FERNS OF THE YOSEMfTE. g 



young, several unrolling- daih- to view the smiling landscape below. 

 The brownish, scaly, ovate-lanceolate fronds of ^'/^^//^////zir.y Clevclandii 

 were also found among the rocks with Pellwa dcnsa. New fronds 

 were unrolling daily. Among the tufts of older ones, C. gracillinia 

 was found in my collection afterwards. It must have been found 

 somewhere between Raymond and the Valley, although the exact lo- 

 cality is not known. My specimen is a tiny one scarceh' exceeding 

 three to four inches in height. This fern also grew in crevices of 

 rocks, several fronds springing from the tough, hard root-stock. 



Woodwnrdia radicals, an elegant, luxuriant, semi-tropical fern, 

 was found on the trail to Yosemite Point near Pellcea densa, July ad, 

 at the base of an inclined granite slope, kept green by the flowing of 

 a tiny mountain rill. It was immaturely fruited and dwarfed here, 

 while in the Coast Range it could have been collected at its best. In- 

 deed its natural habitat seems to be in the moist redwood ( Sequoia 

 seuipervirois Endl ) ravines, where it is bathed by frequent fogs from 

 the Pacific. In many ravines it predominates, the flattish. erect, 

 pinnate fronds often attaining six to seven feet in height and over 

 two feet in breadth — a fern wilderness. Several fronds are arranged 

 about the same root-stock, and it is often very difficult to find one to 

 press, showing all portions. 



Pteris aquilina lanuginosa forms thickets three to four feet in height 

 in many places on the floor of the valley, especially the upper part, 

 during June and July. This fern is equally abundant in the Coast 

 Ranges, and would at first be taken for the species, the principal dis- 

 tinction being that there is more or less silky pubescence on the broad 

 ternate fronds. Cystopteris fragilis, a fern with a great range, occur- 

 ring throughout nearly the whole of the northern and southern hemi- 

 spheres, was collected three times during the trip, always near water, 

 especially in the vicinity of waterfalls. In the first locality, June 2d, 

 it was found on the rocky banks of the turbulent Merced river, a few 

 miles west of the Mariposa big trees; the second, on the moist rocks 

 on the trail to Yosemite Point, Jime i8th; and the third, at the mouth 

 of the long, inaccessible canon of the Toulumne river, in the Hetch 

 Hetchy, July u, where it was kept green by an ever-roaring cataract. 

 It is also found in the Coast Ranges. 



Dryoptcris munita, a common Californian fern of great beauty, 

 well w^orthy of cultivation, is abundant throughout the Sierras. It is 

 very chaffy at the base, with light brown, broadly lanceolate scales, 

 which are decidedly acuminate. No spe.cimens were collected here, 

 but the variety nudata was collected on the Glacier Point trail, June 

 20th, at about 5,000 feet altitude. My specimens are from one to two 

 feet in height, and one-half as brf)ad as the type — two and one-half 



