IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 29 



plants were common. The snails were in these bunches of herbaceous plants. A 

 few I found crawling, but the greater portion were quiet, resting? on the coarse 

 sand or grravel, or on the stems or leaves of the plants in the shade. I could oot 

 determine the nature of their food. They did not seem to be under the sage brush. 

 This, I thought, was due to the absence of herbaceous plants around and under 

 the sage brush. There were four in our party, and we collected a quart in 

 about twenty minutes. 



On July 20th I was deer hunting in Danforth Hills, on a branch of Spring creek, 

 about twelve miles north of Meeker on the White river, Rio Blanco county, Colorado. 



During a rain, I happened to observe snails crawling about the damp weeds 

 among the sage and other short brush. These were Helix cooperi. The weeds 

 and brush were so wet I collected but few. Colorado creek in North Park, and the 

 Danforth Hills are on opposite sides of the great divide, about 100 miles apart. 

 There is but little difference to be noted in the shells from these two localities, sep- 

 arated as they are by lofty, snow clad mountains. 



On my return through North Park I collected a considerable number of Helix 

 cooperi at the same locality on Colorado creek. These I wrapped in paper and 

 brought with me alive. They formed an epiphragm over the aperture, and some 

 of them may still be alive. A few were broken and I was surprised to find some 

 of these almost filled with young snails, containing from 13^^ to2J^ whorls. In 

 looking up the literature of Patula strigosa — Helix cooperi, I find 1 am not the 

 first to observe that it is viviparous. 



These snails inhabit treeless, almost barren regions. 



The altitude on Colorado creek is probably near 9,000 feet, and perhaps a thou- 

 sand feet less in the Danforth Hills. I have the pleasure of presenting specimens 

 of these moUusks for inspection by the members of this Academy. 



ON THE ABSENCE OF FERNS BETWEEN FORT COLLINS AND MEEKER 

 COLORADO. 



BY F. M. WITTER, MUSCATINE. 



Partly because of their grace and beauty, and partly because of the small num- 

 ber of species in any given locality and of their singular mode of growth and 

 development, this group of plants has, to me, for many years been of more than 

 common interest. Muscatine county is honored with about twenty-two species of 

 ferns. As a rule these plants seek damp and shaded spots, and it would seem as 

 if some of them will not thrive unless certain conditions of soil, water and 

 exposure are secured. Hence, a rough, rocky region, with springs and more or less 

 swampy ground would, most likely, be rich in individuals and in species of this 

 jnteresting family. 



It was my good fortune to make a wagon journey from Fort Collins to Meeker, 

 Colorado, from July 6 to August 5, 1892. Our route lay from Fort Collins north- 

 west through a continuation or southerly extf»nsion of the Black Hills to a point on 

 the Union Pacific i-ailroad, twenty miles from Laramie City on Laramie Plains, 

 thence west across Laramie Plains and the Medicine Bow mountains to North 



