1900] Noyes, — Ferns of Alstead, New Hampshire 183 
plant which abounds here as in all the rich woods of western Cheshire 
County. At this time, early in August, the fruiting fronds of the 
Asplenium, with elongated, crowded dots, are just appearing. 
On a shaded hillside I have once found fruiting fronds of the brake, 
Pteris aquilina, a plant common in every clearing, but, in my experi- 
ence, rarely fruiting. Nor have I seen the plant so tall and broad as 
here in the woods, where the fruiting plants are conspicuous by their 
more straggling-branched appearance, caused by the infolding of the 
margins to cover the spore-cases. 
In a few places the rock-fern, Polypodium vulgare, covers the 
ledges. In the shade the fronds are long and green, while in the 
sun they are stunted and yellowish ; but nowhere here have I seen the 
plant in such abundance as in eastern Massachusetts. 
The two common species of Phegopteris, P. polvpodioides and P. 
Dryopteris, are seen in their respective habitats. Beds of the former 
are growing in the lee of many dry banks. "The fronds are triangular 
in shape, peculiarly roughened, and almost, if not quite, invariably 
the two lower pinnae are pushed forward and upward from the rest. 
I have searched carefully for the broader fronds of P. hexagonoptera, 
but evidently it is not found in this immediate vicinity. P. Dryopteris, 
with its more delicate, thrice-divided fronds, spreads in waving carpets 
over large areas of damp woods. 
I am most pleased that this year the Aspidiums have been spread 
before me for study as never before, — for I found some time since 
that the secret of careful determination lies in careful comparison. 
Aspidium noveboracense, with its pale fronds attenuated at base, here, 
as in all New England, is frequent in the borders of woods, while in 
the deeper shade is the common A. spinulosum var. intermedium. The 
low, light-green fronds of A. Thelypteris had often attracted my atten- 
tion in the meadows and swamps, but in the alluvial soil of Cold River 
I was surprised to find the sterile fronds two feet high, while the more 
slender, fruiting fronds were even taller. 
Aspidium cristatum, one of the evergreen ferns, I see frequently 
in swamps, where its fertile fronds, with large, closely-crowded fruit- 
dots, are now mature. On the hillsides, A. marginale appears in 
characteristic form. The fronds rise symmetrically from the crown, 
the fertile ones often falling heavily back, some of them borne quite 
to the ground by the weight of the large, marginal fruit-dots. 
Another evergreen, striking by virtue of its shining fronds, is the 
