174 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



commoner species are smooth and black, used to be 

 particularly valued for keeping ear-ring holes open 

 and for increasing their size. On this account the 

 fern bears a name among those aborigines which 

 means "ear-stick tree." It is the characteristic 

 Pacific Coast maidenhair, and in California is found 

 throughout the length of the State. It loves the 

 cool dampness of shady banks in canons, and clus- 

 ters about the bases of rocks in mountain woods 

 principally near the coast and always at low alti- 

 tudes; but it is something of an adventurer, too, 

 occasionally exploring the brushy recesses of hill- 

 side chaparral that once were moist, and has been 

 found even in the desert region in locations where 

 shade and some moisture obtain. 



The discovery of certain ferns happily living 

 along in the desert's rocky wastes is one of the sur- 

 prises that await the plant lover in California ; but 

 so far as my own observation goes, such ferns all 

 like their bit of shade, diving into the darkling 

 crevices of boulders or burrowing about the edges 

 where rock meets earth. In such situations, fur- 

 thermore, they get what dampness there may be lin- 

 gering after the scant rainfall of the winter is over 

 and gone. The typical desert species of my meet- 

 ing are two cloak-ferns (Notholaena Parryi and N. 

 cretacea], and the sticky lip-fern (Cheilanthes vis- 



