PROCEEDINGS OF THE WINTER MEETING. 35 



<lcs. The next to the last of these may be said to be rare and the one pre- 

 ceding it by no means common. The s2)i)mlosum will dispute with the 

 maiden hair for the preference as being our handsomest fern, its finely dis- 

 sected, rich dark green fronds, arranged in a circular group, adaj^ting the 

 plant especially to form the central ornament of a vase. The Cystopieris 

 bulhifera is occasionally met hereabout; I saw it first at Gun lake. My 

 finding of its sister variety, C. fvdgilts has been spoken of above. 



"A magnificent member of the family, the Ostrich fern, Onoclea struthi- 

 oj^teris, has of late years become quite scarce in our section, though for- 

 merly not so. I recall now but one place where it may be found. The 

 amateur will find it an interesting experiment in the winter time to take up 

 from under the snow in February a root of this fern, and having potted it 

 to put it in a warm place; when almost immediately the little baby fronds, 

 curled up like watch springs and arranged in a circle on the crown of the 

 plant, will begin to unfold and enlarge, the process seeming almost visible 

 to the eye. In a short time the fern will have attained its full growth to a 

 height of two or three feet, the handsome, j^lume-like fronds — from which 

 it derives its name — being arranged around in a perfect circle. Unlike 

 many of the other ferns this one will thus start to grow if exposed to the 

 warmth, almost in midwinter. The other Onoclea, sensibilis, is found 

 almost everywhere in damp places. It derives its name from its extreme 

 sensitiveness to frost. We now come to the Osmimdas, all three of which 

 regalis, Claytonia and cinndmonea, are more or less common through our 

 district. I have also found the variety of the last, frondosa, though never 

 but once I think. Lastly, of the Botrichium family, the Virginicum is, 

 as elsewhere, common, the Innarioides, var. ohliquum, occurs occasionally, 

 and the variety, dissection, mentioned in the catalogue of 1880, as having 

 been observed only in one locality in the state, at South Haven, I have 

 met with near Plainwell. 



" Probably more than half of the varieties of our native ferns are doomed 

 to extinction, the clearing away of our forests, and the draining of our 

 swamp and lowlands, proving, as I have said before, everywhere fatal to 

 them. We are living through and witnessing — though we seldom realize 

 it — a grand transformation scene as regards the flora of our state. That 

 of a century ago, the indigenous flora, which has flourished through num- 

 berless ages, contrasted with that of a century hence, what a marvelous and 

 almost fundamental change will have been presented. 



'^ Plainwell, March U, 1889." 



Wednesday's Session 



Was held at Michigan Agricultural College, the forenoon being occupied 

 in visiting various departments of the college, especially those of botany 

 and horticulture; and dinner was served in one of the halls. In the after- 

 noon the meeting was called to order in the lecture room of the horticult- 

 ural laboratory, and listened to 



