8 THE PLANT WORLD. 



of a grain I How far this passes the sensibility of even the most deli- 

 cately organized animals, can be shown by experiment. A piece of 

 fine hair 1-50 of an inch long and weighing 1-8,197 of a grain cannot 

 be perceived by the human tongue, and it is doubtful if there is a 

 nerve in the body that would note the presence of such a particle when 

 supported in a dense fluid such as that about the tentacles. 



FERNS OF THE YOSEMITE AND THE NEIGHBORING 



SIERRAS. 

 By S. H. Biirnhaiu. 



AT the close of the rainy or winter season of 1894 in California, 

 shortly after the closing of Stanford University in May for its 

 summer vacation, I was fortunate enough to be included in a 

 small party of students who were to spend the greater part of 

 their vacation in this world-famed valley, visiting the Mariposa grove 

 of big trees en route. I was with the party seven weeks, and what 

 made the trip more pleasant, we had our own conveyance and camped 

 wherever we wished. The first week was well-nigh spent in journey- 

 ing down the fertile and fruitful Santa Clara valley, crossing the 

 Inner Coast Range at Pacheco Pass, and then the broad San Joaquin 

 with its muddy river, striking the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas at 

 Raymond in Fresno county. 



I found several well-fruited plants of FelUca Bridgcsii growing on 

 a rugged rocky ledge, about a mile beyond this little railroad termi- 

 nus. It is a beautiful fern growing, closely resembling the eastern 

 P. atropiirpurea, which species I at once took it to be, not being well 

 acquainted with the natural habits of the latter. Among the numerous 

 coriaceous fronds were many brown ones, of at least a year's persist- 

 ence. If I am not mistaken, the pinnate fronds are greener — "a glauc- 

 ous green," Underwood says, than in P atropnrpurca P. androuicdie- 

 fo/ia, a fern very abundant in rocky places, at least throughout Central 

 California, was found June 20th, near the foot of Nevada Falls, in the 

 valley. Its near relative, P. OrnitJwpiis^ which often occurs with it, 

 was found in another valley a few miles north of the Yosemite, acces- 

 sible only by a wild and rugged trail. /'. densa, whose range extends 

 northward through Oregon, was found on the Yosemite Point trail, 

 June 1 8th. It grew on moist, mossy rocks of granite, near the foot of 

 the upper cataract of the lofty Yosemite Falls, and was kept green by 

 the ever-changing mist. The altitude was 5,000 feet above the sea, 

 and at the time observed the ovate, densely tripinnate fronds were 



