66 The Ottawa Naturalist. [July 



gather knowledge of our Ontario ferns, were Poly podium (includ- 

 ing Phegopteris) , a genus in which the indusium is wanting, 

 Aspidium and Asplenium. 



It was with no small curiosity that I set out next season to 

 search for ferns in Ontario. I began in May and by the end of 

 June had got 17 species. I found, however, that a beginner can 

 seldom be certain of identification until the frond is in fruit. 

 For instance, I got a young fern early in June whose frond 

 tapered in both directions, the pinnae longest in the middle and 

 shortening gradually above and below. I made sure it tnust be 

 the New York Fern and transplanted some to a pot in my 

 window stand. I was away all the summer, but my plants were 

 cared for and on my return I found my New York Fern {Aspidium 

 noveboracense) with the known contrariety of things taken for 

 granted had fruited out into a Silvery Spleenwort {Asplenium 

 thelypteroides). Mistakes like this are bound to occur in the case 

 of a beginner, and some species more than ordinarily variable 

 defy identification even by an expert until in fruit. In the case 

 of the Silverv Spleenwort, however, an experienced eye will have 

 no difficulty in determining; for it is covered on stipe and 

 rhachis with white somewhat bristly hairs, while the New York 

 Fern is perfectly smooth and the stipe itself is much more 

 slender. 



Altogether my first season yielded me 30 species, and more 

 hours, days and weeks of solid enjoyment than anyone can be 

 aware of who has never collected ferns. For not only are they 

 beautiful in themselves but their haunts and homes are among 

 the most charming in all nature. Ferns in their native sur- 

 roundings are far more than ferns in themselves, even though 

 the charm of surroundings, if not due to the ferns, is always 

 enhanced by them. Emerson's "Each and All" will remind you 

 how subtle and how complex a thing is environment. But even 

 a fern in itself is a thing of beauty and a joy forever; and to the 

 collector who cares to press and mount specimens of our native 

 ferns, there is no plant that yields anything like as good results. 

 Flowering plants when pressed generally lose their natural 

 colours and always their distinctive outline and shape; ferns on 

 the other hand if carefully pressed retain their natural green 

 unchanged and are with few exceptions flat and growing in a 

 single plane ready pressed, so to say, by Nature. A green fern 

 well mounted on a sheet of white paper or cardboard is a delight 

 to the eve and in the grey days of winter a pleasant reminder of 

 summer's golden prime. 



M}^ first collecting ground was in the neighborhood of Port 

 Hope, a limestone district but with almost no rock, the limestone 



