<>s Palmer Ferns o/ the Dismal Swamp, Vii'<jiui. 



entanglement of various shrubs and other plants, it was abundant and 

 of all sizes. An odd location, and the most common, was along the curved 

 lower side of a fallen mossy trunk where the plants occupied a line just 

 above high-water mark. Usually such a log was exposed to a large 

 amount of light and its upper surface was destitute of mosses and other 

 plants. On other logs usually situated in a tangle and well shaded, the 

 ferns grew in a line along the middle of the top, either with several plants 

 of D. spinulosa, a few flowering plants, or more generally alone. In ever)'' 

 instance the rhizome was imbedded in the moss and the plants were but 

 loosely attached to the wood; a pull on a frond was generally sufficient 

 to bring up the whole plant. 



9. Dryopteris marginalis (Linn.) A. Gray. Marginal Fern. 



A most unexpected surprise was the discovery on June 10, 1899, of a 

 single dwarfed plant of this rock-haunting fern. Four miles westward 

 from Lake Drummond up Washington ditch, is a recently made plank 

 road which runs a mile or more into the swamp. Some distance 

 along this road a large tree had fallen years before, and on its broken and 

 decaying stump I found the plant with five fronds, three of which were 

 fertile. The largest measures 8| inches (219.5), and the stipe o (142. 5). 

 The sori are not abundant and are confined to the apex. There are 279 

 on the best fruiting frond. 



10. Dryopteris spinulosa (Retz) Kuntze. Spinulose Fern. 



A few large plants were growing on logs with D. g. celsa and several im 

 mature plants were found near the head of Washington ditch on logs and 

 stumps. They differ from specimens taken about Washington, D. C. , in 

 having all the divisions narrower and more widely separated and the 

 apex lengthened. The color is a darker green. The pinnules are more in 

 clined toward the rachis, and the pinnae trend upward to a greater extent. 

 Some specimens, both large and small, show a more triangular outline, 

 with longer lower pinme, and this is evidently the tendency in plants 

 growing in deep shade. In June, 1896, the mouth of a well near Suffolk 

 had many plants growing between the bricks. All were herbaceous and 

 dwarfed, and the single fertile one found had very small sori near the 

 margin. 



11. Woodwardia virginica (Linn.) J. E. Smith. Virginia Chain-fern. 



Extremely abundant. Its natural habitat is in the pools which occur 

 between the elevations made by the enlarged bases of the trees, and in 

 the cane swamps ; but wherever the swamp has been burnt out this fern 

 occurs in greater luxuriance. Along the ten miles of Jericho ditch which 

 has been dug from Lake Drummond through the northern part of the 

 swamp, it is very abundant and large, and grows in the water in dense 

 beds usually for many yards. The fronds are here quite erect and face 

 the sun i. e., the plane of the frond is at a right angle to the line of aver- 



