exclusively to native plants but his fern herbarium includes nu- 

 merous foreign and cultivated species. Neither the herbarium nor 

 his manuscript catalog of it contain any trace of our fern, as 

 surely they must have, had it been near the Santee Canal pre- 

 vious to 1850. Ravenel, further, in 1882, in his List of the more 

 common native and naturalized plants of South Carolina' gives 

 only two species of Pteris, — ' ' aquilina ' ' and ' ' Cretica. ' ' The 

 latter is surely a mistake for serrulata. Ravenel could not have 

 failed to know of Professor Gibbes' discovery. He may, how- 

 ever, have examined only young specimens, which fr(!quently 

 lack the decurrent character of the leaf. Scarcely three years 

 before the species was still undetermined, as Prof. D. C. Eaton 

 wrote,' "I learn from Prof. Lewis R. Gibbes, that a Pteris has 

 sowed itself and grown abundantly- on the walls of the College 

 of Charleston, S. C. it will be vctv interesting to know whether 

 this is Pteris cretica or Pteris serrulata. ' ' Miss Gibbes, who was 

 her father's amanuensis, tells me that he sent specimens to Pro- 

 fessor Eaton for determination. Chapman includes the species 

 in the supplement to the 1884 edition of his Flora as P. serrulata 

 from Charleston. In the main text of Professor Gibbes' copy 

 of this edition he has added P. serrulata in pencil to the given 

 species of Pteris, but makes no mention of cretica. 



Although the ferns have disappeared from the Wentworth 

 Street house and the laboratory at the College of Charleston was 

 taken down after the earthquake of 1886, there is no room to 

 doubt that the present well-known P. serrulata is the fern of 

 Professor Gibbes' discovery and that the belief that P. cretica 

 has ever been taken in Charleston is an illusion based on Raven- 

 el's error. 



The species is deciduous in Charleston; growth continues 

 throughout the year, however, and young plants may be found 

 in January. Spores mature in April. 



Pteridium aquilinum (L.) Kuhn. Bracken. Common through- 

 out coast region, in open sandy woods. With scrub oaks this 



» S. C. Board of Agriculture. South Carolina. 1883, 361. 

 * Bull. Torrey Hot. Club. \1,1H79,S07. 



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