. WInsLow In the early numbers of the Fern Bulletin several local fern floras were published in friendly competition for the title of ‘Richest Fern Locality.”” The ferns of Scolopendrium Lake in Jamesville, N. Y., were listed in the October, 1897, number by L. M. Underwood. This was followed in the next number by Mrs. Terry’s account of her collections in Dorset, Vt., and a little later by | an article on the ferns of Pittsford, Vt., by Miss Slosson. In 1905 Mrs. Terry published a supplement to her Dorset list adding two new species and several forms and hy- brids. Two of these regions are unique in rock for- mation and soil character, the other two are largely typi- cal of much of the limy hill country of New York and New England. A brief comparison of the lists from these four localities may not be wholly without interest. As a basis for such a comparison it is necessary to adopt some ruling as to what shall be counted as dis- tinct species. Dryopteris Clintoniana and D. intermedia, both of which were counted as varieties in the early lists, are now generally rated as species. That member of the genus that was once called var. dilatata and more recently var. americana seems to me to deserve specific rank, and it is so counted in this article, though as far as I know it has never been given a specific name. It is clearly impossible, with the information at hand, to tell how the early lists would be affected by Prof. Butters’s segregation of Athyrium Filix-femina, so for the present purpose I have adhered to the old name. I have omitted all hybrids, including Dryopteris Boottit. The Ophioglossaceae are left for separate comparison at the end of the article. 107 108 — AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Proceeding upon this basis I find that Underwood’s list shows 24 species in the immediate vicinity of Scolopendrium Lake and 29 included by extending the area under consideration to a diameter of three miles. Three species not mentioned in Dr. Underwood’s article were listed at the field meeting of the American Fern Society in 1915, making 32 species for the whole Green Lakes region. Mrs.-Terry named 34 species within walking distance of Dorset; Miss Slosson also gives 34 for Pittsford, and the Willoughby list has 35. Twenty-seven species are common to all. four local- ities, Polypodium vulgare, Adiantum pedatum, Pteridium latiusculum, Cryptogramma Stelleri, | Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Asplenium Trichomanes, A. Ruta-muraria, Athyrium acrostichoides, A. Filix-femina, Phegopteris Dryopteris, Dryopteris Thelypteris, D. noveboracensis, D. cristata, D. Clintoniana, D. spinulosa, D. intermedia, D. Goldiana, D. marginalis. Polystichum acrostichoides, Cystopteris bulbifera, C. fragilis, Dicksonia punctilobula, Onoclea sensibilis, Pteretis nodulosa, Osmunda regalis, O. cinnamomea, O.Claytoniana. Scolopendrium vulgare is the particular prize of the Green Lakes region. Phegopteris hexagonoptera, which is not reported from either of the Vermont stations, is included in Underwood’s list but was not found by the Fern Society members in 1915. Dorset has Polystichum Braunii while Pittsford has Pellaea atropurpurea, otherwise the lists for these localities are practically identical. Willoughby has both these species and, thanks to its boreal conditions, three species not found in any of the other localities, Asple- nium viride, Woodsia alpina and W. glabella. All but Willoughby have Asplenium platyneuron and Athyrium angustifolium and these might be added to the Wil- loughby list by extending the area to a length of fifteen miles or so. There are four other species which are found in two or more of the stations. IRRESISTIBLE CHARM OF FERNS _ 109 The general similarity of the four lists is shown by the fact that the four combined include only 40 species, which is only 6 less than the list for all New England ° and New York, north of Connecticut. . The missing six are Dryopteris fragrans, D. Filix-mas and four coastal plain species, namely the two Woodwardias, Dryopteris simulata, and Lygodium. All the stations report Ophioglossum vulgatum. Of the seven Botrychiums named in Gray’s Manual the Green Lakes and Willoughby have all except B. angust- isegmentum. The other two localities lack B. Lunaria, and Dorset fails to report B. simplex. It is hardly conceivable that it is not there. AUBURNDALE, Mass. The Irresistible Charm of the Ferns EDWARD HALE CLARKSON “Why a fern should fill one mind with strong emotion and a spray of moss another’? wrote Philip Henry Gosse in his “Romance of Natural History’ nearly sixty years ago “we can give no reason. Yet that such is a fact every admirer of nature who has an ele- ment of poetry in his soul will admit.”” “The desire” said Humboldt “which we feel to behold certain ob- jects, is not excited solely by their grandeur, their beauty, or their importance. In each individual this desire is interwoven with pleasing impressions of youth, with early predilections ad particular pursuits and the love of an active life.’ How vividly I recall a most eventful walk with a congenial friend and naturé-lover on a certain crisp and sunny autumn day many years ago, to a charming bit of woodland just across the Merrimac River from Newburyport! Climbing a stone wall, in a few minutes 110 | AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL we were apparently in the heart of a rather open — cedar forest. All around were fine specimens of these ' trees, some with a dark olive foliage, others of a lighter green and many of them profusely covered with clusters of beautiful grey-blue berries. Mossy ledges protruded from the higher parts of the ground, their sloping tops and sides adorned with great sheets of the Polypody. All about were barberry bushes with their pendent clusters of crimson fruit, and at my feet was the decayed stump of what was once a big tree, now completely covered with gay red-tipped coral-moss. But most wonderful of all, I saw for the first time growing on the sides of the rocky knolls, the rosettes of the Ebony “Spleenwort, surmounted by the tall, graceful fertile fronds with their polished dark brown stems. It was a case of love at first sight, and right then and there began my interest in our native ferns which was destined to later become a veritable hobby. In the literature of England and Scotland we find many references to the beauty of the ferns or to some romantic superstition connected with them. — In Guy Mannering, for instance, the farmer of Charlie’s Hope, honest Dandie Dinmont, after telling Harry Bertram that the sheriff is searching every- where for the gipsy, Meg Merilies, and that a reward of fifty pounds has been offered for her apprehension, says “But she’ll no be taen unless she likes for a’ that.” “And how comes that?” asks Bertram. ‘Oh, I dinna ken,”’ replies Dinmont, “J daur say it’s nonsense, but they say she has gathered the fern seed and can gang ony gate she likes like Jock-the-Giant-killer wi’ his coat 0’ darkness and his shoon o’ swiftness. ”’ Any one who has read Blackmore’s superb novel “Lorna Doone” will remember how narrowly John Ridd escaped a violent death at the hands of his mor- tal enemies, the Doones of Bagworthy, when those IRRESISTIBLE CHARM OF FERNS 111 desperate men led by the great villain, Carver Doone, armed to the teeth and on murder bent, passed by in the woods of Plovers Barrows. Fortunately he heard them coming through the bushes before they saw him. “T had no time to fly,’”’ he said, “but with a sort of instinct threw myself flat in amongst the thick fern and held my breath and lay still as a log.” Thanks to the “thick fern” John escaped discovery, and later on: led an armed expedition into Doone Valley which destroyed this band of cut throats and robbers who had terrorized the neighborhood for so many years. Although it is true that not nearly as many references to the ferns are to be found in the books of our writers as in those of England and Scotland, nevertheless that there is, here in America, a most wide-spread and enthusiastic interest in these beautiful plants can be easily shown. “Tf you wish to know the ferns,’’ wrote Mrs. Frances Theodora Parsons, in her easy and graceful style, “you must follow them to nature’s most sacred re- treats. In remote, tangled swamps, overhanging the swift noiseless brook, in the heart of the forest, close to the rush of the foaming waterfall, in the depths of some dark ravine, or perhaps high upon mountain ledges, where the air is purer, and the world wider, and life more beautiful than we had fancied, these wild graceful things are most at home.” In his book on “Ferns” beautifully illustrated by photographic reproductions that clearly show the ar- tistic temperament of the author, Campell E. Waters thus describes the Bulblet Bladder fern. “Sometimes in-shaded ravines we come across patches of this fern with its fronds hanging down over the moist rocks as if trying to hide their bareness. The delicate leaf- like curtain formed of the slender interwining fronds is one of the most beautiful sights of the woods. There 112 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL is an airiness, a gracefulness about the the pose of these ferns, and their color is such a delicate fresh green that it has few rivals among our ferns. It is a worthy mem- ber of that chosen company dwelling in moist limestone ravines. We may expect rare ferns even on an exposed limestone cliff, but where the rock is shaded and drip- ping with moisture it seems as if nature were trying to outdo herself. The rocks seem to retain some of the life of past ages, and the shells slowly formed in the depths of the sea, are now wasted away in supporting a luxuriant vegetation.” “What red-letter days we fern-hunters have,” wrote James A. Bates in the Fern Bulletin in 1894. “I don’t think we are naturally any more enthusi- astic than other people, but we can tell just when and where we found such and such little rock ferns years ago, and now and then the finding of a rare one in an unex- pected place does us more good than it would to find a purse of money (the owner would be sure to come for that!). “My friends will probably testify that I am a quiet sober, matter-of-fact sort of character, but I am afraid I just stood still and shouted hurrah! when I first sa the Woodwardia Virginica.” 3 Willard N. Clute wrote most charmingly regarding the Chittenango Falls locality for the Harts Tongue in the Fern Bulletin of October, 1897. “It is a wild and beautiful locality, just the spot to serve as & hiding place for botanical rarities. A large stream, the Chittenango, hurrying northward to Oneida Lake, here makes a plunge of many feet over a double series of falls, and winds away through a narrow wooded glen, hemmed in by great precipices of corniferous limestone, which echo the roar of the waters and are always damp with their spray. The shadier parts of these cliffs shelter the Walking Fern and Slender IRRESISTIBLE CHARM OF FERNS 113 Cliff Brake, while from every dripping ledge, the long tapering fronds of the Bulbiferous Bladder Fern hang like a curtain. On the sunnier walls the Purple Cliff Brake and Rue Spleenwort find a home. Ever since the Chittenango cut its channel through these rocks, wind and weather have been steadily at work tearing them to pieces. Huge banks of rock fragments slope from the base of the cliffs to the water. Over them the falling leaves of centuries have spread a soft yielding carpet of mould that affords a congenial soil for such trees as Basswood, Hemlock, Striped Maple, Cedar and others. In the shade of these, where there is al- ways semi-twilight, the Harts Tongue elects to grow so lightly are the plants anchored in the yielding aon that they may be easily lifted out, roots and all, without digging. We find ourselves wondering how they manage to exist with such a precarious foothold, but the number of young plants to be seen testifies to their vigour. In September the spores are ripe and then nearly every frond is loaded on the under side with velvety brown lines that look like embroidery.” “The Ferns,” wrote George E. Davenport in the Bulletin of 1902, “appeal irresistibly to everything that is best within us.” It is not always the largest and showiest of the ferns that gets the most attention. Writing of the little Rusty Woodsia, C. F. Saunders said, ‘‘ Woodsia Ilvensis is one of the most interesting of our native ferns, and the unpretentious but sturdy, unwavering fight of the furry little plant with the sun and frost will speedily win for it, I think, a place in the heart of anyone who will give it due attention.” | To prove that this little fern’s struggle for existence is very real, two photographic reproductions are shown. The first (Plate 7) pictures a colony with fronds curled up, and apparently dying as the result of very dry 114 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL weather; the second, (Plate 8) the same colony as it appeared forty-eight hours later, after a good soaking rain, in as good condition as ever. When the period of dry weather is long drawn out, it sometimes happens that the colonies of this fern on the driest parts of the rocks are too far gone to recover. Quotations from other most interesting American writers could be given if space permitted, but surely enough evidence has been presented to prove ‘‘the irresistible influence that has captured and controlled the intellect” of many of us. Of course we are all duly impressed by the technical and scholarly descriptions of the ferns by our recognized experts, and we realize that they are a most important and necessary part of this publication. Yet I feel that articles such as I have quoted, from the pens of those who are enthusiastic writers on the less technical phase of what might be termed “the romance of the ferns in their homes” would be sadly missed from FERN JOURNAL. By all means let us have more of them! For, to quote from our friend Gosse once more, “there are more ways than one of studing natural history. There is Dr. Dryasdust’s way which consists of mere accuracy of definition and differentiation, statistics as harsh and dry as the skin and bones in the museum where it is studied. There is the field-ob- server’s way, the careful and conscientious accumu- lation and record of facts bearing on the life history of the creatures, statistics as fresh and bright as the forest or meadow where they are gathered in the dewy morn- ing. And there is the poet’s way who looks at nature through a glass peculiarly his own, the aesthetic aspect, which deals, not with statistics but with the emotions of the human mind.” “In my many years wander- ings through the wide field of natural history, I have al- ways felt toward it Ek: of a poet’s heart though destitute of a poet’s genius.’ Vou. 9, PLATE 7. JOURNAL AMERICAN FERN ~ \f y wt ry * 40) Woopsta ILvENsIs period of dry weather. iOong ] and drooping afte AMERICAN FrerRN JourRNAL Von. 9, PLatr 8. Woops1a [ILVENSIS , The same colony 48 hours later, refreshed by a good soaking r SHortTeER NOTES 115 ‘‘As Wordsworth so beautifully says, ‘To me the meanest flower that blows can give -Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.’”’ NeEwsuryport, Mass. Recent Fern Literature Dr. W. N. Steil has published a careful and detailed study of apogamy in Nephrodium hirtipes Hook.’ This species appears to depend entirely on asexual repro- duction. In his cultures, Dr. Steil avoided conditions likely to induce apogamy; fertilization took place in the usual fashion on prothallia of other species grown in the same cases. But those of N. hirtipes, though they developed normally from the spores, produced no sexual organs in most instances and in any case only antheridia. The plant of the spore-bearing generation always arose as a direct outgrowth from the prothallium. In at least one other apogamous species, fusions between the vegetative cells of the prothallium have been ob- served to precede the growth of the young plant; but even this substitute for fertilization was lacking in N. hirtipes. Dr. Steil gives a detailed account of the cell-changes which accompany the growth of spores in this species. They present some unusual features. In particular, the mother-cells from which the spores are eventually formed undergo a partial division, never fully com- pleted, at an early stage of their growth and, probably because of this, sometimes produce six spores to the cell instead of the usual four—the latter a phenomenon never before observed in cryptogamous plants, though a similar one has been noted in certain phaenogams. 1 Steal, W. N. Apogamy in Nephrodium hirtipes Hk. Annals of Bot. 33: 109-132. pls. 5-7. Jan., 1919. 116 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Prof. E. W. Berry? has described as new, under the name Matonidium americanum, a species of fossil fern found in certain sandstone formations in Colorado. According to Prof. Berry’s restoration, this fern. bore, in life, numerous narrowly lanceolate pinnae, themselves pinnatifid, arranged fan-wise and spreading horizon- tally at the top of a stout stipe. This is the habit of its living relative, Matonia pectinata. ‘The genus Matonidium belongs to the family Maton- taceae which now consists of but one genus, with three species, all of which occur only in the uplands of the Malay Peninsula and the island of Borneo. They are survivors of a dying race which in earlier geologic times inhabited a vastly wider area. Representatives of one of the older fossil genera of the family, Laccopteris, have been found in both hemispheres, as far north as Greenland and Spitzbergen and as far south as Australia. Of Matonidium three species are known, one found in Europe, one in western North America and one in both regions. It may be noted that this distribution is strikingly like that of various living Species or pairs of closely related species--such as, for instance, Dryopteris Oreopteris, Athyrium alpestre and A. americanum, Polystichum aculeatum and P. Dudleyi. Mr. Maxon? has described two new ” species; of tropical American ferns. One, Alsophila scabriuscula, Is a tree-fern of Guatemala and the State of &Vera Cruz, Mexico. The other, Cheilanthes castanea, is the * Berry, E. distribution of the Matoniaceae. Bull. Torr. Bot. Club 46: 285-294, Pg eR Pe a phila Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington $2: 125-126. June SHORTER NOTES 117 fern of northeastern and central Mexico which has hitherto passed as Cheilanthes gracillima Eaton. From that species of the western United States it differs, Mr. Maxon finds, in its greater size, in having hairs instead of scales on the upper surface of the frond and in the characters of its scaly covering. Prof. Vaughan MacCaughey' has published an ecolog- ical survey ,of Hawaiian pteridophytes. The most striking feature of the Hawaiian fern flora is the extraordinarily high proportion of species which are found nowhere except in these islands—123 out of 190.5 This is due to the long isolation of the Hawaiian archipelago. The endemic species are very irregularly distributed among the different islands. Kauai has the most; Oahu is next; Hawaii, though much the largest in area, has the fewest. This, Prof. MacCaughey points out, furnishes striking corroboration of the generally accepted belief that the western islands are older and have been longer isolated than the eastern. It is just in the regions supposed to be geologically the oldest that the richest fern-flora is found. Prof. MacCaughey divides the ferns into two | series of groups, one based on their distribution in point of altitude, the other on their preference for wet, medium, or dry habitats. He closes with an annotated list of all the species known to occur on the islands. Some Currousty Cur Specimens oF DryoPTERIs Boortm—In August last while searching for Dryopteris hybrids in Washington, Mass., my son found a very MacCaughey, Vaughan. An ecological survey of the Hawaiian Perdophy tos Journal of mooper 6: 199-219. Nov. 30, 1918. * The ter, not Prof. MacCaughey, is doubtless responsible for the deathenane ucthe text that es ma of 190 species are endemic— remark- _ able percentage indeed! 118 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL curiously cut variety. It was apparently badly eaten by bugs, but upon examination we found that the subdivisions of the pinnules were untouched. Their outlines were without any sign of such attack. The serrations and indentations and the teeth were normal, not irregular as would have been the case if they had been eaten by bugs. We thought we had found a new hybrid. Later, specimens were identified as ‘Bug ‘eaten specimens of D. Boottii.’”’ Meanwhile we had gone back to the place in the swamp where the specimen had been found and found the plant. Looking about we saw that there were several similarly marked plants of the same variety, so we dug up a root. Quite accidentally, so far as the result was concerned, I sliced the rootstock. In the middle of it I found a longitudinal channel, evidently bored by some bug. Not only so, we quickly found the bug itself. It was a white grub perhaps an inch and a quarter long. Its head was a lightish brown, and covered with what seemed like a hard shell. Along the sides ran a row of black hairs in tufts. Upon finding this we proceeded to dig up other speci- mens, five in all. All were marked alike, all evidently D. Boottii or some form of it and in every case we found not only the channeled rootstock but the grub within that had done the deed. Crossing the road into another piece of swamp perhaps three hundred feet away we found the same condition in one or two ferns that we picked there. _ Later in the month we found a similarly cut fern of the same variety in a piece of swamp a mile away. This specimen while showing the outward signs of in- jury to the rootstock did not seem to have been eaten in the same way. Nor did we find the grub. It was the only exception, however, to the presence of this borer grub, among those which we examined.—C. 8S. Lewis, Burlington, N. J. SHORTER NOTES 119 LycopopiIumM COMPLANATUM VAR. FLABELLIFORME WITH SEVEN Sprkes.—In recently working over some undistributed material in the Pennsylvania herbarium at the Carnegie Museum I found a specimen of Lyco- podium complanatum var. flabelliforme Fernald, appar- ently typical of that variety excepting that the fruiting stem carried two peduncles, each subtending seven well developed spikes averaging about two centimeters long. The distances between successive forks, as well as the immediate pedicels of the spikes, range from about 4 to 8 mm., but at the second forking of the ped- uncle one of the branches remains undivided and con- stitutes thus a pedicel for its spike about 11 mm. long. The specimen was collected by O. P. Medsgar, Dec. 27, 1899, along Jacobs Creek, which flows in a rather wild valley in an almost mountainous region of southwestern Pennsylvania.—O. E. JenninGs. Pittsburgh, Pa. A New Station ror CyrtomMiuM FAaLcATUM AND Preris Loncrrouia in ALABAMA.—Mr. W. C. Dukes reported in the Fern Bulletin for July, Vol. XV, No. 3, of having located a station for Cyrtomium falcatum oo falcatum) near Prattville, in Autauga County, Alabam ee year I noticed a fern growing ; slong the street near the Ashland Place, on the north side of Spring Hill road, just west of the city limits of Mobile. This year I examined it more closely and found it to be a good sized plant of Cyrtomium falcatum. As it was growing in the corner of a yard of a dwelling house, I called at the house and asked the occupants if they had set the fern there. On their replying in the negative, I asked how long it had been growing there, I was told it was there four years previous when they moved into the house. 120 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL It appears to be a very old plant for the rhizome is large and covered with rough scales, and has grown out in two directions, the ends being about eight inches a- part. One end was dead, but the other though still alive was being used badly by chickens that had been scratching at it. It was growing in a rather dry place near the end of a brick wall under Crepe Myrtle (Lager- stroemia indica, L.) bushes. There might have been more plants but for the chickens. I found a dozen or fifteen plants of Pteris longifolia L. growing on the brick wall of an old building on Con- gress street, near Davis Avenue in the city of Mobile. There are growing with it Pteris serrulata, L. and Dryopteris patens, (Sw.) Kuntze and several kinds of weeds. The wall is covered with moss and is shaded by a tree. I have observed it growing there for two years. It may ke found in other parts of the city but this the only place I have seen it growing. This fern is not reported in Mohr’s Plant Life of Alabama, and as far as I know this is the first time it has been re- ported from the state. —E. W. Graves, Spring Hill, Ala. ; ON THE VIABILITY OF CERTAIN Fern Spores.—The spores of some of our common wild ferns germinate only a short time after they have reached maturity as, for example, those of the Osmunda species which remain viable for only a few days. In other species as Pteras aquilina L., the spores are known to retain their power to germinate for two years. Beginning with the summer of 1910, the writer col- lected in the vicinity of Madison fronds of a number of species of ferns. The spores of all the species which germinated a short time after they were collected were kept in packets in the botanical laboratory. ‘The spores of the different species were sown again October 4, SHORTER NOTES 121 1918, on the surface of tap water and nutrient solutions. The spores of three species proved to be especially long-lived. Those of Pellaea atropurpurea L. collected eight years ago possess a very high percentage of ger- mination. Woronin* (1908) sowed spores of Notholaena Eckloniana Kunze, a species closely related to Pellaea, and found that they germinated twelve years after they had been collected. Spores of Pellaea gracilis Hook coilected by the writer in 1912 still germinate. The spores of Aspidium thelypteris Swartz collected in 1911 germinate at the present time, but not so abundantly as those of the other two species.—W. N. Srein, Uni- versity of Wisconsin, Madison. A NE&GLECTED CHARACTER IN THE BEECH-FERNS.— Most of our fern books, from Eaton’s Ferns of North America on, make the statement that the long and broad beech ferns, though undoubtedly different species, are often hard to tell apart; and amateurs may fre- quently be heard to complain that the statement is only too true. So it is if leaf-form alone is considered; for in ferns, as in other plants, the leaf is apt to vary considerably in shape and cutting with age and from the effect of external conditions. But there is one detail which the writer, in the examination of some scores of specimens, has found nearly invariable and very help- ful in deciding doubtful cases. This character is to be found in the scales which in both species are borne along the main mid-rib on the under side of the frond. They are too small to be seen clearly with the naked eye, but can be readily made out with a low-powered magnifying-glass, such as most of uS possess. In the long beech fern they are rather *Woronin, Helene. (1908) Apogamie und Aposporie bei einigen Far- nen. Flora 98: 101-162. f. 1-72. 122 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL numerous, comparatively broad, and pale to bright brown in color. In the broad, they are fewer, some- times almost entirely absent, narrower than in the other species and usually white or nearly so. The color test may fail, though rarely, but the shape of the scales, once you have learned to recognize it, 1S a practically certain index to the species. In the accompanying sketch, fig. 1 represents a scale of the broad beech fern magnified eight times (about the power of the ordinary lens), fig. 2 one of the long beech on the same scale. The marginal hairs shown in fig. 1 are not a good distinctive character; ciliate scales may oceur in both species——C. A. W. RECORDS OF MONOMORFHIC EquisETUM TELMATEIA— In his note in the last number of the Journat, Mr. J. C. Nelson asks if the monomorphic tendency in this species has been observed by other collecters either in this country or Europe. I have no personal experience to relate, but can perhaps give some informatiom as to records in books not readily accessible to all readers of the JouRNAL. I find no recorded collections from North America other than the ‘“‘two specimens from British Columbia” mentioned by A. A. Eaton in his account of the North American species of Equisetum in the Fern Bulletin . and the records from New Westminster, B. C., given by Prof. Henry in his recently published Flora of AMERICAN FERN Socrery 123 Southern British Columbia. Both these records are probably based on collections by Mr. A. J. Hill, one of whose specimens is in Eaton’s herbarium at Harvard. There are there, also, two other monomorphic specimens, one collected on the “lower Fraser River, 49 N. Lat.” by Dr. Lyall in 1859, the other by Mr. J. B. Flett at Tacoma, Wash., in 1901. In Europe, monomorphic forms are well known. Milde, in his monograph of the Equisetums, distin- guishes two kinds of them. In one, which he calls var. frondescens, the fertile stem instead of dying, as usually happens, when the spores are ripe, persists and sends out green branches from at least some of the joints, the fruiting cone and the upper part of the stem wither- ing away. In the other, var. serotinum, the sterile stem produces, late in the season, a fruiting cone at the apex. Luerssen says the first form is rather rare but that the second “may be expected occasionally wherever £. Telmateia occurs.’’ European botanists agree with Mr. Nelson that drought is the probable cause of these queer forms. Francis, in his book on British Ferns,’ states that var. serotinwm can be produced at will in Specimens grown in ‘pots simply by cutting off the supply of water at the-proper time. The proliferous' form mentioned by Mr. Nelson, in which the stem grows up through the fruiting cone has also been found in Europe. Milde calls it “var. serotinum d) proliferum.”—C. A. W. American Fern Society Shortly before this number of the JourNAL went to press, the editors received an interesting and welcome letter from one of the members. In it he said: “It C———— "Quoted by Clute in The Fern Allics, p. 52. 124 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL has occurred to me that some interesting articles might be written for the Am. Fern JourNnau giving short biographical accounts of some of the fern sharps whose names so often appear in the botanies. Pursh, Nuttall, Scott and many others, amateurs like myself (and I imagine most of the members of the Fern Society are not professionals) would like to know something about. “Again, the specific names of ferns might afford an instructive. article, as many of us would like to know what they mean. Another member writes that, in her opinion, some- thing in the nature of a “primary department” would be desirable in the Journau. ‘‘A paper, clear and plain, on some familiar fern and intended for novices in fern study, bringing out some points almost forgotten by advanced students, such as the change in form from the newly uncurled frond, or the wonderful choice of habitat—bringing out the uselessness of hunting for certain ferns where they are unwilling to grow—and other noticeable points—it seems to that such help would be useful to beginners and would be appreciated by them.” The editors are very glad to receive such criticisms and suggestions; we wish more of them were sent in to us. We propose to act on these in future numbers so far as we can. But our available time and our ability are not unlimited; we shall greatly appreciate help in the form of articles along the lines suggested from members who are in a position to write them. While in Westmore, Vt., last August I found an abundant growth of Equisetum pratense and collected enough for about 25 sheets. These specimens show the plant in good midsummer condition without fruit except the unexpanded next year’s fruiting branch AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY 125. which appears near the base of the main sterile branch. These will be sent to any members of the Fern Society who apply sending a self-addressed envelope not less than nine inches long and bearing a two cent stamp. —E. J. Winstow, Auburndale, Mass. To their regret, the Editors have again to apologize for a late number—a state of things due largely to diffi- culty in getting together sufficient copy. We are glad to say that copy enough for no. 1 of the next volume is already in hand and that number should be well under way before this one reaches our readers. f late, this is an extra-illustrated number. We are much indebted to Mr. E. H. Clarkson for the fine photo- graphs from which the two plates accompanying his article were made and for defraying the expense both of the plates and of running them as a double-page in- sert. Thanks are also due Prof. Hopkins for making specially for us the photograph from which Plate 6 was taken. Report of the Judge of Elections To THE SEecRETARY OF THE AMERICAN FERN Society: As Judge of Elections of the Society, I make the follow- ing report of the election of Officers held in October, 1919: i Whole number of votes, 91. For President For Secretary William R. Maxon.......... 91 Stewart H. Burnham......---- 91 For Vice- President For Treasurer Miss M. A. Marshall...... .90 Jay G. Underwood.....------- 90- I therefore declare the above persons elected. Dana W. Fetiows, Judge of Elections Portland, Maine, Nov. 5, 1919 INDEX TO Acrostichum aureum 85: -f. oe ie filiforine. 12; pedatum, 43, Alabama, Botrychiums of Mobile pane Roi ; hew stations for ide alcatum and Pte ae & 119 Alsophila, 11; “blechnatdes, 8; sca- bri American Fe ern Society, 28, 60, 96, 124; syed A any of the, 33 10 ; hirsuta, 7; humilis, re obiontfota, rp 12: pastinac- aria, Annua ek nea of the Curator, 3 Editors, 30; Judges of ‘lections, ee 125; Secretary, ; Treas- Arahis alpina, 60 ein 75, Filix-mas, 28: oe 7: Filix-foemina, : 8; mont ; , 44; obtusi- folium, 8; parvulum ; 82: pi tifid - 40, 44; Platyneuron, 44, 82, "108: Ruta-m serratum, thelyperde, 75: Trichoman 44, viride, np Gani a vedi Ath acrostichoides, 108; al- pestre, 116; ame . VOLUME 9 116; angustifolium, 108; gustum, 40, 86; var. cristatum, 40, 45 (see also Asplenium) ATKINSON, & fag ge obiaaes noti-e, 61 Azolla caroliniana, 20 Benepict, R. C., Report of the simp- lest fern in exist e, 4 Berry, + -NO the f genus Clathropteris (review), 26; a new Ma ae fro ae (review), 1 BIGELOY A Ho from the moO atisicaatirt 58 Blechnum occidentale, 12 gg nchcnmeten sete 57; an- isegmentum ae hogeyior: ectuim, ; Luna- ria, : ee 36; neglectum, 42; obliquum, 42. 50, 57; psa ita Oa, secooaeeictom > tek 6, gini- rae 57; diss sees op ete aaa es Mobile Co., Ala., The, Brake, purple cliff, 113; slender cliff, 11 Brown, E. tosorus 58; Reg cont polypodioides even), 27 BuRNHAM, ommercial Peet arg. 88 W., Apogamy in Cam ee ee beviea: hegop- eran abooagivegs densis, mptosorus, 39; sence 44, es Campyloneuron angustifolium, 24 Carex sitchensis, 104 Cheilanthes ea, 116; Cleve- ndii, 25; Covillei, 25; C. inter- texta, 25 ] INDEX TO leucopoda, 55; Lindheimeri, 5, = io- ; , The irresistible charm of the ferns, 1 09 Clathropteris y's iy lla, 26 CorFin, Mrs. J. , Obituary no- tice, 9 ideale Shae Stelleri, 108 Cyathea :_ divenkens: 14 Cyclopeltis ae tum, 61, L 9 lis, 108 (see also Filix Danaea ee i 8 Dennstaedti oe a 46 Dicksonia aecteases obula, XI > iplazium ee y Fite Dipteris District ‘of ASS Ferns of the, Dover, C. K., Obituary notice, Dover, Raynat, Aspidium crista- le _ tum X marginale and A. simula- um, 73 Drynaria, 2 ryopteris, 7, 9, 11; paca 45, SO 10s, 2 247.. 1 18> » 108; to patens, 56, 120; patula, 10; re- fulgens, 7; serrata, 11; simulata, 28, 41, 45, 62, 1C9; spinulosa, 46, 108; var ericana 107; var. dilatata, 107; Thelypteris, 24, 45, 84, 108; 12 (see ‘also Aspidium, Nephrodium, and ohn teris) VOLUME 9 Elaphog lossum, 9; jg - 01 orphism in, of fag ge 122. var. fron- d Met —— pro. Equ ieotuns, another cit 103 Report of Judge Fern, " ; an epiphytic, water - pie on t of, ; Bosto us blad- der, 113; “bub eae Lat Ss broad 121, 122; dagger, ~ fancy, a from the battl und, a, 58; holly, 61; lace, a lady, ; a crested form of, 86; long sais 121, 122; mule’s- foot, 59; ulose shield, 90; simplest in existence, the, 48; 1 unting in the richest, 106; spores, viability of, 120 os ee Notes on XIII, V ; beech, neglected es ‘, eee Op vier charm of, 109; lip, Ferns of the District 3 ees 38 Filix bulbifera, 40, 46; fragilis, 46 (see also Cystopteris) GRAVES, E. W., The botrychiums Hans, Amapze J., Obituary notice, 60, 61 : Harper, R. M., Water and min- eral content of an epiphyticfern, art’s tongue, 112, 113 crested form of the ern, 86; Report of Curator ae 1918, 31 128 — SE babys be sseaa of Amadee Han: Rratiareenh of Isoetes Engelmanni, -47; saccha- rata, 48 Jennines. O. E., Lycopodium co planatum bie fabelforme oral seven spikes, Kiuuip, E. P., Fern-hunting in Pa- nama, 5 Laccopteris, 116 me curious ns ot eietioni Sea multiflorum, 56; pal- ; parvificrum, 56; tu- » 91; adpr - ; 24, 41, 47; alopecuroides, 41: carolini: 41, 47; clava z 47; com at var - Im: polymorphum, 12; radiatum, 8 M Aneey iataaks VaucHan, An eco polypodioides, 1 rats Repo: ‘ilant exico (review), 116; A AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL new eee, soe California revi 25 (review), of the Dis- trict of Ao ieriee 38; Notes on eri Ferns 8 ae Re 8S be 67; tte lip-ferns of the south- w J related t eil- ant many myriophyla (review), 24 Maxonia apiifolia, 7 ee Co., Ala., the Botrychiums of, 5 Monogram, 48; dareaecarpa, 48, 8; paradoxa, 50; aheaacs saa 5; a oe aricee: 50 Monomorphism quisetum Tel- : mateia, Moxtey, G. L., Adiantum — lus-Veneris f. cristatum, 2 Myrtle, crepe, NELSON, ie C., Monomorphism in E Telmateia, 93; An- quisetu _ other = aa: ie (see also Aspidium and Dryop- teris) den ichmecey 61; biserrata, 12; ee bostoniensis, « eae 1 Notes on rineiail Ferns XIII, 1; XIV, 67 Notholasna airless 81; dealba beet te) 1. mexicana, 72, niv 69, <0, e% pulchella, a pote, 81. deans notices, Atkinso' ee F. Coffin, Mrs cinna. . 08; Clay toniana, 42, segilid: 24, 42, 51, 108 Oxypolis filiformis, 21 Paumer, E. J., Texas Pteridophyta dy .ie> E603, 101, §1 INDEX TO VOLUME 9 Pellaea andromedaefolia, 1, 2; as- 2 "9. pulchella, 54: righti Phegopteris Brvooteis head ae nopte 85, polypod: as eet te a = Ss, ng (see Phymatodes exiguum, 2 Pityrogramma calomelae Pogonia divaricata, 21, 2m ee ssoides, » > di ostaricense 2, 43, 52, 101; vulgare, 40, 01, Poly era 10 Polystichum, 6; acrostichoides, a: 84, 91, 1 also Matteuccia and Onoclea) Pteridi quilinum, 43; da: tum, 12; latiuseulum, 43, 44, ae i RSE A 44, (see also Pte Pteris, 6, 7, a a, 43, 52, 120; a. pseud ‘ a latiuscula, 43; longifolia, 119, 120; a new station for in ama, 119; ser- rulata, 120 (see also Pteridium) Quercus virginiana, 52 Reviews-Berry, E. W., a new Mat- ce) fi Cc midium from olorado, 115; Notes on the fern genus Clathro- pteris, 26; Brown, E. W., y in anrphieorus rhizophyl- 59; An ecological survey 0! Hawaiian pages e! a pa fe Maxon, phi from Guate ame cet! Cruz, 6; n ‘heil: fro: Mexico, 116; A new Polystichum Ca ces Sy southw ts: estern lated Oo Cheilanthes pans 24; 129 Small, J. K., Ferns of ingene sae a Steil, Wes thod snincauers in Neph- Rhexia flava, 21 Ruse, H. G., Aspidium Filix-mas in Rochester, Vt., 28 Saccoloma elegans. apoda, 47; 21; leroy 21; rupestris, 21, ut, J. K., Ferns of Tropical Florida (review), 23 10; rue, 112 Streit, W. N., A method for stain- ing antherosoids of ferns (review), Nephrodi 27; Apogamy in um hirtipes pa oe 115; On the viability of certain fern spores, 120 Tectaria, 6, %, BS, 215 ue 84 Texas Pteridophyta I, 17; II, 50; Wf, 8i Tilia, 52 Triantha racemosa, 21 Trichomanes Petersii, 48, 50 Underwood, J. G. oa of Treas- urer for 1918, Van Ese.tine, G. P., The allies Selaginella rupestris in the moat m U. 8. (review), 23 eastel Vittaria, 7, 10, 48; lineata, 48 Weartuersy, C. A., A neglected in 19 Wuitr, Mrs. Hen wenn Meee Obituary notice, x Willoughby Lake, , eandidate for the richest as locality, 107 130 _ AmeERICAN FerN JOURNAL Winstow, E. J., Early days of the sco) 24:3 American Fern Society, 33; Will- Woodsia, rusty, 113 Lake, Vt., a candidate Woodwardia areolata, 83: greene e lo- cans, cality, ; Report of Editors losa, 68, 69; virginica, 83, 112 for seis yt and Lorin- Woodsia alpina, 108; glabella, 108 ilvensis, 2, 113; obtusa, 46, 85: ERRATA lines 7 and 8. For mate,rial, read mater-ial. 30, line 17. For thouroughly, read t thoroughly. 30, line r leaedrship, read | : too 66. Page 66, line 7. Insert asterisk before the name of Miss Blanche T urner. Cover-page 1 of no. 2, line 1. For April-July, read April-Jun Contents of no. 2, line 7. For N. C. Bigelow, read H. C. Bigelow. of no. 3, line 2. For cristatum marginale, read eri tum x marginale. a American Fern Journal A QUARTERLY DEVOTED TO FERNS Published by the AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY EDITORS R, C, BENEDICT E, J. WINSLOW Cc. A, WEATHERBY V OLUME $9290 AUBURNDALE, MASSACHUSETTS CONTENTS VotumeE 10, Numper 1, Pages 1-32, Issuep Apri 21 Notes on American Ferns—XV............... W. Rk. Maxon 1 The Fern Flora of Nebraska—I........... T. J. Fitzpatrick 5 The Soil Reactions of Certain Ferns—I......... E.T.Wherry 15 The Woodsias of Queechee................0.05. S. Lewis 23 Recent Pern Literntaniifoc.. 36s a ve vee Rome Virginia Ferg...) oc. coe a ee JP. Yomg 27 Some unofficial Fer Lore 5.0005 Pee eh eo American Fern Sodiety i sori d copes die ae a 28 Votume 10, NumBEr 2, Paces 33-64, Issunp June 29 The Fern Flora of Nebraska—II............ T. J. Fitzpatrick 33 The Soil Reactions of Certain Ferns—Il.. tag T The Story of a Fern Garden—I.............. E. H. Clarkson 53 More Interesting Fern Localities ...............006eee0 cess 57 The Dorset Fern List again................-- E. J. Winslow 60 Another Character in the Beech Ferns......... E. H. Clarkson 60 American Ferm Society 5.09 6053.05 eae a a ee re 0 o's Votume 10, Numer 3, Paces 65-96, IssuzD SepTEMBER 21 Fern Flora of. Alabama :: (03.5. 55 5042552: - Ses: E. W. Graves 65 The Story of a Fern Garden—Il............- E. H. Clarkson 82 The Genus Aetopteron Ehrhart...........-...-- H. D. House 88 Recent Pern Literature. o.c065 6 odes ee Kr oe ee rege ee tee A fruitless Search for a fontanum..... E. T. Wherry 90 More Vermont Fern Lists.........-00-0e0reseceeveccsceees 91 American Fern Society..........-.--00ecer reece ere enneee 92 - VotumE 10, Numper 4, Paces 97-128, Issusp JaNuARY , 1921 The Ferns of Glacier National Park..........P. C. Standley 97 Aetopteron as a Generic Name.........-.--+-- J. H. Barnhart 111 What the Latin Names mean—I..........----- 0252+ eee ree 113 The Society for the Prevention of the Wild...... op — Waters 115 Asplenium Gravesii in Pennsylvania........-.--- Wherry Recent Fern Literature.......-..--.0seeeerec secre essere American Fern Society......-...-.--000cccrrrctereeseeets 2 American Fern Journal Vol. 10 JANUARY-MARCH, 1920 NO de Notes on American Ferns—XY! By Witi1aAm R. Maxon EQUISETUM FLUVIATILE L. Supplementing Mr. Nel- son’s record of the occurrence of this species in Oregon, in the last number of the JourNAL, the following addi- tional specimen from another locality in that state may be mentioned: Lowlands along the Willamette River, five miles south of Corvallis, July 6, 1918. Walliam E. Lawrence 1904. LycopopiuM ALOPECUROIDES L. This species, men- tioned in a recent number of the JouRNAL? as one of the few likely to be added to the District of Columbia fern flora through further exploration in the coastal plain region east of Washington, was found by the writer, on September 26, 1919, in the magnolia bog near Suitland, Maryland, which Mr. Paul C. Standley has recently de- scribed? in connection with the local discovery of Senecio Crawfordii. The plant, which was not very abundant, was nearly confined to deep tussocks of sphagnum within a small area at the very wet lower border of the bog, in partial shade. Only a few individuals were fer- tile. The arched sterile stems were equally character- istic, however, offering the strongest contrast to the closely prostrate sterile parts of L. adpressum, which grew near by, rooting along their entire length. That ith ian Insti- 1Published with the permission of the Secretary of the S tution. 29; 41. . 1919. 3Rhodora 21; 117-120. 1919. [Vol. 9, No. 4 of the JOURNAL, pages 99-130, plates 6-8, was issued Jan. 24, 1920.] 2 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL L. alopecuroides had been overlooked in this bog, which has been known to botanists for several years, is doubt- less due to its development late in the season, at which time the bog had probably not been visited by collectors. The nearest previous locality for this species is, appar- ently, that listed by McAtee* for Newcastle County, Delaware. Lycopopium aurinum L. Though known in North America from the Gaspé region of eastern Quebec, from abundant material collected in Alaska, and from a few specimens collected as far south as the Revelstoke re- gion of British Columbia (Shaw 40, 894, 959 in part), this species appears not to be recognized as occurring within the United States. The present record relates to excellent fruiting specimens collected in the vicinity of Snyder Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana, at an altitude of about 1,500 meters, August 23, 1919, by Mr. Paul C. Standley (no. 17957), while engaged in gather- ing material for a descriptive flora of the Park. The plants, which were remarked as being of a very pale color, were collected at the edge of a rock slide, under blueberries. Specimens from Mount Paddo, Washing- ton, have been distributed under this name by Mr. Suksdorf, but the material so labeled proves to be L. sitchense Rupr. Potystichum JENNINGSI Hopkins. Among other interesting ferns brought back from Glacier National Park, Montana, by Mr. Standley are two numbers of Polystichum which seem to bridge the supposed gap be- tween P. Jenningsi and P. Andersoni Hopkins, whose status was recently discussed by the writer.» They are: Standley 17443, collected in an alder thicket near a brook, along the lower part of the trail from Many Glacier Hotel to Piegan Pass, at an altitude of about 1,500 meters; and - ‘Bull. Biol, Soc. ane is si 1918 ‘Amer. Fern Journ. 8: 33-37. 1918. Notes oN AMERICAN FERNS—XV 3 Standley 16107, collected on a steep brushy and wooded slope, under alders, near Grinnell Lake, at 1,500 to 1,650 meters elevation. The specimens of both collections are fertile and apparently grew under favorable condi- tions. Those constituting no. 17443 are unmistakably referable to the form called P. Jenningsi, and though only 45 em. high, and thus considerably smaller than the type specimen (from Rainier National Park, Washing- ton), agree closely with other Washington material pre- viously listed by the writer, differing only in their rela- tively longer basal pinnae. The specimens collected as no. 16107, however, are about 80 cm. high and, while agreeing with the foregoing material in most respects, closely approach P. Andersoni (of which three fronds from the original plant are at hand) in their narrower pinnae and more noticeably awned segments. A criti- cal comparison of Mr. Standley’s two collections shows no dependable differences between them, and a review of the whole series indicates a single species in which the leaf blade varies from narrowly lance-oblong to lance- elliptic, the basal pinnae varying from a length of one- third to nearly two-thirds that of the middle pinnae. It seems necessary, therefore, to regard P. Jenningsi® as a synonym of P. Andersoni Hopkins, described a few years earlier.’ NotHoLaAENA Parryi D. C. Eaton. In listing the westernmost stations for Cheilanthes Feei not long ago* the writer, as a result of too hasty examination, mis- identified small specimens of Notholaena Parryi from Mountain Spring, California (Schoenfeldt 3080), as C. Feei. The mistake was noticed in coming upon much better specimens collected at the same locality by Parish (no. 9028) in 1914. The close similarity of the two spe- sAnn. Carnegie Mus. 11: 362. pl. 37. 1917. 7Amer. Fern Journ. 3: 116. pl. 9. 1913. sAmer. Fern Journ. 8: 119. 8. 4 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL cies is well known, the most obvious difference, as men- tioned by Eaton, consisting in the copious covering of slender-pointed but long, coarse, persistent, septate hairs of N. Parryi, the upper surface of the blades of C. Feei being Teenely furnished with w aie webby hairs” an never hirsute-tomentose.’’ Moreover, C. Feei has the margins of the segments narrowly but regularly recurved, while in N. Parryi the margins are slightly if at all recurved, the segments being in fact nearly flat, as in C. Cooperae. Although the retention of N. Parryi in Notholaena appears never to have been seriously questioned, the plant might with about equal propriety be placed in Cheilanthes, because of its some- what clavate vein-tips. A comprehensive revision of Notholaena and Cheilanthes and their near allies is urgently needed, including especially the numerous trop- ical species. Notholaena Parryi, described originally from St. George, in southwestern Utah, is known to range thence to south-central Arizona and the desert region of south- ern California. It ascends to 1,740 meters in the Pana- mint Mountains, Inyo County, California, but is said by Parish to be more abundant at low altitudes, as, for example, at Palm Springs, altitude about 150 meters, on the eastern slope of the San Jacinto Mountains. WasuHineton, D. C. The Fern Flora of Nebraska*—I T. J. FirzPaTrick Nebraska lies near the center of the region known as the great plains of North America and near the eastern side of the semi-arid district. The boundaries are nat- ural or nearly so. The Missouri river forms the eastern boundary, the northern boundary lies in the valley of the Niobrara, the southern in the valley of the Republi- can, while the western boundary is in the foothills. The range is from the 40th to the 43rd parallel and the west- ern border is the 104th meridian. The greatest width is 208 miles, the greatest length is 455 miles, the area is 77,530 square miles, of which 712 square miles are water. As to comparative size, Nebraska is much larger than all of New England and considerably larger than Eng- land and Wales together. The elevation varies from 785 feet to about 5390 feet. As a whole the state has the aspect of a rolling prairie, there being plateaus and foothills only in the western portion. The annual rain- fall varies from 35 inches along the Missouri river in southeastern Nebraska to 14 inches in the semi-arid dis- tricts in the western portion. The mean annual tem- perature varies from 52° F. in the southeastern corner to 45° in the northwestern corner. The recorded evapor- ation data give the average annual total amount from April to September inclusive, for Lincoln, during an eleven year period, as 34.8 inches, and for a three year period at North Platte as 41.3 inches. The physiographic regions of the state are: (1) river valleys, (2) wooded bluffs, (3) prairies, (4) sandhills, (5) plateau or foothill region, (6) pine ridge, and (7) bad lands. *Contribution from the Department of Botany, University of Nebraska, No. 30. 6 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL River VALLEY REGION On the eastern side of the state is the narrow valley of the Missouri River. It is bordered by steep and wooded bluffs, broken by numerous ravines. The width varies from half a mile to as much as eight miles. The Missouri river meanders between the bordering bluffs, thus leaving a variable width of valley to the Nebraska side. Horseshoe lakes or lagoons are frequent. The soil is of alluvial origin, being of fine silt and sand. Old woods are frequent. : The Platte river with its main tributary, the North Platte, flows across the state through the central por- tion from west to east. The width of the North Platte on entering the state is about five hundred feet, the width of the Platte at its mouth is more than a mile. The valley of the North Platte is deep and narrow, usu- ally less than half a mile in width, the valley of the Platte varies in width from one to eight miles. The river banks are low and usually treeless. The water is shallow and frequently divides into several streams which are separated by long sandbars or low wooded islands. The Niobrara river flows in a narrow gorge for more than two-thirds of its course in Nebraska. The last fifty miles of its course is through a valley varying in width from half a mile to a mile. Here the banks are low and. wooded, the bluffs are steep and densely covered with thickets and young trees, and occasionally the valleys are heavily wooded. The Republican river enters the state near the south- western corner, flows eastward through eight counties of the southern tier, then turns southward into Kansas. The valleys are rather broad and treeless, the bluffs low and bare of trees, in the ravines are willow, cottonwood, and ash trees, the river banks usually have a fringe © FerN Fiora or NEBRASKA—I v willows. The river is broad and shallow with frequent sandbars. The Big Blue river with its tributaries drains much of the southeastern portion of the state. The current is slow, the bed and banks muddy, the valleys broad, level, rich and frequently heavily wooded. The fern species that may be found in the river valleys are Osmunda regalis (rarely), Dryopteris thelypteris, and Onoclea sensibilis. The fern allies are Equisetum robus- tum and Equisetum fluviatile. Woopep Buurrs REGION This region consists of narrow strips of country border- ing on the river valleys on one side and the uplands on the other. The line of demarcation with the river valley is rather sharp although the woods are frequently con- tinuous. The separation of the wooded bluffs from the uplands is often not sharply drawn, there being varying degrees of divergence, yet within limits it is distinctive. The wooded bluffs extend in narrow dichotomous strips over much of the state paralleling the valleys of the main water courses. They reach their greatest develop- ment near the Missouri river which is the center of their extension westward. Upland woods are an extension from the wooded bluffs into favorable situations. The trees are of the broad leaf species except in the north- west where there is a development of the yellow pine. In Nebraska the fern flora reaches its greatest develop- ment in this region. The principal fern species of this region are Botrychium virginianum, Adiantum pedatum, and Filix fragilis. In the crevices of the rock cliffs, often more or less exposed, are found Cryptogramma acrostichoides (rarely), Notholaena dealbata (rarely and locally), Pellea atropurpurea, Woodsia obtusa, and on dry rocky soil Selaginella rupesiris (rarely). 8 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL THE PRAIRIE REGION The prairies lie immediately west of the Missouri river bluffs and in general cover the eastern half of the state, extending farther westward in the southern por- tion and are much restricted in the north central portion. These prairies with their gently undulating surfaces are the western representatives of those characteristic of Iowa and Illinois and are made up of indiscriminately arranged series of low rounded swells or hills inter- spersed with broad shallow depressions or limited valleys. The soil is of glacial drift which is quite deep in many places and is more or less veneered with loess. Drain- age systems are well established and ponds or lakes are infrequent or rare. This region is not conducive to fern growth. Where a belt of upland woods occurs Botrychium virginianum and Adiantum pedatum may be found. Onoclea sensiblis and Dryopteris thelypteris occur in wet prairie bottoms. Of the fern allies there are Equisetum arvense, preferring dry soil, and Equisetum laevigatum, preferring moist soil. Both species are frequent to common and widely distributed in this region. Equisetum variegatum is rarely found. In ponds Marsilea vestita occurs infre- quently or locally frequent. Isoetes melanopoda occurs rarely and locally. THE SANDHILL REGION The sandhills lie west of the prairies and cover much of the western half of the state, being confined largely to the central and west central portions. The eastern boundary of this region is not well marked, the prairies passing gradually into the sandhills, but in general the boundary line is irregular, receding westward in the | river valleys and extending eastward along the water sheds, the greatest eastern extension being in the north Fern Fiora or NEBRASKA—I 9 central portion. The western boundary is quite dis- tinct, although there are outlying sandhills in the foot- hill region. The area is about 18,000 square miles, a little more than one-fourth of the area of the state. The soil is porous and sandy. The hills are broken, abrupt or rounded, frequently pitted with blowouts or crater-like depressions, and the valleys are deep and narrow. The variable contours of the hills and blowouts are the direct result of the prevailing winds. Drainage systems are poorly established. Large ponds and small lakes occur throughout the region and lakes of considerable size occur near the heads of the water courses, particularly in Cherry, Grant and Hooker counties. Lost creeks are numerous. These streams, rising in ponds or springs, flow on the surface for a distance and then sink in the soil to pursue a sub- terranean course, occasionally coming to the surface for a short distance only to be lost again. The valleys along streams are broad and marshy, their limits marked by high sandhills. Buttes occur occasionally in the western part. This is the bunch-grass region of the state. Woodland vegetation is scanty. In favorable situations, usually in moist soil, there occur: Dryopteris cristata (rarely), Dryopteris spinulosa (rarely), Dryopteris thelypteris (often locally abundant), Onoclea sensibilis, Woodsia oregana (rarely), Marsilea vestita, Azolla caroliniana (rarely). Equisetum arvense (in ey soil), Hquisetum laevigatum, Equisetum variegatum (rarely), and Selaginella rupestris (locally) which forms mats on hillsides. Tue PLATEAU OR FoorHitt REGION The plateau region, in the western part of the state, comes rather abruptly from the sandhill region. It is an elevated district well marked by numerous isolated buttes and by deep and precipitous ravines. It is the short-grass region of Nebraska. 10 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL The fern flora of this region is scanty. The following species have been collected: Cheilanthes feei, in cafions; Woodsia oregana, on buttes; Marsilea vestita, in ponds; and Selaginella rupestris, on exposed dry situations, often forming dense mats on high hills and buttes. Pint Ripcre REGION Pine Ridge is a northerly facing escarpment extending from Wyoming into Nebraska near the northwest corner and in the middle part of Sioux county and extending eastward across Sioux, Dawes, Sheridan and Cherry counties, approximately parallel with the northern boundary of the state. The ridge varies from a mile to ‘several miles in width and has its greatest development in Nebraska in Sioux and Dawes counties. Eastward it becomes lower and narrower. The ridge is much broken by deeply cut cafions crossing transversely to the general trend. Along this ridge upon the cafion sides is a development of the western yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa scopulorum). The vegetation peculiar to Pine Ridge extends farther eastward across Brown, Rock and Keya Paha counties. Pine Ridge is essentially a variation of the wooded bluffs region. In favorable, usually moist situations are found Botrychium virginianum, Athyrium filiz-foemina (rarely) Cystopteris fragilis, Dryopteris spinulosa, Dryopteris thelypteris, Woodsia oregana, and Equisetum laevigatum. Bap Lanps REGION The Bad Lands in Nebraska are confined largely to Sioux and Dawes counties, in the northwestern part of the state, with occasional outliers in the foothill region south of the North Platte river in Scottsbluff county- The region is a rugged, submontane one, marked with deep cafions, mostly drained by Hat creek and White river and their tributaries. The larger part of the region Fern Fuiora or NEBRASKA—I 11 is known as the Hat creek basin. The soil is largely clays and marls, absorbs little water,and readily erodes. - This unstable soil receives little rain and much summer heat, hence there is little or no vegetation. In favorable situations in the cafions are found: Botry- chum virginianum, Filix fragilis, Woodsia oregana, Equisetum arvense, Equiselum laevigatum,and Equisetum robustum. GENERAL DIsTRIBUTION. The fern flora in Nebraska is represented by 17 genera and 26 species. Of these, Botrychium neglectum, Os- munda regalis, Osmunda claytoniana, Cryptogramma acrostichoides, Dryopteris cristata, Notholaena dealbata, and Isoetes melanopoda are quite rare, being known from but one locality for each. Cheilanthes feei, Dryop- teris spinulosa, and Azolla caroliniana are known from two localities for each. Pellaea atropurpurea and Athyrium filix-foemina have been collected in three or four localities. Adiantum pedatum, a common eastern fern but which ranges across the continent, occurs in Nebraska only in the southeastern quarter. Botrychium virginianum, Filix fragilis, Dryopteris thelypteris, Onoclea sensibilis, Marsilea vestita, Equisetum arvense, Equisetun laevigatum and Equisetum robustum are the only species that are frequent to common and widely distributed over the state. Pteris aquilina, the nearly cosmopolitan spe- cies, does not occur, neither does Polypodium vulgare nor Camptosorus rhizophyllus. There are no Lycopodiums. The nearly cosmopolitan species, Athyrium filix-foemina, is found in Nebraska only in two or three favorable lo- calities. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS From this it is readily seen that the fern flora of Ne- braska is conspicuous for its poor development. The reasons for this paucity may be due to the effects or * iz AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL mutual reactions of the effects of several causes. Some of these are: (1) The greater portion of the state is too arid for a rich development of fern growth; much of the surface is unsuitable for any ferns, the suitable areas being few and restricted, thus limiting the possible number of species. (2) Entire absence of endemic forms; there are no species peculiar to Nebraska. . (3) Lack of development of features favorable to distributional adaptation; ferns are rather rigid in their requirements and do not readily overcome new environmental difficulties. (4) Ferns are comparatively old from the standpoint of evolution, being far beyond their period of culmina- tion, while the soil of Nebraska is comparatively new. (5) The centers of migration for the ferns into this area are the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains. The broad prairies of northern Missouri, of Iowa, and 0 southern Minnesota prevent migration from the east. A number of species of ferns that are absent from similar localities in eastern Nebraska are found along the east- ern border of Iowa. The aridity of the western portion of the state prevents migration from the Rocky Moun- tains. (6) The line of easiest migration into Nebraska is by way of the Missouri river valley, a route suitable to only a limited number of ferns. (7) Lack of development of a mountain range within the state or near by with a humid climate, the submon- tane region of western Nebraska being too arid. (8) The area of fern distribution tends to lessen, many species are now quite limited in range, and ferns as & whole have little migrating tendency. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The material on which this paper is based is in the herbarium of the department of botany of the University Fern Fiora or NEBRASKA—I 13 of Nebraska. This material was largely collected or contributed during the botanical survey of Nebraska conducted by the botanical seminar, an organization founded and promoted by Dr. C. E. Bessey and his co- workers. ANNOTATED LIST OF SPECIES OPHIOGLOSSACEAE BoOTRYCHIUM VIRGINIANUM (L.) Swartz. Grape fern. In rich woods, preferring bluffs and cafions, rather common in favorable locations. DovGLas county: woods near ise July 9, 1897, William Cleburne. Sarpy county: Bellevue, open woods, June 3, 1887, William Cleburne; Bellevue, May 2, 1893, no. 3282, Roscoe Pound & DeAlton Saunders. Cass county: Weeping Water, June, 1889, Tom A. Williams. LANCASTER county: Lincoln, June 30, 1886, no. 6102, woods west of Saltillo, H. J. Webber. THOMAS COUNTY: in woods near Plummer ford, Dis- mal river, July 3, 1893, no. 1467, P. A. Rydberg; Halsey, June 18, 1912, Raymond J. Pool & Donald Folsom. Dawes county: Belmont, wooded bluffs, July 18, 1889, no. 6103, H. J. Webber. Sioux county: Squaw cafion, August, 1892, no. 444, Albert F. Woods; Monroe cafion, north of Harrison, June 21, 1911, Raymond J. Pool & C. V. Williams. BorrycHIuM NEGLECTUM Wood. (Botrychiwm ramosum (Roth) Aschers.). RANKLIN COUNTY: one specimen in the herbarium, collected by E. M. Hussong, in August, 1895, copses and meadows on Mr. Ewing’s farm, one mile northeast of Franklin, not abundant, no. 4689. It is labeled Botry- chium ternatum australe. ‘ 14 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL OPHIOGLOSsUM VULGATUM L., Adder’s-tongue. Rev. J. M. Bates, in The Fern Bulletin, vol. 20, p. 67, July, 1912, reports finding a colony of this species in Cherry county, along Snake creek, Kennedy township, forty miles southwest of Valentine, the county seat. No specimens are at hand. OSMUNDACEAE OSMUNDA REGALIs L, Royal fern. Flowering fern. FRANKLIN counrTy: in original prairie in Republican river valley, near Franklin, May 5, 1896, no. 6776; also one and one-half miles southwest of Franklin, near Ashby mill and on low ground near the river, June, 1896, no. 4693, both specimens collected by E. M. Hussong. OsMUNDA CLaYyToNIaNna IL. One specimen, no. 7516, without definite locality, and doubtfully referred to Nebraska. POLYPODIACEAE ADIANTUM PEDATUM L.. Maidenhair. This species is frequent to common in rich woods, especially in the southeastern quarter of Nebraska, the region of the state having the greatest rainfall. Dovcéias county: June 29, 1875, Samuel Aughey: woods, south of Omaha, June 25, 1873, William Cleburne; Florence, October 3, 1908, N. F. Petersen. SARPY couNTY: Bellevue, September 2, 1893, no. 3146, Roscoe Pound & D. A. Saunders; south of Albright, September 1, 1908, F. G. Ernst. Cass county: Plattsmouth, woods of the Missouri river bluffs, May 15, 1886, no. 6127, H. J. Webber. NEMEHA CouNTY: Nemeha, July 5, 1910, no. 5145; Rev. J. M. Bates; also reported from the vicinity of Peru by Bessey & Webber. RICHARDSON couNTY: wooded bluffs of the Missouri river, common, August 26, 1889, no. 6129, H. J. Webber. Sor Reactions oF CERTAIN Ferns—I 15 PawNEE county: Table Rock, May, 1896, J. E. Shue. . LANCASTER County: Lincoln, June 3, 1890, no. 6128, H. J. Webber, from Lucena Hardin; Lincoln, May, 1895, rich. moist woods, EZ. B. Robinson; another specimen by Fred C. Cooley without further data. University or Nepraska, LIncoun. (To be continued) Tke Soil Reactions of Certain Rock Ferns—I Epcar T. WHERRY Judging from the literature, the ferns which grow on rocks would appear to ‘be, on the whole, markedly sensi- tive to the chemical features of their soils. Their dis- tribution is of course controlled to some extent by phy- sical factors, such as climate, porosity of soil, availability of moisture, etc.; yet in many instances a given species has been eaaeess to grow in soils of widely varying physical character, but consistently associated with a particular type of rock, and accordingly more or less uniform in chemical composition. Again, soils of like physical properties but dissimilar chemical nature oftem occur in such proximity that spores of the various ferns: can not fail to have fallen into both kinds, yet flourish-- ing plants have developed in but one of them. It is commonly recognized that certain species of rock ferns grow by preference upon limestone and simi- lar rocks, and are accordingly to be classed as calcareous: soil plants. Other species, however, appear to avoid calcareous rocks quite definitely, and are presumably to be classed as acid soil plants. In the course of geological field trips and vacation outings for several years past the writer has been collecting information upon these 16 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL relationships. The first plan tried was to carry samples from the field to the laboratory, and there determine the percentage of calcium oxide (lime) present, both the total amount, and the soluble portion; and a brief ac- count of some results thus obtained has been published.! Subsequently it has proved possible to work out a me- thod for measuring, in the field, the soil reaction (acidity or alkalinity) ;? and as this is much simpler, as well as more instructive, than the determination of lime, an extensive series of such observations has been made, which it is the purpose of this paper to record. The writer’s field work on rock ferns has extended from Vermont and New Hampshire on the north to West Virginia and Virginia on the south, and all of the com- mon species, as well as a few of the rarer ones, occurring within these limits have been studied. The results ob- tained are presented in table I, and subsequently dis- cussed in detail. The correctness of previous classifica- it is the soil rather than the rock which affects the growth of plants; acid humus sometimes coats limestone ledges usually more or less acid in reaction, alkaline (calcareous) soils may accumulate on these rocks through the decom- position of vegetable debris, and typical calcareous soil species thrive there. Accordingly, actual tests have been made of the soils at the roots of the plants investi- gated. It is probable that further work will result in extending somewhat the ranges of reaction here recorded, although it seems unlikely that the classification of ‘American Fern Journal, 7, 110-112, 1917. *To be published in Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci., April, 1920. , Sort Reactions or Crertrain Frrns—I 17 many of the species will be changed. It is hoped, in particular, that species which the writer has been unable to study fully will be worked up by others. Taste I. Cuassirication or Rock Ferns on THE Basis or Sor Reaction Soil Reactions 3S g é| 3 I : a | 4 Name No. of 2 3 = = P| Class tests s s pceeee ere ay a ND Circumneutral 300 + 100 3010 3+] 1 /8+/10 /30+ Cheilanthes lanosa........ 15 Saat) We Seer. el bem, Stee ALS We Pee ea hee hae omentosa....| (2) - Se ee eo at ee A Pellaea atropurpurea...... 30 Poe peng ac Oe pee GN > SA ee bv Ay C labella...... Bae | emcee | fe Cees ead Se ae C Cr Stelleri 15 —- |-| - x|X/|xX|xX| - @; Phyllitis Scolopendrium ) Sa eee eee foe Cc amptosorus rhizophyllus | 50 ale ee Oe ee tO Asplenium pinnatifidum.. . x |X| x/|xl-|-[|-|-|-| A ebenoides...... TR) Sea a ee eee Cc platyneuron. ..| 50 goes Rope, Sg a. Ga pee oP Sr ee ee Cc resiliens.......| 15 Se ie a a ed ae De Trichomanes.. .| 30 - aie (OS he oo Poe Cc NiPId@ cy Ss (2) mote be eee LAR GE mee ee Bradleyi....... Sy Ray ees -|-|A montanum xo} Xi xX} xi et clo lod A : uta-muraria..| 15 Bit bene ee a i ee Sk SG a es DT Polypodium vulgare......| 5 i a ee aes gle Ge a > i ae me 2 polypodioides | 15 by gee ail fg, shes ee Bey ce A eg rye Bane Wales A Woodsia glabella.........| 15 = bog + =| eee eet oe be AIDS oaks 5 at ee a Se ee Ilvensis 25 il eee Se eee ee OURDBR is ee ick oo ~ 5 Sao, ea ad. eb. Sy i. Se, A pe. 8] Wilix bulbiferas 05500, 30° - ot sol wy oe oe eS Cc Tragilie 3 20 hg Pe ae poe ee Dryopteris fragrans....... (2) Lt oe Lal ie iE 18 Totals: Acid soil plants, 7; calcareous soil plants, 18; sum, 25. EXPLANATION OF TABLE I The names used are those accepted by most present- day writers; important synonyms are given in the sub- sequent discussion. The number of tests made on each 18 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL species is recorded, and, as about three tests have cus- tomarily been made at each locality, the number of local- ities represented is approximately 14 of the number of tests. Tests made on soil adhering to the roots of her- barium specimens, which seemed desirable in a few in- stances to: supplement field data, are distinguished by parentheses. The terms used for the soil reactions are those re- cently proposed;? the numbers are “‘specific acidities’’ and “specific alkalinities,’’ and represent the amounts of acid or of alkaline constituents (ions) present, with re- ference to pure water as a unit. Thus the number 300 on the acid side means that the corresponding soil con- tains that many times as much acid as water contains, and so on. All reactions of soils in which the various species have been observed to grow are marked with a letter x, in lower case for rarely observed values, capitals for frequently observed ones, and bold face letters for what may be termed optimum values, that is those shown by the most luxuriant and flourishing plants. The majority of the species tabulated clearly favor reactions lying toward one side of the table or the other, and it is convenient to have some way of classifying them on this basis. Those the dominant reactions of which lie toward the left hand side may be termed “acid soil plants.”” It should be noted that the degree of acid- ity represented by habitats supporting these ferns is for the most part less than that of the sphagnum bogs and sandy barrens where so-called ‘‘oxylophytes”’ grow, 80 the latter term is not desirable for application here. It is also noteworthy that the acid soil species are dominantly southern in distribution. This class is des- ignated by an A, for acid, in the last column of the table. ‘Journ. Wash. Acad. Sci. 9, 305-309, 1919. Som Reactions oF Certain FErns—I 19 The complementary term ‘‘alkaline soil plants” is unsuitable for those showing dominant reactions toward the right hand side of the table, since the degree of alkal-. inity represented is at most but slight, and moreover no species of this class has been found which will not grow also in neutral and even slightly acid soils. The evi- dence indicates that the important factor in the case of plants avoiding the most acid soils is the relative abun- dance of calcium compounds, and accordingly “calcar- eous soil plants” will be used. The terms ‘“‘calciphile”” (lime lover) and ‘‘calcicole” (lime grower) are often ap- plied to this class of plants. Since plants may grow in calcareous habitats for various other reasons than “love of lime”’ the latter term is the preferable one; but neither is really necessary. This class is marked in the table by a C, for calcareous. It is evident from the table that no sharp line can be drawn between the two classes, as marked overlapping occurs in the central columns, especially in those of specific acidity 30, 10, and 3. Laboratory tests for calcium compounds have shown these to be present in practically all the soils concerned, their amount and especially their solubility diminishing markedly as the reactions approach mediacidity. By no means all spe- } cies showing calcium compounds in their soils are calcar- eous soil plants; for when. the specific acidity exceeds about 30 the physiological effect of the acid appears to predominate over that of the calcium; and although when the specific acidity is 10 or below, the effect of the calcium is dominant, some acid soil plants can still thrive even at the neutral point. In soils termed minimacid, plants of both classes may flourish side by side; but if enough occurrences of each species can be studied, the dominant reaction is always found to lie definitely to- ward one side or the other, and the plant can be assigned to the corresponding class. 20 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL FEATURES OF INDIVIDUAL SPECIES Cheilanthes lanosa (vestita) is recorded in the litera- ture as growing on sandstone, shale, schist, and trap rocks, and the writer has found it on the first three of these in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. In these occurrences the soils have proved to be dominantly subacid to minimacid in reaction. In what appears to be the only recorded occurrence of this fern in a lime- stone region, that at Natural Bridge station, Virginia, it grows in clayey soil on a steep bank; and tests of this soil, for a specimen of which the writer is indebted to Mr. John P. Young. of Washington, D. C., have shown it to be neutral, any free calcium carbonate which may have been present having been leached out by the rain. This fern is therefore regarded as an acid soil plant showing a considerable degree of tolerance for calcium compounds. It seemed a matter of interest to ascertain if other species of the above genus showed similar soil require- ments, but no opportunity to study any others in the field presented itself. Accordingly tests were made on the soil adhering to the roots of specimens of Cheilanthes tomentosa in the U. 8. National Herbarium, for which privilege—as well as for other valuable assistance in the preparation of this paper—the writer is indebted to Mr. William R. Maxon. In specimens from Paint Rock, North Carolina, where the rock is presumably, as usual for this fern, sandstone, the reaction proved to be sub- acid. In one from Natural Bridge Station, the locality referred to in the preceding paragraph—the reaction was low minimacid. This species is therefore also classed provisionally as an acid soil plant tolerant of calcium. Pellaea atropurpurea, as observed in Pennsylvania and adjoining states, is found not only on limestone, but also on apparently noncalcareous sandstone, schist, shale, Som. Reactions oF CERTAIN FERNsS—I 21 _ ete. The literature shows similar relations to exist in other regions. Tests have shown circumneutral reac- tions to be present in most cases, however, and in excep- tional ones where the soil is low in calcium compounds and subacid in reaction, the plant is stunted and plainly not thriving. Pellaea glabella, which is recorded in the literature only on limestone, has been studied at two localities near Allentown, Pennsylvania, to which the writer was kindly guided by Mr. Harold W. Pretz. The soil in both places being made up of dolomitic limestone fragments, the reactions naturally proved to be more or less alkaline. Both species of Pellaea are thus to be re- garded as typical calcareous soil plants, with, in the for- mer case, a moderate tolerance for acid reactions. Cryptogramma Stelleri (Pellaea gracilis) has been re- corded most frequently on limestone, but also occasion- ally on sandstone, slate, and gneiss rocks. In Vermont it was found to be definitely limited to calcareous gneiss, the soils being more or less alkaline; but at Lin- coln Falls, Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, a locality brought to the writer’s attention by Dr. Everett G. Logue, of Williamsport, it grows in wet crumbly red sandstone. Such rocks sometimes yield strongly acid soils, but in this case tests of the soil into which the fern’s roots extended showed the reaction to be neutral or at most slightly acid. The usual classification of this species as a calcareous soil plant practically intolerant of acid is therefore believed to be correct. The writer has not had the opportunity to study Phyl- litis Scolopendrium (Scolopendrium vulgare) in the field, but its soil reaction seemed to be of so much interest that tests were made on the soils of herbarium specimens, kindly furnished by Mr. Maxon. As the latter has pointed out in describing the distribution of this fern in America,‘ it grows in Tennessee in a stiff clay, forming a ‘Fernwort Papers, 30-46, 1900. #4 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL striking contrast to its soil at certain other stations, which is a black, friable leafmold. Both the clay from South Pittsburg, Tennessee and the leafmold from James- ville, New York, yielded on testing practically neutral reactions, indicating the correctness of the usual classifi- cation of this fern as a calcareous soil plant. Although its distribution is of course largely controlled by climatic conditions, it is noteworthy that the results show it to grow in soils of divergent physical but uniform chemical character. Camptosorus rhizophyllus (Asplenium rhizophyllum) has been found throughout Pennsylvania and adjoining states to be most frequent and luxuriant in cireumneutral soils, although as noted in many places in the literature and emphasized in the writer’s previous paper, the ad- jacent rock may vary widely. In occasional instances in which the soil was found to be subacid in reaction and low in calcium compounds the plant is, as a rule, stunted and weak-looking. Its usual classification as a calcar- eous soil plant may thus be accepted, although it is evi- dently fairly tolerant of acidity. It is interesting to compare with Camptosorus the related fern Aspleniwm pinnatifidum. The latter grows usually on sandstone, shale, schist, etc., and has apparently never been defi- nitely reported on limestone or other calcareous rocks. A number of tests, made in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, have shown its soils to contain some cal- cium compounds, but to be decidely acid in reaction. It is therefore to be classed as a typical acid soil plant, only slightly tolerant of calcium. The relations be- tween these two ferns will be further discussed later on. WasuHineton, D. C. (To be continued.) The Woodsias of Quechee CHARLES SMITH LEWIS Three years ago, in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard, I found specimens of the W. alpina (Bolton) 8. F. Gray labelled ‘‘Quechee Gulf, Vermont” and dated many years ago. The next year I found the same locality given in the Flora of Vermont (Bulletin No. 187 of the Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station), prepared by the Vermont Botanical Club; and I determined to get to Quechee. But it was not until August, 1919, that my son and J found ourselves standing on the station platform at Dewey’s Mills, ready to hunt for the rarest of the Woodsias, the object of our desires for many years. Quechee Gulf is a very narrow gorge, through which the Ottaquechee river reaches the lower levels and emp- ties into the Connecticut. It is 160 feet from the top of the railroad bridge that spans the Gulf to the bottom. The gorge is not over half a mile in length. Its sides are very precipitous, the western wall impassable for a good deal of the distance; the eastern wall, while very steep and often quite perpendicular, does afford a pos- sible foothold, and in the lower reaches a path runs along its base. We entered at this lower end, under the directions given us by Mrs. H. E. Heselton of Taftsville, whose courtesy in helping us find some of the rarer Vermont ferns we shall always remember. Before long a cluster of small fronds up on the cliff caught our eyes and we clambered up the side of the gorge. It was steep, but that made no matter, for we both found plants of the W. alpina. Mine was growing in a patch of moss, and one plant was larger than any that I recollected in the herbariums, gathered from the United States. Full of enthusiasm we pushed up the Gulf. Soon we came 23 24 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL upon another spot where there were many plants, but most of them were small. The trail led up over a ledge whose top overhung the water below. There we were rewarded by more dis- coveries. On the edge of the bank, above the rock, was a small station of the slender rock brake (Cryptograma Stelleri (Gmel.) Prantl). The fertile frond which we gathered was a very fine specimen. Close by was a tuft of small green stalked fronds, which we quickly saw was Woodsia glabella R. Br. Just there it was almost abundant and way up near the top of the cliffs we found, later, another fine group of these delicate plants. Those that we found in the Gulf were much smaller than the W. alpina. The time for our train was fast approaching so we clambered up the side of the Gulf, at this point quite accessible, and covered with hemlock and white birch trees. At the very top where the cliff was impassable and crumbling, overhanging the outcropping rock, was a large colony of the third of the Woodsias which we found that day, W. ilvensis (L.) R. Br. The fronds were not the commoner kind, erect, densely crowded and closely matted, such as we found in the pastures above the Gulf, but they were long and graceful as they hung down over the edge or along the sides of the rocks. They had however the distinctive characteristics of W. ilvensis, its chaffy rusty brown wool and the fine silvery hairs on the younger fronds. As we left on the train Mrs. Heselton told us that Pellaea atropurpurea had been identified on the far side of the Gulf, high up out of reach. We did not see it, but we had the rare experience of finding the other rock brake, C. Stelleri and three of the four Woodsias which grow in the eastern United States. W. obtusa was not found in the immediate neighborhood, but Mts. Hesel- ton writes me that it has been found by her growing ReEcENT FERN LITERATURE 25 with fine specimens of Asplenium platyneuron, a little more than a mile west of Woodstock, that is, about eight miles west from Quechee, and Mr. J. G. Under- wood reports it within about five miles. Among the more common ferns we saw in the Gulf, were Adiantum; Dryopteris marginalis; D. Thelypteris and D. intermedia; Athyrium angustum (Willd.) Presl and possibly the variety elatius. Cystopteris bulbifera grew in profusion all along the lower sides of the cliffs and we found a few fronds of C. fragilis in the Gulf and also in the pastures above it. Polypodium vulgare was abundant in places, and we saw two of the Osmundas, O. regalis at the very water’s edge, with O. cinnamomea not far away. Up in the pasture we found not only the fragile bladder fern but W. ilvensis, Dicksonia punctilo- bula and Pteris aquilina. Along the railway just be- yond Dewey’s as we were going off we saw Onoclea sen- sibilis and O. Struthopteris. Most of these ferns are abundant in the district. But we doubt if in many other places the three rarer Woodsias can be found in so small a radius, and if in any other place so far south and at so low an elevation one can find such a station of Wood- sia alpina. BuRuInGTON, N. J. Recent Fern Literature Dr. J. H. Barnhart has published an interesting account of an American writer on ferns who is little known to most of us—William Brackenridge.!. Bracken- ridge’s own modesty and retiring disposition has made biographical material in regard to him difficult to ob- tain, but Dr. Barnhart has been able to put together a fairly complete narrative of his life. 1Barnhart, J. H. Brackenridge and his book on ferns. Journ. N.Y. Bot. Garden 20: 117-124. June, 1919. 26 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL He was one of the honorable company of gardeners who have proved themselves also good botanists. Born at Ayr, Scotland, June 16, 1810, he came to this country in 1837 and entered the employ of a Philadelphia nursery- man. The next year he received an appointment as horticulturist and assistant botanist of the United States Exploring Expedition under command of € ‘aptain Wilkes and sailed with it in August, 1838. The expedition spent three and a half years in explorations in South America, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and the then little known coasts of California and Oregon, returning in June, 1842. It brought back some ten thousand specimens of dried plants, 100 living ones and many seeds. The organization of the expedition was continued in order to work up its scientific results. Brackenridge was put in charge of growing the plants brought home and raised from seed and in this work he continued until 1854, when the organization was broken up. To him also was assigned the duty of reporting on the ferns collected. There have been few authors more unfortu- nate than was Brackenridge with this, his one botanical work. His initial difficulty—that he knew no Latin— was overcome with the aid of Professors Torrey and Gray, who translated his descriptions into that lan- guage, and the work was duly issued in 1854, only to have the greater part of the edition destroyed by two nearly simultaneous fires, one in Washington, and one at the printers’ in Philadelphia. As a result, complete copies of this Report—an excellent piece of work—are rare. After leaving the Government service, Brackenridge established himself as a nurseryman and landscape architect near Baltimore and there remained until his death, February 3, 1893. SHORTER NOTES 27 Some VirGinta Ferns—On November 24, 1919, at Natural Bridge, Va., I found two plants of Aspleniuwm ebenoides R. R. Scott. This fern had previously been reported from this station. Camptosorus rhizophyllus (L.) Link was ridiculously common and there was plenty of Asplenium parvulum Mart. & Gal. At Lynchburg, Va., on November 23, large, vigorous specimens of Cheilanthes lanosa (Michx.) Watt were readily obtained.—Joun P. Youna, Washington, D. C. Some UnorriciAL Fern Lore— Fern Fiora or NEBRASKA—II 39 Woops!a OREGANA D. C,. Eaton. This species apparently is confined to the western half of the state; it is frequent on dry open bluffs. Tuomas county: dry banks, Dismal river, July 12, 1889, no, 6106, H. J. Webber; on hillside near Plummer ford, Dismal river, July 3, 1893, no. 1479, P. A. Rydberg. Brown county: Long Pine, collected by J. Conklin, no. 8 ex-herbarium G. D. Swezey; Long Pine, cafions, July 23, 1887, C. FE. Bessey. Dawes county: Belmont, dry banks, July 18, 1889, no. 6105, H. J. Webber. Sioux county: on buttes, August, 1892, no. 440, Albert F. Woods; Hat Creek, June 24, 1890, Tom A. Williams. MARSILEACEAE Marsitea vestita Hook. & Grev. Hairy pepperwort. In ponds, frequent in many places in the state. Dur- ing periods of drought terrestrial specimens may be found having hairy and narrow leaflets and these have been named the variety tenuifolia Und. & Cook. JEFFERSON couNTY: Meridian township, section 22, 1891, EZ. F. Lange; Fairbury, September 3, 1892, E. F. pees FILLMORE couNnTY: Fairmont, August, 1890, and Aug- ust 4, 1891, J. H. Haughawout; August, 1890, no. 6113, labeled var. tenuifolia Und. & Cook, H. J. Webber; ponds, August 1, 1890, J. H. Haughawout, labeled var. tenuifolia Und. & Cook. WEBSTER county: Red Cloud, Rev. J. M. Bates. KEARNEY county: Minden, August 13, 1891, Dr. H. Hapeman, labeled var. tenwfolia?; prairies and sand- hills of central Nebraska, July 13, 1900, altitude 500 meters, no, 6604, P. A. Rydberg. Deve. county: July 3, 1893, #. M. Gilliard. Box Burrs county: July 7, 1892, no. 275, J. G Smith & Roscoe Pound. 40 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Prerce county: Plainview, July 2, 1907, in shallow ponds, N. F. Petersen. ANTELOPE county: Clearwater, June 16, 1899, re- ported as a weed, no. 12036, D. M. Decamp; Brunswick, June, 1909, N. F. Petersen. SALVINIACEAE AZOLLA CAROLINIANA Willd. Apparently known from only one or two localities, rare. THOMAS COUNTY: on ground at edge of water, Dismal river, July 12, 1889, no. 6101, H. J. Webber; in a spring near Plummer ford, Dismal river, August 24, 1893, P. A. Rydberg. GARDEN county: Dr. R. J. Pool reports finding this species in great abundance along Blue creek in May, 1912. EQUISETACEAE | EQUISETUM ARVENSE L. Common in sandy soil, fields, pastures, waste places, roadsides. The simple fertile stems appearing in March | and April and soon withering after fruiting, the branched sterile stems come later and persist throughout the sum- mer. This species seems to appear mostly as a weed and will be found in low wet grounds to rather high and dry situations. Sarpy county: Bellevue, May 13, 1893, no. 4097, Roscoe Pound & DeAlton Saunders. SaunDERS county: Ashland, June 24, 1890, Tom A. Williams Cass county: Weeping Water, reported by Bessey & Webber. OroE county: Nebraska City, May 28, 1893, no. 4067, Roscoe Pound & F. E. Clements. NemaHa county: Brownville, reported by ages & Webber. FERN FLora oF NEBRASKA—II1 4] GAGE couNTY: Wymore, reported by Bessey & Web- LANCASTER county: Lincoln, May, 1890, May 2, 1893, no. 3230, Pound, Clements & Saunders; also a specimen without definite data by A. F. Woods, and a similar one by Fred C. Cooley. SEWARD county: Milford, low wet ground, May 23, 1886, no. 6138, H. J. Webber CUSTER COUNTY: ‘Anacluve: reported by Bessey & Webber Thowss county: near Thedford, in meadow on Mid- dle Loup river, September 9, 1893, no. 1378, P. A. Ryd- berg; on wet meadow near Nattick, June 20, 1893, no. 1378, P. A. Rydberg. Brown county: Long Pine, reported by Bessey & Webber. Dawes county: near Pine Ridge, July 24, 1889, H. J. Webber. Sroux county: Squaw cafion, August, 1892, no. 447, Albert F. Woods; Hat creek basin, August 1, 1889, no. 6133, H. J. Webber. EQUISETUM FLUVIATILE L. (E. limosum L.) . This species apparently is infrequent in Nebraska. It oceurs in swampy places and along borders of streams and ponds. KEARNEY coUNTY: Platte river, June 15, 1891, no. 475, P. A. Rydberg. GARFIELD county: Burwell, July 22, 1909, no. 4917, Rev. J. M. Bates. Hour county: southwest along Holt creek, August 2, 1892, Rev. J. M. B Baown county: Long Pine,. rete 3, 1909, no. 4933, Rev. J. M. Bates. EqQuIsETUM LAEVIGATUM A. Braun, Common in moist soil in low fields, pastures, and waste places. 42 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Drxon county: Ponca, June 14, 1893, no. 2542, Fred Clements Cass county: Weeping Water, reported by Bessey & Webber. LANCASTER COUNTY: Lincoln, prairie bank of Ante- lope, northeast of town, May 8, 1885, no. 6139, H. J. “ebber; marshy prairie, Lincoln, April, 1886, J. G. Smith; marshy grounds, Lincoln, May, 1886, J. G. Smith. SALINE COUNTY: Crete, reported by Bessey & Webber.. JEFFERSON COUNTY: Fairbury, low land near water, May 31, 1886, no. 32. WEBSTER county: Red Cloud, June 2, 1908, no. 4509, Rev. J. M. Bates. KEARNEY COUNTY: wet prairie, June 15, 1891, no. 476, P. A. Rydberg. Dunpy county: Benkelman, August 5, 1893, no. 2000, A. F. Woods & DeAlton Saunders. CUSTER couNTY: Callaway, May 28, 1902, no. 2225, Rev. J. M. Bates. THOMAS CouNTY: in wet meadow on Middle Loup river near Thedford, June 14, 1893, nos. 1260 & 1283, P. A. Rydberg; Thedford, July 11 & 14, 1889, nos. 6136 €& 6131, H. J. Webber; Halsey, July, 1911, R. J. Pool. GARDEN COUNTY: Oshkosh, June 6, 1912, Raymond J. ool. : Brown county: Long Pine, reported by Bessey & Webber. SHERIDAN county: July 9, 1892, no. 276, J. G. Smith & Roscoe Pound. Dawes county: Pine Ridge, July 24, 1889, no. 6130, H. J. Webber. ~ SIoUx county: Squaw cafion, August, 1892, no. 445, Albert F. Woods; Hat Creek basin, August 2, 1889, H. J. Webber. There are also two sheets collected by Samuel Aughey, about 1875, without definite data. Fern Fiora or Nespraska—ll 43 Equisetum ropustum A. Braun. This species is quite common along river banks through- out the state. Dixon county: Ponca, June 14, 1898, no. 2543, Fred Clements. Sarpy county: Bellevue, September 3, 1893, no. 3189, Roscoe Pound & D. A. Saunders. Cass county: South Bend, Mr. Kemble, no further data. NemMaAHA county: Missouri river bottoms, Brown- ville, January 2, 1889, nos. 61382 & 6140, H. J. Webber, specimens with branches. : KEARNEY county: along Platte river, June 15, 1891, no. 475, P. A. Rydberg. — BurraLo county: Kearney, banks of the Platte river, July 20, 1901, no. 54, J. J. Thornber. THomas county: on hillside near Plummer ford, Dismal river, August 24, 1893, no. 1722, P. A. Rydberg; Thedford, July 10, 1889, no. 6135, H. J. Webber. Cuerry county: Fort Niobrara, August, 1890, no. 38, Rev. J. M.. Bates. This fragmentary specimen is labeled Equisetum hyemale L. and it was published as such by Dr. C. E. Bessey. Dawes county: Pine Ridge, July 14, 1889, no. 6134, and July 24, 1889, no. 6137, H. J. Webber. Sioux county: Squaw cafion, August, 1892, no. 446, Albert F. Woods; Monroe cafion, north of Harrison, June 18, 1911, Raymond J. Pool & C. V. Williams. EqvIsETUM VARIEGATUM Schleich. This species seems to be infrequent or rare; it occurs usually in wet soil. LANCASTER county: Lincoln, Antelope creek, May, 1887, J. R. Schofield. KEARNEY county: wet prairies, June 13, 1891, on. 477, P. A. Rydberg. 44 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL HooKER COUNTY: on wet meadow near Middle Loup river, July 17, 1893, no. 1801, P. A. Rydberg. Brown county: Long Pine, reported by Bessey & Webber. CHERRY couNTY: Valentine, July, 1891, no. 39, Rev. J. M. Bates. SELAGINELLACEAE SELAGINELLA RUPESTRIs (L.) Spring. Dry rocky soil or cliffs, infrequent or rare, apparently confined to certain localities, sometimes locally frequent. Brown county: sandhills; Long Pine, July 23, 1887, also 1890, C. E. Bessey; July 28, 1892, no. 271, J. G. Smith & Roscoe Pound. ANTELOPE counTY: near Royal, August 7, 1907, N. F., Petersen. LINCOLN couNTY: reported by Bessey & Webber. CHEYENNE county: reported by Bessey & Webber. ISOETACEAE ISOETES MELANOPODA J. Gay. Known in Nebraska from one locality in the south- eastern portion, rarely collected. FILLMORE COUNTY: northeastern part of the county, roadside ditches on road north from Exeter, about one half mile from the depot, September 8, 1888, Dr. J. Her- man Wibbe. Universiry or Nepraska, LINCOLN. eer 3 nai a The Soil Reactions of certain Rock Ferns—II EDGAR T. WHERRY Asplenium ebenoides appears to have been found most frequently on limestone, although its type locality was on gneiss or schist, and at the famous occurrence at Havana, Alabama, the rock is described as a conglomer- ate. At several stations located by Messrs. Pretz and Young near Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Natural - Bridge, Virginia, respectively, the rocks are limestone, and the soil reactions alkaline or, where the fern grows in moss coating the rocks, slightly acid. Near Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, a plant kindly shown to the writer by Dr. T. C. Stotler grows on shale, and the soil is minim- acid. The soils in the pockets in schist rock, where this species has been found along the Potomac northwest of Washington, are likewise moderately acid. The soil on herbarium specimens collected by Mr. Maxon at Havana was found to have a high minimacid reaction. This fern is therefore inferred to be a calcareous soil plant, somewhat tolerant of acid conditions. Asplenium platyneuron (ebeneum) grows with appar- ently equal frequence in both moderately acid and alka- line soils, the statement sometimes made that it prefers limestone coming apparently from the lack of apprecia- tion of its abundance and luxuriance in many regions where there occur no limestone or other calcareous rocks whatever. It is interesting to note, however, that this fern tends to avoid soils of greater acidity than subacid, and when growing in regions of dominant mediacid soils, as in the Pine-Barrens of New Jersey, it is most often found on steep banks where soils of subacid reaction are developed. In southern Delaware it occurs in isolated patches in pine woods, and tests have shown the soils of these areas to be distinctly less acid than are those of the 45 46 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL region in general, due either to locally more complete de- composition of the vegetable matter, or to the presence of more or less calcareous lenses in the underlying sand formation. These facts, together with its occurrence on limestone rocks, lead to its classification as a calcar- eous soil plant tolerant of acidity to a considerable but not an extreme degree. Asplenium resiliens (parvulum) has been recorded more often on limestone than on other rocks, and sev- eral observations upon it, in southern Virginia, confirm the correctness of its usual classification as a calcareous soil plant practically intolerant of acid conditions. It is usually rooted in limestone fragments of alkaline re- action, and even in occurrences in mossy humus the acidity was not observed to exceed low minimacid values. The more widespread Asplenium Trichomanes, observed throughout the region studied, is well known to occur on all sorts of rocks. On limestone it often grows in the. open, in soil composed of rock fragments and accord- ingly alkaline in reaction. On sandstone, schist, gneiss, etc., it usually grows, however, in soils made up of de- composed vegetable matter accumulated in places more: or less sheltered from the action of the rain, so that little lime can be leached out, and the reaction is circumneu- tral or rarely subacid. It is thus to be considered a cal- careous soil plant moderately tolerant of acidity. The writer has been unable to study Asplenium viride in the field, as his visit to the region of Willoughby Lake, Vermont, was too brief to permit a climb to its recorded place of growth near the top of the cliffs of Mt. Hor. The rock of this mountain is, however, a calcareous gneiss (of Ordovician age), so the fern would be sus- pected of calcareous soil tendencies. Tests of soils of specimens in the National Herbarium, from the locality at Smuggler’s Notch, showed in fact neutral to very ~ slightly acid reactions, confirming the correctness of this inference. Sort REAcTIONS OF CERTAIN FERNS—II 47 Most of the recorded occurrences of Asplenium Brad- leyi are on sandstone, schist or gneiss rocks; there are only one or two references in the literature to its oecur- rence in limestone regions, and apparently none to its actual growth on limestone rocks. The statement in some manuals that it prefers limestone is thus clearly erroneous. It has been studied in the field only along the Susquehanna River in southern Pennsylvania, where the rock is schist and the soil reaction mediacid to sub- acid. Tests on herbarium specimens from Glen Onoko, Pennsylvania, Baltimore County, Maryland, and Whit- field County, Georgia, showed the same reactions. This species is therefore to be classed as an acid soil plant, but slightly tolerant of calcium. —C. A. W. , Paul W. Unreported ferns from Montana. Bull. Torr. Bot ‘Club 47: 125-129. March, 1920. ?Elrod, Morton J. Ophioglossum vulgatum L. in Montana. Amer. Fern Journ. 7: 125. 1917. 3 Fern Bulletin 12:97. 1904. 90 AMERICAN FERN ‘JOURNAL A FrRuITLEss Searcu For AspLENIUM MONTANUM IN PENNSYLVANJA.—The history of the alleged finding of Asplenium fontanum in Pennsylvania was fully described several years ago in the Fern Bulletin, and need not be repeated here. It has no doubt been searched for by many botanists in subsequent years, but apparently without success. The desirability of obtaining soil tests upon this species for inclusion in the writer’s paper on the soil reactions of rock ferns, made a further effort to find it seem worth while. The original report gave the habitat as limestone cliffs; but there are no limestone cliffs on the Lycoming Creek, where the find was alleged to have been made. Nevertheless visits to the region were planned, starting from the town of Williamsport, which lies just east of the valley of this creek. Cliffs of brown shale and sandstone were found to form one or the other bank of Lycoming Creek for many miles above its mouth. In summer these proved to support so abundant a growth of Filiz fragilis and Woodsia Ilven- sis that any Aspleniwm fontanum which might occur there would be extremely difficult to find. It was ac- cordingly decided to make another trip in the winter, when the fronds of these obscuring species would be withered down, while the plant sought, being evergreen, would, if present at all, be in sight. Early in January, 1920, Dr. Everett G. Logue and the writer took the trip. The stream was frozen over sol- idly in most places, making travel comparatively easy, and permitting access to many cliffs which were out of reach during the summer. As hoped, the Filiz and Woodsia were invisible, and the only fern which could in any way (at a distance) be mistaken for the species sought was Asplenium Trichomanes; and a near view gave it away at once. The weather, while cold, was not unpleasant, so everything seemed to favor the finding of More VeRMoNT FERN Lists QT Asplenium fontanum, were it really there. The results of a whole day’s search were, however, negative. The following notes may nevertheless be of interest. The soils on these cliffs showed a specific acidity ranging from 1 (neutrality) to 300, so that plants of widely dif- ferent soil preferences have locally founda foothold there. Such ferns as were seen were growing for the most part in the soils of the lower acidities, from 1 to 10. It would be expected that A. fontanwm would thrive here, for it is reported to grow elsewhere in limestone soils, where the reaction is likely to be nearly neutral. This it was possible to confirm on a specimen collected at Mt. Re- vard, France, by Mr. Walter Mattern, while serving with the American Expeditionary forces, and sent to Mr. Harold W. Pretz, who kindly turned it over to the writer. The soil adhering to the plant’s roots showed a specific acidity of 3. The failure to rediscover this fern on the Lycoming cliffs, in spite of thorough search in apparently chemically suitable locations, made under circumstan- ces unusually favorable, certainly suggests that if As- plenium fontanum ever did grow in that locality, it has subsequently been exterminated.—EpGaR T. WHERRY, Wasuineton, D. C. More Vermont Fern Lists.—Local fern lists, in competition or comparison with Mr. Winslow’s Will- oughby list, continue to be sent in to the JOURNAL. The editors are very glad to receive them in any quantity and are only sorry that space does not permit printing them in full. The two lists now at hand are both from Vermont— only Vermont, apparently, being able to compete effect- ively with Vermont. Mr. H. C. Ridlon sends a list of 30 species of true ferns and 4 Ophioglossaceae found with- in an eighty-acre area on the Charles Downer State For- 92 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL est Farm at Sharon. This list includes such of the less widely distributed species as Polystichum Braunii, Athy- rium angustifolium, Dryopteris Goldiana, Camptosorus and Cryptogramma Stelleri, but like most local lists from the east side of the Green Mountains so far south, lacks the strongly lime-loving Asplenium Ruta-muraria and ellaea. Rev. C. S. Lewis sends a list of 35 species collected by him and his son, Mr. W. F. Lewis, in Manchester, Vt. _ This leaves Willoughby, Dorset and Manchester tied for first place and should lend excitement to fern collect- ing in these localities. The Dorset and Manchester lists are precisely alike, with one notable exception. Dorset has Woodsia ilvensis which the Messrs. Lewis failed to find; but they more than made up for it by dis- covering Woodsia glabella in considerable quantity on Mt. Equinox. This is a noteworthy extension of range for the species, the southernmost stations previously known being, so far as the editors are aware, Mt. Horrid in Rochester and Queechee Gulf in Hartford, Vt. American Fern Society PRESIDENT’S REPORT FOR 1919. The reports of officers for 1919 already published have shown so completely the essential facts as to the activ- ities of the Society during the past year that there is very little for the President to add, beyond an expression of appreciation of the generous and courteous support which has been extended by the members at all times and a brief review of our present financial situation, which undoubtedly calls for prompt remedy. The problem of finance is, indeed, not an unusual one nowadays, either to individuals or to societies, and is a special cause of concern to those organizations which, AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY 93 like our own, maintain as their chief form of activity a Journal for the advancement of their special field of. study. In our own Society, the strictest economy hav-— ing been practiced before, the question becomes one either of reduction in printing or of securing additional funds. Curtailment is possible in three ways: by decreasing the edition of the JourRNAL, by issuing fewer pages per num- ber, and by omitting free illustrations. For several reasons the first method suggested is undesirable; in particular, it would result in uneven sets, which would be especially unfortunate in meeting the steady demands of the larger new membership which we expect even- tually to have. As to issuing smaller numbers: Al- though the budget for 1920 as agreed upon contemplat- ed publishing two 32-page numbers and two others of smaller size, if necessary, the council has hesitated to put this plan into operation, preferring to draw upon the re- serve emergency fund for making up any deficit which might be incurred by the publication of four 32-page numbers, in the belief that under the present unusual conditions a more legitimate use for a part of this fund could not be found. The third suggested means of re- ducing expenses, by eliminating free illustrations, has been adhered to with a considerable resultant saving. Nevertheless the day of reckoning has merely been deferred, since the emergency fund is not a large one and in any case ought not to be exhausted. Although not indispensable, illustrations are an extremely desirable feature of the JourNnaL and should be continued, the ex- penses being borne partly by the JourNaL; and in other respects the JouRNAL should be continued very much as at the present time, certainly in an edition of the present size and with the present number of pages. There should be no backward steps. Equally true it is that the costs of printing have mounted greatly, with no immediate reduction in pros- 94 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL pect, and that more money is needed if we are to con- tinue as in the past. The necessary increase in funds might be had from an increased membership, and act- tive new steps are, in fact, being taken just now toward bringing in new members; but income from this source will not be sufficiently large in amount or be available promptly enough to lessen the obligation of adopting some other plan. For the present, therefore, the only equitable way of maintaining the JouRNAL as it is ap- pears to be a fifty per cent increase in the individual membership dues of our organization. We have the distinction of having held out against this solution long- er than most organizations, under similar circumstances; and that this action has not been urgently required earl- ier is due chiefly to the efficient and disinterested ser- vices of our Treasurer and Editors and to the fact that our printers, to their distinct disadvantage, until late in 1919 held to the schedule of prices adopted in 1911. The increase in total revenues now suggested means only 4 small sum to the individual member, and it is hoped that the associations which the members have formed by correspondence and acquaintanceship within the So- ciety, their deep interest in fern study itself, and their pride in helping maintain at its present level an extreme- ly well edited JourNAL, will be sufficient to win support for the suggested change. Under the revised constitution of 1914 the amount of dues is fixed at $1.00, and the method of bringing about amendments to the constitution is definitely provided. Ballots covering the proposed amendments to Sections 2, 3, and 4 of Article 3 will therefore be submitted to the members by the Secretary, for vote, with the notice of the next annual election. A further amendment (Sec- tion 5 of the same Article) relates to the increase of life membership payment from $15 to $25. This change is quite as necessary as that in the annual dues, since the AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY 95 life membership dues are deposited in a special fund, only the interest of which is expendable. WiituramM R. Maxon, President. President Maxon has appointed the following com- mittee to nominate officers for 1921: Dr. 8. F. Blake, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C., Chairman, Mrs. Nellie F. Flynn and C. H. Knowlton. The editors wish to acknowledge with gratitude, gifts for illustrations from Miss Marshall an He: ouse. They are also too much pleased with a compli- ment to the officers which one member has been good and encouraging enough to send in, to keep it to them- selves. Here it is: “I am always pleased with the Fern Journal and think the officers of the Society produce the most with the least money of any organization on earth.” CHANGES OF ADDRESS Badé, Dr. William F., 2616 College Ave., Berkeley, Cal. Cheever, Dr. Austin W., 12 Avondale Road, Newton Center, Mass. Cornman, Mrs. Leighton R., 400 Idaho Bldg., Boise, Idaho. Darling, Miss Nancy, “Sky Farm,” R. D. No. 2, Woodstock, Vt. Greenwood, Miss Helen E., 12 Hudson St., Worcester, Mass. Holtzoff, Mis Mary, 145 West 123rd St., New York City Lewis, Rev. Charles S., 835 Edgewood Ave., Trenton N. 5 Lewis, W. Scott, 2500 Beachwood Drive, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Cal Lombard, Mrs. Charles P., 92 Court St., Plymouth, Mas McFarland, Prof. Frank T., Dept. Plant Pathology, Univ. of Wis- consin, Madison, Wis. Moxley, Rev. George L., 1964 East First St., Los Angeles, Cal. Newman, Rev. 8. M., care of W. W. Coon, Winthrop Place, Buglewood. gs PR Fe Noyes, Miss Elmira E., 117 Dinwiddie St., Portsmouth, Va. Stowell, Willard A., 41 Delawareview Ave., Trenton, N. J. Swain, Rev. James R., 428 8. 44th St., Philadelphia, ‘Pa. Wertsner, Clayton S., 121 N. 15th St., ’ Philadelphia Pa. Young, Mrs. Gharies E., Florence Court West 204, Washington, 4. Sy Mee 96 @eSuericaN FERN JOURNAL New MEMBERS Ackley, Mrs. N. C., 236 N. Kenwood St., Glendale, Cal. Braun, Miss Lucy E., 2702 May St., Cincinnati, Ohio. Chamberlain, Edward B., 18 West 89th St., N. Y. City. Detmers, Miss Freda, Ohio Experm. Sta., Wooster, Ohio. Hale, Miss Marcia E., Elizabethtown, loses Co. Humphrey, Miss Lillian: 311 South 8th Ave., Trenton: ‘Dhis: Irvine, Mrs. Alice I., 1264 Garfield Ave. : Baielon & Cal. Lewis, William Visher 2d, 835 Edgew bol Ave., Trenton, N. J. McAvoy, Miss Blanche, Box 109 Foley Road, Price Hill Sta., Cin- cinnati, Ohio. Oliver, Miss Mary H., 270 South State St., Westerville, Ohio. Osterlund, P., 958 49d St., Brookl Schafiner, Prof. John H., Botanical Tit: “Ohio State ‘University, Columbus, Ohio. Mr. F. C. Greene has become a life member. American Fern Journal OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1920 No. 4. Vol. 10 FERNS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MONTANA! PAUL C, STANDLEY Glacier National Park embraces an area of 1,534 square miles in northwestern Montana along the main range of the Rockies. The region is extremely rugged and consists of a great mass of abrupt peaks, separated by deep valleys. On the north the Park adjoins Alberta and British Columbia; to the east lie the prairies of the - Blackfoot Indian Reservation, and to the west the for- ests of the Flathead Valley. The Continental Divide traverses the Park. The streams of the west slope reach ultimately the Columbia River, and those of the east slope drain partly into the Missouri River and part- ly into Hudson Bay. The highest peaks attain an altitude of little more than 10,000 feet, but the surrounding country is com- paratively low—3,170 feet on the west slope and 4,800 feet on the east slope—so that the mountains are quite as imposing in appearance as the more elevated peaks of the southern Rockies. ‘The rocks are stratified and of Algonkian age. They consist chiefly of beds of shale, limestone, sandstone, and argillite, many of which are beautifully colored in red and green. From a scenic standpoint the region is perhaps unsur- passed in North America. ‘There are more than 60 gla- 1 Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute. Me 10, no. 3 of the JouRNAL, pages 65-96, plate 1, was issued Sept. 21, 1920 97 98 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ciers in the Park, most of them small but nevertheless possessing all the features of the largest ones. Great banks of snow persist throughout the summer, often un- til late in the season even at low altitudes. There are also innumerable lakes, large and small, of beautiful shades of blue and green, some of which are found at high elevations, surrounded by banks of snow and masses of ice. Most spectacular is Iceberg Lake, whose blue sur- face is covered with huge blocks of floating ice fallen from the bordering glacier. The animal life also is of unusual interest and abundance. Mountain sheep and goats, bear, deer, ptarmigan, and many other mammals and birds can be seen by any visitor. Not the least attractive feature of Glacier Park is found in the plant life. Flowers are found everywhere in the greatest profusion. Particularly is this true above and near timber line, where the meadows are solid mass- es of bright color throughout the summer. The heavy coniferous forests, especially those of the west slope, are also of great interest. The Continental Divide, as is well known, is an im- portant factor in plant distribution, and this fact is strikingly exemplified locally in Glacier Park. The flora of the east slope is that generally characteristic of the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado. The trees are lodgepole and limber pine, alpine fir, Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, aspen, and black cottonwood. On the west slope the flora shows a close relationship to that of the Pacific Coast. Here we find all the trees which grow on the east slope, and in addition the western white and yellow pines, western larch and hemlock, grand fir, giant cedar, and paper birch. All these are typical Pacific Slope species, and most of them reach the eastern limit of their range here. The herbaceous plants also illus- trate the differences between the floras of the two slopes, but not in so striking a fashion. The Pteridophyta, FERNS oF GLACIER PARK 99 however, whose species are likely to have a wider distri- bution than those of flowering plants, are practically the same on both slopes, except in the case of the genus Ly- copodium, most of whose species are confined, apparent- ly, to the west slope. Of the life zones recognized by biologists, four are rep- resented in Glacier Park, as follows: Transition Zone. On the east slope this includes the plains and the narrow strips of land which extend up the creek valleys; also the more exposed slopes of the lower mountains. On the west slope the zone is represented by limited areas of yellow pine timber that lie along the North Fork of the Flathead River. The vegetation of the plains region consists of herbaceous plants, largely grasses, and of a few low shrubs. Pteridophyta are rare; the only ones which really belong in the zone, probably, are Equisetum arvense and Selaginella densa. Canadian Zone. This covers the largest portion of the Park, including all of the heavily timbered area. Open hillsides and meadows in the heavy timber are frequent, especially on the east slope. The trees are the species enumerated above, and there is a large representation of shrubby and herbaceous plants. Most of the ferns are found in this zone, and a large proportion of them do not occur elsewhere. Hudsonian Zone. The Hudsonian Zone is an ill-de- fined belt about timber line (6,000 to 7,500 feet), which is a transition area between the forests of the Canadian Zone and the meadows and barren slopes of the Arctic- Alpine Zone. The trees are chiefly white-bark pine and alpine fir. These occur mostly as low, stunted, scatter- ed individuals, but they are sometimes assembled in dense thickets. Frequently they assume the ‘‘krum- holz” form, The species of herbaceous plants are very humerous, but few are confined to this zone. Pterido- phyta found here are Adiantum, Cryptogramma acros- 100 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL tichoides, Athyrium americanum, Polystichum Lonchitis, Filix fragilis, Woodsia scopulina, and Equisetum arvense and E. variegatum. None of these, except perhaps the maidenhair, is confined to the zone. Arctic-Alpine Zone. Here belong all the slopes which lie above the last remnants of trees. There are a few low shrubs, chiefly willows, but most of the plants are small herbs, many of them with remarkably brilliant flowers. The vegetation is extremely interesting. A large num- ber of the species represented have a wide distribution in arctic and alpine regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The following Pteridophyta grow here: Botrychium Lun- aria, Asplenium viride, Cryptogramma Stelleri, Athyrium americanum, Lycopodium Selago, and Equisetum varie- gatum. All of these, except possibly Asplenium viride, are found in more or less abundance at lower altitudes. There seems to be a general belief among visitors to Glacier Park that few ferns are found in the region, but examination of the accompanying list will show that such an impression is an erroneous one. Only a few of the species, it is true, occur in great abundance, but the to- tal number is certainly large for an area of this size in the western United States. The list of species here presented is based upon a col- lection made by the writer during the summer of 1919. Nearly ten weeks were spent in the Park, under the dir- ection of the National Park Service, for the purpose of obtaining data concerning the flora. During this time all the portions of the Park usually seen by tourists were visited, and a collection of approximately 4,000 numbers was obtained, representing over 900 species of flowering plants and vascular cryptogams. The ferns of Montana have been listed by Fitzpatrick’. Thirty-seven species were reported, a smaller number 1¥Fern Bull. 12: 97-101. 1904. FERNS OF GLACIER PARK 101 than that reported here for Glacier Park. The species listed from Montana but not found by the writer in the Park are Botrychiuwm Coulteri, Asplenium Trichomanes, Pellaea glabella, Marsilea vestita, Equisetum scirpoides, and Isoetes Bolanderi. Of these, the Botrychium, Asplen- ium, and Equisetum were collected by R. 8. Williams at Columbia Falls, only a few miles from Belton, and they are almost certainly to be found in the Park. OPHIOGLOSSACEAE Botrychium virginianum europaeum Angstr. Found chiefly at middle altitudes. The plants are usually scat- tered and many of them are sterile. The first ones seen by the writer were found by Miss Gertrude Norton in woods about Lake McDermott. Scattered plants were collected later on mossy banks in swampy woods below the lake. In an open bog ona slope along the road near Many Glacier Hotel there must have been hundreds of them, of all sizes. They grew in deep moss under scrub birches and willows, with Habenaria dilatata and Par- nassia fimbriata. On the west slope the plants are often larger than on the east slope. Here they are found in swampy thickets in deep woods. Individuals growing in the open were yellowish green, while those in the woods were deep green. Botrychium silaifolium Presl. Rare; @ few small plants in sphagnum bog at Johns Lake; larger ones along Swiftcurrent Creek below Lake McDermott, in a wet thicket near beaver runs, under willows and Rhamnus alnifolia. Botrychium Lunaria L. Rare; seen only on the east slope; a few isolated plants.found on grassy slopes, in bogs, and on mossy banks in deep woods. Coliected by Williams at St. Mary Lake. The only locality at which the species was found in abundance was on the moraine at Grinnell Glacier, where there were dozens or hundreds 102 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL of the plants, of all sizes, growing on bare soil among rocks, where there was little other vegetation. Probab- ly the plants are not rare at middle elevations, but they are so small and so hidden among other vegetation that they are not easily found. POLYPODIACEAE Polypodium hesperium Maxon. Occasional on the east slope at middle or rather low altitudes; infrequent on the west slope; in crevices of shaded argillite cliffs and on mossy boulders in deep woods. The plants seldon occur in any considerable quantity, and in dry places they are ‘small and shriveled. The rhizomes are sweet and have a flavor like that of licorice. Adiantum pedatum aleuticum Rupr. Not common, but found in several places above or near timber line, in crevices of argillite and limestone cliffs; a few plants found on the west slope at Avalanche Lake, growing ina log jam at the foot of the lake, doubtless carried down by water from some more elevated station. All the - plants seen were decidedly small. Their habitat is very different from that of the maidenhair as it is commonly found in the eastern and central states. The plants seem to be almost confined to the Hudsonian Zone, a distribution which must be rather unusual in the western United States. Piper gives the zonal distribution in Washington as Humid Transition and Canadian. Fern- ald, however, states! that the plant is alpine in the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebee, and it appears to be arctic in some portions of Alaska. There is a fine colony of the plants along the cliffs beside the trail just below Iceberg Lake. Pteridium aquilinum pubescens Underw. Common nearly everywhere in the wooded regions, but usually not extending to the upper limit of timber; in thin or dense woods, in wet thickets, or on open, rather dry slopes. In 1 Rhodora 7: 190-192. 1905. FreRNs OF GLACIER PARK 103 open places and in thin woods and thickets the plants are small and yellowish green, while in wet shaded local- ities they are larger, bright green, and less pubescent. Some of the plants in swamps about Lake McDonald were over five feet high. In late summer the leaves turn yellow or brown. Cheilanthes siliquosa Maxon. (Pellaea densa Hook.) Rare, apparently; found by the writer only on an open slope among loose rocks just above Many Glacier Cha- lets; collected by Williams in the Lake McDonald region. An unattractive plant, with large loose tufts of brittle leaves. Cheilanthes gracillima D, C. Eaton. Frequent at mid- dle altitudes, on exposed argillite and limestone cliffs, forming loose tufts. This species has been reported from the Park by Jones as C. Feei Moore. Cryptogramma acrostichoides R. Br. Frequent at mid- dle altitudes, and occasionally extending above timber line; on argillite and limestone cliffs, but most commonly found on rock slides, half hidden among the rocks. Al- though the plants grow normally in rather dry situations, in excessively dry weather they soon shrivel. They us- ually form small isolated tufts, which are conspicuous because of the absence of other vegetation. Cryptogramma Stelleri (Gmel.) Prantl. Occasional above timberline, in crevices of wet shaded cliffs. Here the plants are small and they never occur in abundance. They suggest an immature stage of some larger fern, and are likely to be overlooked. The finest display of this Species was seen at Baring Falls, near Going-to-the-Sun Camp. Here, on the overhanging cliffs, which are kept constantly moist from the spray of the falls, there were hundreds of large plants, growing in loose moss, associ- ated with saxifrages and Mimulus. The plants have a pale green, sickly appearance. Some of them were at- tacked by a rust, determined by Dr. J. C. Arthur as Hy- 104 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL alopsora Cheilanthes (Peck) Arth. Near Grinnell Gla- cier Cryptogramma Stelleri was found in association with C. acrostichoides. Athyrium Filixz-femina (L.) Roth. (A. cyclosorum Rupr.) The most common fern of the Park, found near- ly everywhere in the wooded regions; most abundant in deep moist woods or thickets, but occurring also in thin woods, along streams, in swamps, and on moist open slopes. Probably nine-tenths of the ferns seen in the Park are of this species. In deep woods they often form a dense continuous undergrowth of large interlacing fronds, and on wet slopes, among alder thickets, the plants often cover the ground to the exclusion of most other vegetation. The lady fern is so abundant that — one soon comes to look upon it as a weed and to have scant regard for any attractive features it may possess. In favorable situations the fronds are often five feet high. They vary greatly in shape and breadth. In shade they are bright green, but in open places they have a yellow- ish tinge. In the open the fronds are held more stiffly erect than in protected places. The sori, also, vary con- spicuously in form; usually they are merely curved, but those of some plants are horseshoe-shaped. Many of the leaves are covered in late summer with irregular dark spots, which are probably caused by some fungus. The lady fern is often associated with the oak fern, male fern, lace-flower (Tiarella), arnicas, twisted-stalk, and red baneberry. Athyrium americanum (Butters) Maxon. Frequent above timber line; on open grassy slopes, along brooks, on rock slides, and sometimes in cliff crevices. This species is very unevenly distributed; in some piaces above timber line it is very abundant, in others rare, and in many places absent. It is perhaps the finest fern of the region, and one of the most conspicuous. The fronds are usually about a foot high, and they form mass- FERNS OF GLACIER Park 105 es one to three feet across, which are so dense that there does not appear to be space for the growth of a single additional frond. These clumps are usually surround- ed by dense turf or by bare rock, so that they have al- most the appearance of having been carefully planted and tended. The leaves always have a fresh, somewhat yellowish green color; they have a slight balsamic odor. This fern is plentiful at Grinnell Glacier and Sperry Gla- cier and above Lake Ellen Wilson. At Sperry Glacier it is more abundant than elsewhere. Near Sexton Gla- cier only two or three clumps were noticed, and it was equally scarce between Morning Eagle Falls and Piegan Pass. Near Grinnell Glacier a few plants grew in cliff crevices with the maidenhair. The display of this fern along the trail above Lake Ellen Wilson was particular- ly striking, for here the great clumps were placed among loose rocks of deep red argillite, which formed a delight- ful contrast with the pale green fronds. Asplemum viride Huds. Above timber line at Ice- berg Lake and Cracker Lake, in crevices of moist cliffs; collected along the Garden Wall at Granite Park by Miss Gertrude Norton. In a few places this species occurs in some abundance, but it seems to be rare. Our plants are rather small. The fronds lie close against the rocks and are not at all conspicuous. Polystichum Andersoni Hopkins. Rare; found only at Grinnell Lake and along the upper trail from Many Gla- cier Hotel to Piegan Pass. In both localities it grew, in some abundance, in dense moist alder thickets on steep hillsides, with the lady fern and male fern. It is a hand- Some plant, with its fine vigorous fronds held rather stiffly erect. The old withered fronds fall over and per- Sist at the base of the plant. This species has been col- lected previously only in Washington and British Col- umbia. Polystichum Lonchitis (L.) Roth. Frequent at mid- dle altitudes, and often extending above timber line; 106 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL usually in deep moist woods, but sometimes found in open places at high altitudes, or on cliffs. Although the holly fern is widely scattered, it is unusual to find more than a few individuals in any locality. It is rather gen- erally distributed on the east slope and at higher eleva- tions on the west slope, but it was not noticed about Bel- ton or Lake McDonald. The plants vary greatly in size. Those of high altitudes are often very small. About timber line they grow mostly under stunted pines and firs and other shrubs, seldom venturing far from some protection. In places plants were seen growing so far back in holes in cliffs that it was difficult to see how they could ever obtain any moisture. Dryopteris Linnaeana C. Chr. (Phegopteris Dryopteris Fée). Common in deep woods of fir, spruce, hemlock, giant cedar, ete.; chiefly at middle altitudes. The oak fern is abundant in many places. Usually it is associ- ated with Dryopteris Filiz-mas and Athyrium Filix-fe- mina, but frequently it grows alone, densely covering — mossy banks, or forming a thin ground-cover in the densest forest. The plants are very sensitive to dryness, and in 1919 many of them withered in late summer. Frequently the leaves are disfigured with dark spots, which may be the result of fungus action. The fronds vary greatly in size. It is this species, presum- ably, which has been reported from the Park by Jones as Phegopteris polypodioides. Dryopteris cristata (L.) Gray. Rare; seen only at Johns Lake (just above the head of Lake McDonald), growing under bushes in sphagnum at the outer edge of the bog. The plants were not very numerous. Dryopteris dilatata (Hoffm.) Underw. Common at middle altitudes, especially on the west slope; usually in moist woods or thickets or along brooks; sometimes in the less wet portions of sphagnum bogs. This is us- ually associated with the lady fern, and in general ap- pearance the two are not very conspicuously different. Ferns or GLACIER PARK 107 Dryopteris Filix-mas (L.) Schott. Common at middle. altitudes; in deep moist woods or in wet thickets. The plants are large and luxuriant and often make a fine dis- play. They are usually of a deeper green than the lady fern, with which they usually grow. Filix fragilis (L.) Gilib. Common at all altitudes except the highest; growing in diverse habitats—on shad- ed or exposed cliffs, on moist banks in woods or along streams, on mossy boulders in woods, and sometimes on rock slides. It is often associated with Woodsia sco- pulina, and some forms of the two species are much alike in general appearance. It is the only fern, except pos- sibly Pteridiwm, which grows about the east entrance. Sometimes the plants are erect, but on cliffs they are of- ten pendent. In dry weather they soon turn yellow and wither. This fern is rather common in moist places above timber line. Woodsia scopulina D. C. Eaton. Common on the east slope at middle and high altitudes; on the west slope occuring at rather high elevations; growing on cliffs or rock slides. The plants attain their best development on rock slides, where they often form large dense clumps of erect fronds. The stipes persist for many years about the bases of the plants. Woodsia oregana D. C. Eaton. Collected on rocky hills at the east entrance by Umbach (no. 274). This species is not represented in the collections made by the writer, although there is no reason to believe that it 1s rare in the region. No attempt was made in the field to distinguish W. scopulina and W. oregana, but the writer expected that both species would be represented in the rather numerous collections obtained. It may be W. oregana is confined to the lower altitudes, where the writer spent little time in making collections. 108 . AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL LYCOPODIACEAE The genus Lycopodium is well represented in the Park, but only one of the species was seen below timber line on the east slope. Lycopodium Selago L. Local; above timber line just below Sperry Glacier, rather common under bushes and in the shade of rocks; also in similar situations at Gun- sight Pass; very abundant at Johns Lake in sphagnum. At Johns Lake the plants grew chiefly under bushes near the edge of the bog, in low mounds of a densely tufted, reddish sphagnum (S. fuscwm). The species seems to belong to the Arctic-Alpine Zone, for although Johns Lake lies at a low altitude, some of the plants found here (notably Kalmia microphylla) grow elsewhere only above timber line. Lycopodium alpinum L. Found only at Snyder Lake; occurring rather sparingly just at the edge of a rock slide, under blueberry bushes. This species is not known to have been collected in the United States previously. It is considered an Arctic plant, but at Snyder Lake it was growing in the Canadian Zone. When seen from a short distance, it bears a striking resemblance in habit and color to the creeping cedar (Juniperus horizontalis). Lycopodium obscurum L. Seen only near Belton, along the road from the railroad station to Lake Me- Donald; growing in moss in deep woods of larch, Doug- las fir, hemlock, and western white pine. Lycopodium annotinum L. Common at middle and low altitudes on the west slope, and occasional at middle altitudes on the east slope; in dense woods or thickets. This is the most widely distributed species of Lyco-. podium of the Park, and in some places it is very abun- dant. Frequently it forms large mats of loose stems. Many of the plants on the west slope are unusually large. Lycopodium complanatum L. Frequent on the west slope at low altitudes; trailing over the ground in dense FERNS OF GLACIER PARK 109 woods. Most of the plants seen were sterile. The spe- cies is well distributed about Belton and Lake McDon- ald, but it does not appear to extend to much higher elevations. Lycopodium clavatum monostachyon Hook. & Grev. Seen only at Johns Lake, where it is very abundant in moist thickets just outside the sphagnum bog. It is a handsome plant, very different in color and form from our other species. SELAGINELLACEAE Two species besides those listed below occur in the Park. The plants are found in open places nearly every- where on the east slope, at all altitudes, and they occur in greater abundance than in any region known to the writer. Species of Selaginella are rare or absent on the west slope. Selaginella Wallacei Hieron. Common or abundant at low and middle altitudes, and sometimes above tim- ber line, on open, grassy or rocky slopes, on dry hilltops, and in dry meadows. Selaginella densa Rydb. Common at low altitudes, especially on prairie. On the dry, rocky flats about St. Mary this is one of the most common plants, densely covering large areas of ground. EQUISETACEAE Equisetum sylvaticum L. Rare on the east slope, found only in a boggy place in woods at the edge of Lake Josephine, growing with E. variegatum; occasional on the west slope at middle altitudes in boggy places in woods. Very different in appearance from any other Species; sometimes forming dense tangled masses. Equisetum arvense L. Common, and often abundant, at nearly all altitudes except the highest; in wet meadows or thickets or along streams and lake shores; frequent on rocky slopes or in wet gravelly meadows above timber 110 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL line. Some of the plants found above timber line, espec- ially in the vicinity of snow banks, are nearly prostrate and very sparsely branched. This species is common about the east entrance, extending out upon the prairie. It seems to thrive particularly well upon railroad em- bankments, and a thick stand of the plants is often seen growing from dry gravel and cinders. Equisetum litorale Kiihl. Occasional at low altitudes, in wet ground or boggy thickets. Equisetum palustre L. Rare, apparently; a few plants at Belton in sand along the river. Equisetum variegatum Schleich. Common, especially at middle altitudes and above timber line; about pools, on lake shores, along streams, and in wet meadows or thickets, often in sand or gravel. It is especially abun- dant in the meadows above or near timber line, and fre- quently forms dense, almost pure stands of decumbent or ascending stems. Often it is seen growing up to the edges of snow banks. Sometimes it occurs about cul- tivated ground at low altitudes. Equisetum fluviatile L. Frequent at low and middle altitudes; in marshes, bogs, or swamps; in sphagnum bog at Fish Lake. The stems are long and weak and oc- casionally prostrate. In the marshes along Swiftcur- rent Creek below Lake McDermott this species is very abundant, growing in shallow water and forming dense pure stands. The stems are of a deep bright green, and at a short distance they strongly suggest those of Scirpus occidentalis. Equisetum praealtum Raf. Occasional at low altitudes, in willow thickets or on rocky lake shores. Equisetum kansanum Schaffner. Found only at the foot of Sherburne Lake, along a small gully in aspen woods. Equisetum hyemale L. Common at low altitudes, in swamps or wet thickets; occasionally found on open, well-drained banks. WasuHincTon, D. C. Aetopteron as a Generic Name JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART It was indeed startling to read in the last number of the American Fern Journal (10: 88) that there was an earlier valid name for Polystichum. To me, at least, it was still more startling to read the assertion concerning Ehr- hart’s name Aetopteron: ‘The type is clearly indicated to be Polypodium aculeatum L. No generic description is given, but the intent of the author is quite clear’’ (italics mine). Evidently the writer of these words failed to observe that Ehrhart carefully explains his intent. Ehrhart prepared and distributed a set of exsiccatae under the title “‘Phytophylacium,” and inserted in his Beitrage (4: 145-150. 1789) a list of the species (ten decades, or one hundred in all). Each species in the list is assigned a single name, followed by its current binary one. At the end of the list is the following ex- planation; the translation here given is rather free, but I believe closely approximates the sense of the original: “T must here omit, for lack of space, the locality where each plant was collected. I have reprinted, however, my ‘nomina usualia’. Not that it seems to me to be of very much consequence, since they are nothing but an attempt to assign to each.plant a name, that may be used for it alone, without an accompanying generic one, as suggested by Oeder in his ‘Einleitung zur Krauter- kenntniss,’ §141; but that a certain man by the name of Dahl, wis is a particular friend of the idea, might derive some amusement from it, and that I might accomodate him.” The suggestion of Oeder,* mentioned above, may be freely translated as follows: “There may be proposed, for common non-botanical conversational use, names which we may call nomina *Oeder. Elementa botanicae 134. 1764.—1 have not seen the German translation cited by Ehrhart. ill 112 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL ‘usualia,’ always independent names, having no con- nection or relation to classification, to genus, or to specific relationship, but one for each species, relating to itself alone. It will be permissible, then, for species known by these ‘nomina usualia’ to be arranged freely by botanists in their respective systems and transferred at will, to be associated in genera and to be re-classified, for under all these changes of methods each name would remain unchanged. ”’ Under these circumstances it appears to me that ‘‘the intent of the author zs quite clear,” but this intent is certainly not to publish or even to suggest Aetopteron as a generic name. The mere fact that Ehrhart’s list of a hundred plants includes fourteen mononomial designations for as many species of Carex ought to be sufficient to suggest extreme caution in interpreting the significance of these names, even if his explanation were overlooked. In view of the comparatively small number of plant species then known, it is a little strange that Oeder’s suggestion did not meet with wider acceptance. As far as I am aware it was never tried out by anyone except Ehr- hart, and by him only in this one instance. Many years afterward Aubert du Petit Thouars used a some- what similar method, apparently thought out quite independently, applying mononomials to each species of Madagascar orchids, but his attempt attracted no imitators. The number of names that would be required for the vast throng of species now recognized renders the use of such a method at the present time wholly impracti- cable. Yet there are doubtless many of us who would hail with delight any equally simple but practicable scheme for divorcing nomenclature from taxonomy. New York Cry. What the Latin Names Mean—lI. In a late number of the JourNat, the suggestion was made that amateur members of the Society migh interested in getting the meanings and application of the Latin specific names of ferns. In accordance with this suggestion, the following list of specific and varietal names now in use for our northeastern ferns, with their interpretations, has been prepared. If there is suffi- cient indication that it meets a long-felt want, the editors will endeavor to provide similar lists for the fern allies and for other sections of the country. Unmistakable geographical names, like virginica and americana, have been omitted. It is to be understood that all such expressions as ‘‘of cliffs,” “of woods” and the like, refer to the kind of place in which the plant in question grows, or was supposed to grow by the author who gave it its name. “Lat.” stands, of course, for Latin; “Gr.” for Greek. acrostichoides—Gr., like Acrostichum, a genus of tropical ferns in ich the spovangix are not gathered into separate sori, but cover the whole under surface of the fertile fronds or segments. angusta—Lat., ow. angustifoliu leak: narrow-leaved. angus nae chee ren with narrow divisions; referring to the sterile fro debenias «Tak: - an eagle; referring to the pattern, like a herald- ic eagle, formed by the vascular bundles when the stem of the bracken is cut across near the base—a detail noted as long ago areolata—Lat., with ll or meshes; referring to the pattern formed by the veins. atropurpurea—Lat., dark purple; referring to the color of the stipe. attenuatu ee gradually narrowed; referring to the shape of the segmen esta ee eared; referring to the projecting lobes at the base of the pinnae which suggest in shape the ears of an animal. 113 114 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Boottii—named for William Boott, 1805-1887, a “ace "eal New Engl Boschianum—for Roelof Benjamin van den Rack "1810-1869, a writer on the filmy ferns. Bradleyi—for Professor F. H. Bradley, who sent to D. C. Eaton the specimens from which the species was described. Braunii—for Alexander Braun, 1809-1877, professor at the Uni- versity of Berlin and a student especially of cryptogamic plants. bulbifera—Lat., bulb-bearing; referring to the well-known habit of one of the bladder ferns. cambricum—Lat., of Wales (of which Cambria was the ancient name), this Conic having apparently been first observed in that t ountry. ee Venus’ hair; probably a translation of an ent name for the ant. Catheartiona—fo Miss Ellen Cathcart who collected the type specim: pe ogg high, lofty, elevated; perhaps because this fern was first found growing on mossy stumps and logs, or possibly re- ferring to the tall fronds. cinnamomea—Lat. cinnamon-colored; referring to the sporangia. Cla, gto eet Dr. John Siders 1685 (?)-1773, one of the liest of American botan FRO G. W. Cinta ee asa. an amateur botanist. uffalo, N. Y. composittum—Lat. compound; referring to the more numerous ivisions of the sterile fron concordiana—from Concord, Mate where the plant was first found. cristatum—Lat. crested. U sually employed for forms in which the ronds or pinnae branch repeatedly near the apex, thus forming a tassel-like cluster at the end. dealbata—Lat. whitened; refering to the white covering of the under surface of the frond. densa—Lat. crowded together referring to its habit of growth or to the crowded segm oe expanded; ener to the large size of the lowest lioea i cut into many segmen Dryopteris—Gr. oak or tree in general, sn fern; perhaps referring to the woodland habitat of the plan dubia—Lat. doubtful—an epithet which vn need no explanation to anyone who remembers his first attempt to name a plant. ebenoides—Gr. resembling Asplenium ebeneum THE PREVENTION OF THE WILD 115 elongatum—Lat. lengthened. Engelmanni—for Dr. George Engelmann of St. Louis, 1809-1884, author of studies of American oaks, rushes, cacti, ete. Feei—for Antoine Laurent Apollinaire Fée of Strasburg, 1789- 1874, a noted writer on ferns Filix-femina—Lat. female or lady fern; probably a translation of e popular name. Filix-mas—Lat. male fern; probably like the preceding, a transla- tion of the popular name. , fragans—Lat. sweet-smelling, the fronds of the fern concerned being fragrant. fragilis—Lat. easily broken, brittle. frondosa—Lat. leafy; referring to the green sterile segments which appear among the fertile ones in this form. The Society for the Prevention of the Wild. BY C. E. WATERS. Years ago when a branch of the Wild Flower Preserv- ation Society was established in Baltimore, one facetious feminine member nicknamed it the Society for the Prevention of the Wild. Everyone of us who has botanized or pursued any other branch of natural his- tory in a particular locality for more than two or three years will begin to think that such a society exists there. Perhaps the writer of this jeremiad is unduly pessimistic, for he began to feel this way in the early days of the Fern Chapter and long ago expressed in print an un- favorable opinion of modern improvements which are responsible for the destruction of the wild places. My acquaintance with the botany of the Baltimore region began late in 1890. During the years since then there have been many changes brought about in one way or another. To consider only the plants in which this Society is interested, there have been some losses, possibly irreparable. To own up at the start, before telling what others have done, my first and only plant of Asplenium ebenoides was enthusiastically grabbed up 116 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL and its fronds removed. Too tardy compunction led me to stick the roots back into the ground, but the damage was a double one and the plant died. For several years I would periodically search for the plant near a certain big rock, but in vain. Perhaps others like myself have had the feeling that it is right to collect all the plants we need for our her- baria and for exchanging. We are too apt to forget that the plants will be dead and gone, no matter how scientifically they may be collected. This brings me quite naturally to the large number of specimens of Asplenium Bradleyi that are in my her- barium. With them grew A. montanum, but very spar- ingly. Even my devastating hand did not take all of the plants, but there were none to be seen four or five years ago. The place became known to too many botanists, for the ferns were rare and interesting enough to induce them to take the trip on the railroad or, what was better, a tramp of twenty miles or so. One other rare fern, to my knowledge, has been ex- terminated from the Baltimore region. Lygodiwm pal- matum once grew in profusion in a little swamp beside the Baltimore-Washington turnpike. As late as 1902 fruiting plants three and four feet tall could be seen there. Ten years later two of us spent a long time look- ing, but did not see a single plant of any size. In more than one manual Botrychium simplex is said to be found in the Baltimore region. Mr. Edgerton, — who made the original discovery near Ellicott City on the Patapsco River, told me years ago that the plants were in one corner of a pasture. Of course the cows stood in that corner in preference to any other. The fern is no longer to be found near Ellicott City. The only station for B. neglectum was not a stone’s throw from a house. Suburban improvements have _ been the death of the dozen or so plants. A few acres Tue PREVENTION OF THE WILD 117 of woodland through which were scattered numerous large rocks on which grew an abundance of Cheilanthes lanosa, have also been improved out of existence. In Anne Arundel County, only a few miles from Balti- more, there is a stream which flows through woods and ‘past farms. At one place it broadens out into a shallow pond, now almost filled with silt. In the early nineties my schoolmates and I made several attempts to find this pond, because Sarracenia and other interesting plants grew around it. Now the pond can be seen from a much traveled road because truck-growers have cleared off nearly all the woods. Some of the plants which are in danger are Dryopteris simulata and Lorinseria areo- lata, both of which grow in large beds, Anchistea Vir- ginica, one of two plants of Dryopteris Boottii known to be near Baltimore, and Lycopodium adpressum, not to mention many flowering plants. This is the type local- ity for Osmunda cinnamonea glandulosa. Possibly none of the above would have been written if it had not been for a walk which my boy and I took on Decoration Day. He wanted to take, and perhaps brag about, a twelve-mile walk, and I wished to revisit one of the wildest and loneliest and most interesting haunts of the days before my coming to Washington. The first seven miles had the peculiarity so often noticed that although the contour lines on the map showed a drop of over one hundred feet, yet all the hills ran up, and were very steep at that. At the very spot where we had intended to take an obscure path across the hill to the banks of the Gunpowder River, we saw the first of a series of signs announcing that this was a state game preserve. The penalty was too large to encourage tak- ing a chance at trespassing. Even now, six months later, I have not gotten over the disappointment of that moment, because for nearly thirty years the woods on both sides of the river had been my favorite haunts. 118 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Baltimore gets its water from the river, and a few years ago it became necessary to erect a new and much higher dam. This improvement was bad enough, be- cause the higher water covered my only colonies of fringed gentian, of Lycopodium clavatum and of a curious depauperate form of Dennstedtia punctilobula which B. D. Gilbert, against my protest, named var. nana. Drowned also are two patches of ostrich fern, one’ of them the first reported south of Pennsylvania. Now that the Water Board has put several square miles of land under the protection of the State Conserv- ation Commission, many other plants are safe even from botanists. No doubt it is all for the best, but it is cold comfort to think so. And it is hard to think so when If remember the fox grape vine more than five inches in diameter, which it was a pleasure just to look at. Near by was a group of papaw trees, the only ones on which fruit could be found every year, and one of three colon- ies of Filix fragilis. The other two are farther down the river, one in a rocky ravine and the other on a steep grassy bank. Judging by the shape and habit of the fronds, and having no knowledge of intermediate forms, one would be almost justified in calling them distinet species. : Across the river, on rocks that lie in the full blaze o the sun, is the only Selaginella rupestris known near Baltimore. This moss-like plant was identified for me by a professor of mathematics in the University of Bonn, then lecturing in Baltimore. That was on Thanksgiv- ing Day, 1893. He was rather disgusted to find that the countryside was not dotted with inns, because he had brought no lunch with him, and mine was not enough for two. We stopped at a farmhouse where they gave us bread and preserved tomatoes. These were eaten on the doorstep while a flock of turkeys looked on. I never learned whether or not he had turkey that evening for a late dinner. THE PREVENTION OF THE WILD 119 Growing with the Selaginella are the largest plants of Cheilanthes lanosa I have seen. In January, 1891, our high school “Chapter” of the Agassiz Society took a tramp (nobody ‘‘hiked”’ in those days) of twenty miles or so and found the dead fronds. Not for ten years or more was the fern found in two other places miles away. After all this gloomy writing I feel but little better, even though I know that it is not my fault that all of these things have happened. If there is any moral at all to this, it is that we should think at least twice be- fore we destroy a rare plant by collecting it in quantity. The Society should have for one of its objects the pro- tection of our ferns. By giving too much encourage- ment to collecting and exchanging it can too easily be- come a Society for the Prevention of the Wild. Wasuinoeton, D. C. ASPLENIUM GRAVESII In PENNSYLVANIA.—While en- gaged in the study of the soil reactions of rock ferns the writer went through the herbarium of Mr. Harold W. Pretz of Allentown, Pennsylvania, to obtain data on rare species there included. Among specimens of As- plenium pinnatifidum which had been collected in a ra- vine along the lower Susquehanna River, just below Fites Eddy, Lancaster County, Pa., on August 31 , 1918, there were found to be several showing a gradation in their features toward A. Bradleyi. They appeared to correspond to the description of the hybrid between these two species named A. gravesii by Mr. W. . Maxon about two years ago'; and on comparison with the type of the latter plant in the National Herbarium, complete identity was established. The sheets of Asplenium pinnatifidum and A. Brad- leyi from the lower Susquehanna region in the herbarium i *Am. Fern Journ. 8: 1. 1918. 120 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia were then examined, and at least six specimens agreeing more or less definitely with this hybrid were found to be there included. They came from McCall’s Ferry, Cully and Muddy Run, in Lancaster County, and from York Fur- nace in York County, across the river. These localities all lie in an area less than 20 kilometers long by 3 km. wide. It is noteworthy that both parents of the hybrid are present at all of the places just listed; and although A. Bradley was not observed by Mr. Pretz at the local- ity from which his specimens came, it grows in the gen- eral vicinity. The chief features on which the identification of this hybrid were based are tabulated here, with the corres- ponding data for the parent species. TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF THE FEATURES OF THREE ASPLENIUMS A. pinnatifidum A. gravesii Bra Stipe green, often brown, rarely brown. throughout: brown below green above its length Frond pinnatifid to pinnate, pinnatifid pinnate through- pinnate above out Rachis broad, green fairly broad, green; narrow; lower ften brown below half brown, up- per half green Margin wibwsgex crenate-dentate ie ass Texture thie medium i ran brown dark brown ure brown In spite of a rather considerable variability of the above three ferns, the hybrid can be readily recognized in practically every case, the dark brown sori, brown stipe, and intermediate degree of cutting of the margin being the most striking features. Tests made upon the soil adhering to the roots of A. gravesit in several of the herbarium specimens mentioned and subsequently at the actual localities (visited in July 1920), have shown the specific acidity of 100 to 300 in every case. It is noteworthy that these values are ASPLENIUM GRAVESII IN PENNSYLVANIA 121 ‘the same as characterize the two parents, showing that, as in another instance mentioned in the writer’s recent paper on rock ferns in this journal, the hybrid does not ‘differ from the parents in soil preference.—Epear T. WHERRY, WASHINGTON, Recent Fern Literature. Glandular hairs are not infrequent on the outside of ferns, as of other plants, but it is probably news to most of us that they occur also inside. Dr. Theodor Holm has described and illustrated! such hairs which he found in the leaf-tissue of certain species of Dryopteris. If a cross-section of a leaf in these species be examined under the microscope, the tissue is found to be much more com- pact near the upper and lower surfaces. The cells there are closely contiguous; in the central part of the leaf. however, there are occasional air-spaces between them. In these spaces the glandular hairs are found. DeBary had long ago discovered such hairs in the ducts of the root-stock and the lower part of the petiole in Dryopteris Filiz-mas and D. spinulosa, but they seem not to have been hitherto observed in the leaf. Dr. Holm found them in D. Filiz-mas, D. marginalis, D. spinulosa and D. cristata, but not in D. Thelypleris nor D. noveboracen- sis, nor in representatives of seven other genera of our North American ferns which he examined. Nor are they known from any other plants whatsoever. Internal hairs have been noted in Pilularia and in four families of flowering plants, but in these cases they are not gland- ular. Dr. Holm points out that the presence of these sin- gular structures in certain species of the genus Dryopteris, as at present defined, and not in others, tends to confirm 1 Holm, Theo. Internal glandular hairs in Dryopteris. Rhodora 22: 89-91, figs. 1 and 2. May, 1920. 122 -AMBRICAN FERN JouRNAL Mr. Christensen’s expressed belief that the species of the marsh fern group and those of the shield fern group real- ly constitute separate genera. Some time ago, in reviewing Dr. J. K. Small’s “Ferns of tropical Florida,” the present writer remarked that the chief regret of the fern lover who goes South would be that the author had not extended that work to cover the whole of the state. He has now done so to the extent of giving, in a brief article, a more or less complete list of the species known to occur within its boundaries and a general account of their habitats and distribu- tion.? In all about 90 species are mentioned, though Dr. Small states that more than one hundred have actually been found. Three, Pycnodoria (Pteris) longifolia, Dry- opteris setigera and Marsilea vestita, are introduced; seven are found only in Florida. The remainder Dr. Small divides into two main groups, northern species whose range extends from Florida northward or west- ward along the Gulf of Mexico, and tropical species which reach Florida from the south. The former com- prises about one third of all the species and most of those widely distributed within the state. The latter, though twice as numerous, are for the most part confined to two comparatively limited areas—the keys of the coast and the Everglades, treated in Dr. Small’s earlier work, and the lime-sink region in the northwestern part of the peninsula, which has figured in the pages of the JourR- NAL.* The latter is an isolated area in which the occur- rence of tropical ferns is not easy to explain. *Small, John K. The land of ferns; the habitats and distribution of the fernworts of Florida. Journ. Elisha Mitchell Sci, Soc. 35: 92-104 Amer. Fern. Journ. 6: 42-44, 1916 and R. M. Harper, The Fern Grottoes of Citrus County, Florida, Amer. Fern. Journ. 6: 68-81, pl. 5, 1916. AMERICAN FERN SOcIBTY 123 Dr. Small’s article is illustrated with five fine plates of a fern grotto and of various species in their natural surroundings. American Fern Society Dr. O. E. Jennings, Judge of Elections for this year, reports the results of the October balloting as follows. All the proposed amendments to the Constitution were adopted, the first three by 96 votes for to none against, the fourth by 95 for and one against. The vote for officers was: for President, William R. Maxon, 104; for Vice-President, Miss M. A. Marshall, 103, Mrs. Car- lotta C. Hall, 1; for Secretary, Stewart H. Burnham, 104; for Treasurer, J. G. Underwood, 104. Eight mem- bers who voted for officers failed to vote, either pro or con, on the amendments. The editors wish to make grateful acknowledgment of a generous gift of ten dollars from Mr. F. C. Greene for the general purposes of the JouRNAL and of smaller, but none the less welcome, gifts for illustrations from Miss Anne S. Angell, Miss Annie Lorenz, Miss Nellie Mirick and Dr. Herman Burgin. The Society has recently received the gift of six vol- umes of the Fern Bulletin from Dr. Ruth Marshall; also six numbers of the Bulletin from Prof. 5. Fred Prince and a copy of the rare number three of volume one of the Journant. Mr. Carl Christensen has presented copies of four of his recent papers, New Species of Hym- enophyllaceae from Madagascar, Monograph of the Genus Dryopteris, Part II, The Pteridophyta of the Juan Fern- andez Islands and The Ferns of Easter Island. The last two were written in collaboration with Dr. Carl Skotts- berg. All of the four are, or soon will be, available for lending to members. 124 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL New members: . Cleveland, Mrs. Frederick, 70 Winter St., Norwood, — Morrill, Mrs. Frank A., 87 Walpole St., Nerwooil: Mas Patterson, Miss Rolierta M.., 422 Randolph Ste WS ‘Washington, D.C: Changes of address: Anderson, Miss Flora C., 327 South Henderson St., Bloomington, Ind. Angell, Miss Anne S., McVeigh Farm, R. D. No. 1, Brattleboro, Vt. urnham, Stewart i, Dept. of Botany, College of Agriculture, Cornman, Mrs. L. R., Camp Kearney, San Diego Co., Cal. Fellows, Dr. Dana W., 7671 Amboy Road, Tottenville, ude Is- land, N. Y. Stratton, Mrs. G. H., 439 Rebecca Ave., Wilkinsburg, Pa. Wilcox, Prof. Alice W., Brennan College, Gainesville, Ga. Miss Pauline Kaufman, 173 East 124th St., New York City, wishes to sell the following: Fern Bulletin, 1898 to 1901, 1903 to 1905, 1908 to 1910, all inclusive; Fern Bulletin for 1902, July number missing, and for 1906, no 4 missing; Fern Journat for 1911 complete and for 1912 with no. 3 missing.—Adv. As indicated in the report of the Judge of Elections above, membership dues are now, by vote of the Society, $1.50 per year. Please remit promptly; do not wait to hear from the Treasurer. An advance in the price of back numbers of the Journat will sti effect February Ist, 1921. The Journau is very late this time; the editors feel, however, that the apologies which are undoubtedly called for should come, not from them, but from the post office department, which lost, mislaid or stole the manuscript for this number en route to the printer. INDEX TO VOLUME 10 Adder’s-tongue, 14 Adiantum, 25, 99; Capillus-Ven- eris, 27. 68; pedatum, 7, 8, 11, 14, 68; pedatum aleuticum, 102 Spain acrostichoides, 88; atum as en ule eric _ $1: Braunih 88; ecali- fornicu ; Ehrhart, The genus, 88; Lemmoni, 88; L chitis, age munitum, 89; sco= pulinu 8 Alabam: Po ern flora of, 6. American Fern Society, ry 78, 92, Pie stea virginica, 117 Os si 89; 0, 120; platyneuron, 17, 25, 45, 52, tyneuron in 3} 59, 71; pla » 13} platyneuron se " 2 iens, 17, 46; naga a4 Ruta-m i 7, 61, 52, 59, uraria, see 92; shales, , 46; viride, 17, 46, Burnuam, 8S. H., Barnuart, J. H., Aetopteron as a generic name, 111; Brackenridge and his book on ferns (review), BeneEpIict, C., Report of the ec ong 1919, 31 Botrychi alabamense, 67; Coul- teri, oy biternatum, 67; aria, 59, , 101; neglectum, 11, 13,218; liquum, }; ramosum 13; sila: lum, 101; plex, 60, 116; ternatum australe, 13; 8 1, 13, 68; ; cliff, 38; purple rock, 34; me nder rock, eisig of the Secretary for 1919, 2! Moe qntay 92; rhizophyllus, 11, 17; 2 oe 1 Vaya Fie alabamensis, 69; Coop- era F 33; uosa, 103; rae. 17, 20, 69; vestita, 20 CuarKson, E. H., Another char- acter Ferns, es ern Garden, I, ryp tichoides, 7, 11, 34, x tok page very i7,, 21, tum, 78 Cystopteris bulbifera, 25, 49, 59, aa ilis, 10, oa bi 49, 77, ta D . ; nana, 118 Dicksonia, 83; punctilobula, 25 is fi a Sy 126 Dryopteris, 88; aculeata, 88; Boot- 17; Clintoniana, 56; 8 74; Rize Equisetum arvense, * 9, 11, 40, 99, 00, 109; Viati sv ag 110; 0; — Vy AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL rach Sr oecare Park, 97; Some Virgini > The. land of, 123; be sl reac ction of certain, IL. 15; II, Filix re al 17, 49, 51; fragilis, 7,11, 17, 34, 49, 51, 90, 100, 107, 118 Fits PATRICK J.» The Fern Flora of N pS a I, S;433532 Grarr, Pact W., Unre —. ~~ from Montana (review), 8 GRAVES, = W., Fern flora = Ala- bama, 6 oho cana dilatata, 101; integra, Har’ dasiaes ei 57, 84 Tueo., Internal glandular Dryopteris bojaee 121i t of Curator come Hopkxrns, L. fod Repo for 1919 ghd HE. bape genus Aetop- Reema ode or 103 lsoetes 101; melano- a, ’ , Bolanderi, 44 Juniperus horizontalis, 108 Kalmia microphylla, 108 Latrp, K. B., (obituary), 62 Latin names, the, what they mean, I, 113 Lewis, C. S., The Woodsias of 80; alpin imum , 108; otinum, 108; carolinia , 81; cernuum, 81; clavatum mon hyon, 109, 118; complana ; CO) planatum flabeuiforme 81; pon droideum, 81; 08; Pinnatum, 81; od prostratum, 81; ai a 100, ot sitchense, 2 Lygodium — 79; palma- tum, 59, 83, Maiden hair, 14, 27, 83 INDEX Marsilea vestita, 8, 9, 10, 11, 39, 103,.:122 Maxon, W. R., Notes on Americ: Ferns XV, 1; weds s eee. 92 Nebraska, The Fern Fora of, I, 5: II, Nepbrodtum acrostichnoides, i Notes on American Ferns, XV, peromeee dealbata, 7, 4 7 ea dealbata, 37; Parryi, 3, 4 par vaaeld notices, ari K. B62; e, Lura Onociea petintenie rnd Reed Wy O60, Of, 04, O24 eee. Gea tieccis SE ie 67: pusillum, 67; vulga +89 m ondosa, 80; cin- a glandulosa, 117; Clay- regalis, 7, 11, 14, 25, 27, 80 Parnassia See: ellaea, 92; atr Wiha Ry & 0, 70, 85; ensa, 103; gla Ravhyy fs 21, 101; gracilis, Pepnerwort. pr PERRINE, ae — 63 06; Lu Phegopteris Drsop vier! is, - ; i it 60, 75; are oides. 106 Phot Sloped 17, 21 nderosa scopulorum, 10. 5 Polypody, 82 Polystichum, 111; wabygreonrir es crispum unitum, Preridun, 107; ‘aquilinum pubes- 127 Pteris aquilina, 11, 25, 82; ina docaudata, 68; long- ifolia, 69, 122; congener, Pycnodoria longifolia, 12 Queechee, Vt., the Woodsias of, 23 Revi elas ons t, J. H., Brack- idge and his book on ferns, 25; nreported ferns e0. ferns, 1 Rhamnus alnifolia, Rhododendron raat 54 colopendrium, . 59; han ih 21 senginll densa, 99, pes- 9, 10, 44, a: Wallacei, 1 ee Crawfordii, 8 Se ea ee x nd of ferns; aiiint and distribution of the fernworts of Florida (review), Society for the prevention of the wild, the, 115 se psitpete of certain ferns, I, 1, 45 Pe cit fuscum, 108 Spiranthes Beckii, 66 Bplegiwoes, one ge 83; silvery Avaank P. ng Pas the aa ccdouas Park, Trichoman Boschianum, 78; Petersii, pot 75, 78 Unperwoop, J. G., Report of the Treasurer for 1919, 62 Virginia ferns, some, 27 Waters, C. E., The society for the ecu of the wild, 115 Wearuersy, C. A., Report of the E for 1919, 31 Wuerry, KE. T., Asplenium Gravesii in Pennsylvania, 119; Search for rip RS fontanum, ons of certain ferns, the, I , 15; TI, 45 128 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL Wrinstow, E. J., Dorset fern list gana, 9, 10, 11, 39, 107: scopu- again, the, et Report of the lina, 100, 107 editors, 1919, Woodsias 6f Queec the, 23 oodsia alpina, 3 23, 25,48, 51, ae anny "59, 70; vir- 59; glabella, 17, 24, 48, 51, 92: 70 yperborea, 48; 25, 48, 51, 59, 84, 90, Pe obtusa, Youne, J. P., Some Virginia ferns,. 7, 17, 24, 38, 48, 59, 77, 84: ore- 27 ERRATA Page 58, sce For 85, re Page 63, line 5. For Se read coma age 90, line 1. For Monranum, read Fron Contents of no. 2, line . For 60, read 50. “Line 7. For 78, read 61. eR American Bern Journal SRR ana A QUARTERLY DEVOTED TO FERNS Published by the AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY EDITORS R. C, BENEDICT E, J. WINSLOW Cc. A. WEATHERBY VOLUME XI a eee Bale: © AUBURNDALE, MASS. a & CONTENTS VotumE 11, Numsper 1, Paaus 1-32, Issurp Marcu 3, 1921 Notes on American Ferns—XVI...............- W.R. Maxon 1 Soil Reactions of Ferns of Woods and Swamps.....#.7. Wherry 5 More about early Days of the Fern DOCG 34. w ks es E. Waters 16 Ferns of Baltimore and Vicinity... co. cheres ey ne C. E.Waters 19 What the Latin Na Be ee ea 25 Recent Fern Literature... 2... 6... e sees Chet este ee en cee 27 VotumE 11, Number 2, Paces 33-64, Issuep Oct. 12, 1921 Notes on American Ferns—XVI ..............-. W.R. Maxon A new western a EP OUROR si ys ead vies ie : Nephrolepie Nuttin so Se ee ee ee R. C. Benedict 41 An overlooked Species of Dryopteris/.........-.>- C. Christensen 44 A pr Vermont. o.. 3. H. C. Ridlon 46 Salvinia in Minneso bees beter On ua oar ee eng teers F. K. Butters 48 Reco of Salvinia natans in the United States. C. A. Weatherby 50 oseiay: 53 Ayetions Wien Oty fe) es es eee 55 Votume 11, Numer 3, Paces 65-96, Issuep Fes. 3, 1922 North American Species of Equisetum........-. oh H. . Schaffner 65 Pellaea glabella and its sogrega BOE eS reas oe . Butters 75 Ferns found in New Ha Ae ooo ce C8. W. F. Lewis 82 An interesting Utip <. 0... vee wees ks E. W. Graves 86 Rece nt Fern Literature. . Dh Ae eae SN ape ten sigue faster ht 88 T th Carolina Soylent “M. L. Anderson oe Dees Fern Society. ¥ Me ee OU edie ie eens 5 + Votume 11, Numper 4, Paces 97-129, IssuED Marcu 31, 1922 The Boston Fern Show.......--++-+-2+-+scre9? B.C. sg pte 97 Notes on American Ferns——XVIII ee seks R. Mazon 105 Plant Saspiriarion Se ce ne ae Elizabeth G. Britton 108 The Climbing Fern in the Vicinity val Hartford .C. A. Weatherby 109 Ts Lattyahines dissectum a sterile mutant? | ae C.. json WF Hopkin. 114 Pe se other rich Fern Locality—The gene ter a at Willoughby, Vt.—The Wonder Fern i pig ioe Pee ee alo Seu aie ss Se vote ce oo "Valine SSG SS Se aneencriey rn Pee eee ea 125 American Fern IJnournal Vol. 11 ‘ JANUARY-MARCH, 1921 Cone Notes on American Ferns—XVI.! WILLIAM R. MAXON. SELAGINELLA HuMIFUSA Van Eseltine. This name, recently given by Van Eseltine®’to a species of central and southern Florida allied to S. arenicola Underw., is, unfortunately, invalidated by S. humifusa Hieron., applied several years earlier to a plant from Borneo.* The Florida species may therefore be known as Selagi- nella floridana Maxon, the type being Nash 1449, from the vicinity of Eustis, Lake County, July 16-31, 1894. Selaginella floridanais known otherwise from specimens collected near Sanford, Orange County, in September, 1902, by S. Rapp, and in the vicinity of Alapattah, Dade County, by A. A. Eaton. Lycopopium opscuruM L. This species, as L. den- droideum Michx., was reported from Sand Mountain, in Jackson and De Kalb counties, Alabama, by Mr. Graves in the Journat for July-Sept., 1920, upon specimens collected by himself. An earlier Alabama. collection, apparently never reported, is of material in the Mohr Herbarium (in the National Herbarium) collected in boggy open situations 7 miles from Men- tone, De Kalb County, October 13, 1900, by Miss Inez Loring. The specimens were oreauinably received by Dr. Mohr too late to permit listing this species in the Plant Life of Alabama. 1Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- ae U. 8. Nat. agp ae 165. pl. 18. text fig. 65. 1918. *Hedwigia 51: 257. [Vol. 10, No. 4 of the dae pages 97-128, was issued Feb. ,7 1921.} 1 Zz AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL LyYCOPODIUM SITCHENSE Rupr. According to mater- ial in the National Herbarium, the range of this species must be altered to read: Alaska to southeastern Labra- dor and western Newfoundland, south to Oregon, Idaho, the northern shore of Lake Superior, northern New York (Adirondack Mountains), New Hampshire (Mount Washington), and Maine (several localities, including Mount Katahdin). The western range has long been known to include Washington, numerous specimens being at hand from the region of Mount Rainier, Stevens Pass, Mount Paddo (Adams), and the Olympic Moun- tains, at altitudes of 1,200 to 2,100 meters. The Oregon record, which appears to be new, rests on a single speci- men from the shore of Amabilis Lake, Calapoaia Moun- tains, August 9, 1897, Coville & Applegate 496. The Labrador record is authenticated by a specimen. col- lected at St. Michaels, in August, 1891, by Waghorne (no. 7a). In British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon, L. sitchense is found almost exclusively in wet mountain meadows, while in the east it occurs in various habitats, reaching its best development in upland spruce woods and thickets. Lycoropium aNNotINuM L. This species is known from northeastern Washington (Kreager 412) and the region of Mount Rainier (Piper 2110, Flett 2014), but is not mentioned by recent writers as occurring in Ore- gon. There is at hand, however, an excellent specimen collected at the base of Mount Hood, Oregon, in October, 1884, by Thomas Howell, properly determined and labeled in his hand. It belongs to the typical form of the species. In the eastern United States, Pennsylvania is com- monly given as the southern limit of this species. It was collected in the mountains of Garrett County, in ex- treme western Maryland, as long ago as 1875, however, eae See TR SEE ORS EI tier Sega one ee ie oa oh eae Sa a Rie te eS ll Notes on AMERICAN FERNS—XVI 3 by Capt. John Donnell Smith, as shown by two speci- mens in the National Herbarium. PTERETIS NODULOSA (Michx.) Nieuwland. An un- identified specimen of this species was included in a collection of plants from the Queen Charlotte Islands recently sent to Prof. C. V. Piper, of the U. 8. Depart- ment of Agriculture, for examination. The label in- dicates that it was collected at Skidegate, by C. F. New- combe, in August, the year uncertain. P. nodulosa is usually attributed to British Columbia, but it is evi- dently rare in that region, and it seems worth while to publish a record of this specimen, a portion of which has been added to the National Herbarium. Since this species is not known to occur in Alaska, the present specimen appears to represent the northwestern limit of its range. PELUAEA LonaimucRoNATA Hook. Additional Color- ado specimens of this species are at hand from Mr. John P. Young, who collected them at Canyon City, August 12, 1919. The only other Colorado material known to the writer is that collected at the same locality by Brandegee nearly fifty years ago, a specimen of this collection being in the D. C. Eaton Herbarium. Dryopreris arcuta (Kaulf.) Watt. This plant of the Pacific coast region, which has usually been known as Dryopteris rigida arguta (Kaulf.) Underw., differs widely from the European D. rigida and is very clearly entitled to the specific rank reaccorded it by Watt in 1866.1 It is, however, frequently confused with D. filix-mas, not only by collectors but in the herbarium as ell. The firm, strongly convex indusium of D. arguta, with its deep, narrow sinus and glandulose margins, has commonly been regarded as a distinguishing char- acter, the indusia of D. filiz-mas ordinarily being thin, orbicular-reniform, and glabrous; but the marginal 1Canad. Nat. Il. 3: 159. 1866. 4 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL glands are not always easily seen in mature specimens of D. arguta, and plants of D. filix-mas growing in ex- posed situations often show firm indusia very similar to those of its near ally. Distinctive differences are, however, found in the foliage characters, which may be stated briefly as follows: Pinnae sessile, oblong-lanceolate, the lower basal pinnule usually with a semicordate base, this overlying the primary rachis; veinlets spreading, all ending in salient spinelike teeth. . arguta. Pinnae mostly short-stalked, deltoid-lanceolate, the basal pinnules symmetrical, distinctly apart from the primary rachis; vein- lets oblique, fewer, ending in oblique, usually curved teeth, wnewe mereny Meube 6 oe es D. filix-mas. Dryopteris arguta is a very common species of rocky ravines and partially shaded slopes in southern Cali- fornia, whence it extends northward (chiefly in the coastal and interior valley regions) to western Oregon and the bluffs of the Columbia River above Cathlamet, Washington, in the Upper Sonoran and Transition zones. Its reputed occurrence in British Columbia is extremely doubtful. Dryopteris filiz-mas extends from Newfoundland to British Columbia, south to Vermont, South Dakota, extreme western Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon, being restricted ap- parently to the Canadian and Hudsonian zones. It occurs also at a single locality in California,—Holcomb Valley, San Bernardino Mountains, altitude 2,400 meters, August 3, 1882, S. B. & W. F. Parish 1613,— as reported long ago by Mr. 8S. B. Parish. A specimen of this collection is in the Dudley Herbarium of Stan- ford University. Wasnneton, D.C. The Soil Reactions of the Ferns of Woods and Swamps. EDGAR T. WHERRY The ferns to which this essay is devoted are on the whole less sensitive to soil acidity and alkalinity than ‘ those which grow on rocks, to which attention was directed in a previous paper.! It seems worth while, however, to place on record what data have been ob- tained on testing the soils surrounding their roots by the indicator method. The introductory and explana- tory portions of the paper cited apply sufficiently well to the present one to make their repetition unnecessary. The data are presented in similar form, although a slightly different method of classification seems desir- able, for additional types of reaction-range are repres- ented. The following designations are used in the class column of table 1: AA, intensely acid; appearing to thrive only in medi- acid soils. A, acid; growing well in soils of practically all degrees of acidity. I, indifferent (relatively); appearing to thrive in both acid and alkaline soils, so long as neither reaction is extreme. C, caleareous or circumneutral; growing best in neu- tral soils, though extending throughout what is termed the circumneutral range (specific acidity 10 to alk. 10). No instance has been found of a species which will not grow in neutral or slightly acid soils as well as in actually alkaline ones. In the last column the geographic range is described by S for southern, N for northern, and a dash,—,when the species is wide-ranging. tsAmer. Fern Journ., 10: 15-22, 45-52, 1920. 3) 6 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL TaBLeE I. Som Reactions or FERNS oF Woops AND SwaM REACTIONS | EI No. of z= § Name Tests 3 3 2 ‘ bdo - = 5 Sg a oO 2 3 2 a & g 2 5 ie meee wom ee | at # _|Circumneutral| % |Ole 300+ aa 103+ 1 8+ 10 30+ Schizaea SS OF ~ - = AA’ 8 Lygodi palmat atum 10 Bot ae AA DS Gane regalis var. i spectabilis......... “if Be RNS 5 AND, a, ana, oes eae £ AS aoe amomea....... ee ce eee. be A Claytoniana 20S a en Oe Ree bis Pteretis nodulosa 20 See ge EX RE es ew Oe moclea sensibilis . Pifer: | cia. Neb