THE PLANT WOELD 29 



we find Tephrosia Virginmiia, Pogonia verticillata, and once two plants of 

 Viola pedata, with white flowers. Iris verna, Kalmki latifolia and K, 

 angHstifolia are abundant. We have found in the sandy road numbers 

 of ant-Hons, those curious creatures that lie concealed at the bottom of 

 conical pits, waiting for unwary ants to tumble into their jaws. Tube- 

 spiders also find no difiieulty in excavating their homes in the loose soil. 

 These woods are periodically burned over to " drive away the snakes." 

 My informant was a colored man, who told me it was sure death to let a 

 tree frog get on you, so his statement may not be worth much. 



The Mafsilea at the pond was planted by me about five years ago. 

 It disappeared for a year, but is now very abundant. This pond is a 

 treasure house. In it, or on its shores, we have found Brasenia, two or 

 three species of Potamogeton, Drosera rotundifoUa and D. intermedia 

 Americana; Sphagnum, has been found in fruit, and Utricularia vulgaris 

 has been seen. The sphagnum bog, at the head of the pond, is of 

 especial interest, for there we get pitcher plants and small water lilies 

 growing in water a few inches deep. Lycopodium adpressum Chapm., 

 formerly distributed as L. inundatum Bigelovii, is abundant. Its spores 

 ripen early in October. This is truly a "quaking" bog that seems no 

 wetter after a heavy rain than after a drought. We have found, by 

 sinking in nearly to the knees, that it is underlaid by a hard bed, 

 probably of gravel. Near the furnace, just at the head of tide-water, the 

 mud is verj- much deeper and softer. Once we managed to walk across 

 it by stepping on the large tufts of Orontium aquaticum, that were there 

 in abundance. 



Going back still further from the pond we come to the woods where 

 several interesting ferns are to be found. The most abundant, next to 

 the brake fern, is the cinnamon fern, and a variety of it which we found 

 first in July. It differs from the type in being more or less densely 

 covered with glandular pubescence, and it has therefore been called var. 

 glandidosa. With these we find Woodivardia Virginica and W. angusfi- 

 folia. The first of these closely resembles the cinnamon fern, but may 

 be distinguished readily by the practiced eye. The latter is very much 

 like the sensitive fern at first sight. Just as the variety ohtusilohata 

 of the sensitive fern represents a form intermediate between the sterile 

 and fertile fronds, so we find similar fronds in the case of the Wood- 

 ivardia. The pinnae are broader and less fertile, or the lower pinnae 

 may be sterile. We have seen cases in which one side of the pinnae is 

 contracted and fertile, the other expanded and sterile. The fertile 

 fronds grow erect with the pinnae curiously curved, and the tip has a 

 decided " quirk " in it. We have noticed much the same thing in Nephro- 

 dium cristaturn, which also grows in these woods, and it seems probable 

 that it is a peculiarity of all fronds that grow erect. It gives the upper 



