40 PALMER : 



The other is in a small open copse near at hand, in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the large, high tower of the lighthouse. In 

 both places the fern " has its feet in water " at most seasons. 

 During the drought of summer the swale at the first-named 

 place sometimes becomes almost or quite dry, and the fern 

 then nearly disappears. But it has a good, serviceable, creep- 

 ing rootstock, and can stand a certain amount of hardship 

 without entirely perishing. So, amid the mutations of its lot, 

 it stays on from year to year, not very mighty, yet now and 

 again with the aspect of a fern thoroughly at home. The fer- 

 tile leaves do not fail to appear, nor the spores to shed them- 

 selves upon the air. May the shadow of its fronds never grow 

 smaller in this, the only station (if we count the two spots as 

 one) that warrants us in naming Woodzvardia areolata among 

 the rarities that queer Tinicum contributes to our Delaware 

 county flora ! 



\V00d7cardia \'iro;iuica, the other chain fern, is a much 

 larger plant. While \V. arcolaia recalls in a general way the 

 common sensitive fern of the swamps, the aspect of the pre- 

 sent species is roughly that of one of the large cinnamon 

 ferns. Keller and Brown give fourteen localities in New 

 Jersej', one in New Castle county, Delaware, two in Bucks 

 county, and one, that is to say Tinicum, in Delaware county.* 

 This species, also, was probably collected by Dr. George 

 Smith, and it has at any rate been known as a Tinicum 

 plant for many years. It is not so scarce in that neighbor- 

 hood as the other species, though it appears to be confined to 

 the woodland around Lester. It also is a lover of water, and 

 in New Jersey it sometimes grows in veritable small ponds. 

 In Tinicum it affects the swales in the sandy woods, but is by 

 no means confined to them. It can be found at times in 

 abundance at places where, in midsummer, there is no sign of 



* Both the Hncks count}- localities, Bristol and Tnlh-town, are of the 

 same general nature as Tinicum. Not only among ferns, biit among 

 other orders of plants as well, the unusual species that occur in Tinicum 

 are apt also to occur near Bristol, or near Tullytown, or at Penn Valley. 



