1910] The Ottawa Naturalist. 105 



we spied a fine sheaf of one of the Osmundas; so fine that we 

 swerved from the path to view it at nearer quarters: Osmunda 

 claytoniana, truly a royal group, and hedged about with a body- 

 guard of Sensitive Fern. As I stooped over to enjoy the sight I 

 discovered some spikes thrusting up among the barren fronds of 

 Onoclea sensihilis ; the body-guard was fairly bristling with spears 

 it was the Adder's Tongue Fern. Walking carefully about we 

 discovered an extensive colony, reaching back to the fence we 

 had climbed, down the slope to the swamp's edge, and forward a 

 little way round the margin of the swamp. 



Three days later we were at the Rideau Ferry, and as we 

 were examining some plants of Botrychium obliquum near the 

 Bass Lake Creek, my friend spied the Adder's Tongue near some 

 pines at a fence-corner. We were delighted to find it in a 

 neighbourhood I knew so well and showed the colony to our host, 

 my old pupil. After asking incredulously whether it was really 

 a fern, he said he was sure he had seen it growing at the mine! 

 Of course, if a friend asked me in strict confidence where he was 

 likely to find Ophioglossum vulgatum, I should not recommend him 

 to go to a mica-mine. But I knew my pupil was observant and 

 we had meant to go to the mine anyway, so off we went. 



In the first swamp edge just above and outside a narrow 

 swamp filled with sedge-grasses and the Marsh Fern we found 

 the Adder's Tongue; we found it in the swamp too, but only on 

 and about peaty hummocks covered with crumbly turf, old ant- 

 hills or something of the sort. We tried a second swamp that 

 looked hkely and found it once more. The illusion of its rarity 

 was vanishing; what we had three times stumbled on accident- 

 ally, we were now deliberately hunting for in likely places 

 (guided by experience). 



A day or two later we went to the Algonquin Park where 

 there are no clearings, and for a month we dismissed all thought 

 of the Adder's Tongue. But at the beginning of September I 

 returned to the Rideau and went to see the Bass Lake colony of 

 Ophioglossum. I found that while nearly all other foliage was 

 green, this fern had faded yellow and was easily detected. The 

 leaves fairly dotted the marsh margins and drier parts of beaver 

 meadows up and down both banks of the creek. I went to the 

 mica-mine and discovered several new stations for the fern there ; 

 even a colony in a most unusual habitat, a deeply shaded cedar 

 alley. 



In the middle of September I returned to Port Hope and 

 began investigations there. In four weeks I had found more 

 than 20 stations for the Adder's Tongue, many of these stations 

 comprising a large number of colonies and hundreds (if not 



