IN CALIFORNIA 173 



spores upon the frond varies so widely among the 

 different kinds of ferns but is constant in each sort, 

 a natural basis for the classification of the order is 

 thus provided which science long since adopted. In 

 the case of the woodwardias, the spore clusters, 

 which are longish and narrow, are sunk in cavities 

 on the under surface of the leaflets and form inter- 

 rupted rows which suggest so many little chains. 

 These furnish a ready means for identifying the 

 ferns of this genus, and for this reason, they are 

 sometimes called chain ferns. 



The common five-fingered maidenhair (Adiantum 

 pedatum), the collection of which is a stock pleas- 

 ure with young folk of all ages back East when 

 they go picnicking, grows to the height sometimes 

 of two feet in the moist Coast Ranges of the north, 

 and its glossy black stems are worked by the In- 

 dian women into some weaves of baskets, contribut- 

 ing strikingly to the beauty of the design. More 

 frequently met with in California, is another 

 maidenhair never found wild in the East, Adiantum 

 emarginatum. It is easily recognized as a maiden- 

 hair by the beautifully polished, black stripes and 

 roundish leaflets, but the fronds are without the 

 characteristic forking habit of the species that East- 

 erners best know. Mr. Chesnut records that among 

 the Mendocino Indians, the stems, which as in the 



