PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 33 



in drawing, in spatter-work, and in conntless other forms of ornamenta- 

 tion. 



" The deep woods that once covered so much of the territory of Michigan 

 were the home of many varieties of the great family of ferns or felices, 

 that flourished through countless centuries under their protecting shade, 

 in many places almost carpeting the ground beneath with their fragrant 

 growth; and in perhaps no other state in the Union will it be found that a 

 wider variety of this family had originally their chosen habitat. The 

 extreme length of our state north and south partly accounts for this diver- 

 sity, by the modification of climate thus afforded; for in the upper penin- 

 siila a number of sub-arctic varieties have their home, that are not found 

 further south; while the protecting influence of the large bodies of water 

 that so nearly surround the lower peninsula is the cause of a northward 

 flexure of the isothermal lines into the lower portion of the state. Thus it 

 is a noticeable fact as regards the flora of southern Michigan that not a few 

 varieties of plants are found here flourishing — or at least were while in its 

 aboriginal state — that elsewhere are only known in a more southern 

 latitude. I presume no state in the Union furnishes a greater diversity of 

 climate than our own, unless perhaps it be shown locally in the different 

 altitudes of mountain ranges. 

 , "The results of the progressive study and exploration of the flora of 

 Michigan have been from time to time embodied in catalogue form and 

 published; the latest collection, that of Messrs. Wheeler and Smith of Hub- 

 bardston, a very extended and valuable compilation of all the preceding lists, 

 and embracing the results of their own researches and those of other local 

 botanists throughout the state, having been published in the Report of this 

 society for 1880. While probably not many additions will be made to this 

 list, at least of the orders and classes of plants therein treated, the local 

 distribution of many of the varieties might with advantage be more fully 

 known, as this in many instances could be indicated only in a very general 

 manner. 



"I have been requested by the secretary of the society to furnish a list of 

 the ferns of Allegan county, which I will endeavor to present so far as my 

 examination of the flora of this section, through a series of years, in which 

 the ferns have been something of a specialty, may enable me. 



"In the course of the gradual clearing away of the original forest 

 throiTghout the greater portion of the state, and the bringing of the soil 

 under cultivation, most of the wild native plants, of course including the 

 fern, have been in a like process of extermination. Their j^lace has been 

 in a large measure usurped by the coarse weeds and vegetable pests of 

 other parts of the world, which w^ith a stronger vitality force their way in 

 and flourish, when these shrink away and perish entirely. It is not at all 

 unlikely that some varieties of the fern which have existed in rare locali- 

 ties in the state for ages, may have already become extinct, as more than 

 one variety has been catalogued as having Ijeen discovered only in a single 

 locality in the state. I recall one case somewhat in point. In my 

 botanizing excursions throughout this section, for several years, always 

 with an eye out for new varieties of fern, I supposed at last that I had 

 discovered all that were to be found, as no new finds had for a long time 

 rewarded my tramps. However, one day while passing through a small 

 tract of 'timber land', densely shaded by beech and maple, I detected a 

 delicate little fern, that at a glance I knew to be a strange variety — one 

 that was new to me. On examination I found it to be the Cystopteris 



