THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 23 



I found too that the description of those ferns marked 

 "rare" tallied very closely with specimens I had found in 

 the woods about home ; even the walking-leaf was raised 

 above its neighbors by the mark "not common." 



Right in the nick o' time, the very next week in fact, I 

 received a notice of the publication of Mrs. Parsons' "How 

 to Know the Ferns." I have the harmless habit of writ- 

 ing in m^' books the date when they became m3^ property ; 

 and I noticed in "How to Know the Ferns" the date is 

 writted March, 1899. Since the date at the bottom of 

 Mrs. Parsons' prefatory remarks is March 6, 1899 I could 

 not have lost much time in availing myself to the oppor- 

 tunity to "know the ferns." I could hardly wait for April 

 and May to bring them back. Before the weather was 

 sufficiently warm to warrant any tender baby fern in 

 pushing up through the ground I had found and named 

 several of the hardiest sorts by the clumps of last j^ear's 

 fronds lying flattened against the earth, but still fresh and 

 green. In MaA' and June I thought I lived in a fern-lover's 

 Paradise. In a sphagnum swamp lying back of the Win- 

 tergreen Woods I found the interrupted fern {Osmunda 

 Claytoniana), the sensitive fern {Onoclea sensibilis) and 

 the ostrich fern (Struthiopteris Germanica). In some 

 what less swampy situations in the same woods I found 

 the crested shield fern {Nephrodum cristatum) and Goldie's 

 fern (AT. Goldieanum). Other ferns of the commoner sorts 

 grew there but I mention these as growing in greater per- 

 fection there than elsewhere. 



On the North Hill where I found mj' first walking-leat 

 fern I found also the ebon^- spleenwort (Asplenium eben- 

 eum) and maiden-hair spleenwort {Asplenium tricho- 

 manes). But m3^ best fern-region in point of variety, was 

 Cogoman Woods and the gulf below. In the deep, rich 

 woods I found the narrow-leaved spleenwort {Asplenium 

 angustifolium) , silvery spleenwort {Athyrium thleypter- 

 oides) and maiden-hair {Adiantum pedatum) growing in 

 greater profusion than I have seen them anywhere else. 

 Here, too, were fine specimens of rattle-snake fern {Botry- 



