ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES. SCOTt's SPLEENWORT. II5 



his little work were scarcely from the press it was found, in 

 July of that year, in Franklin county, in that State, by Professor 

 R. W. Wildberger. It is, therefore, probable from these several 

 recent discoveries in widely separated localities that it will yet 

 be found in many other places, and the probability will give 

 increased interest to fern explorations. 



Miss Julia Tutvviler finds the plant in considerable quantity in 

 her location, and, in a letter dated April 15th, 1S79, to the writer 

 of this, she thus describes her experience with it: "Our resi- 

 dence in Alabama is in latitude 32° 47' north, longitude 87° 45' 

 west, eight miles from the Black Warrior river. The black- 

 lands, or cotton-lands, formerly prairies, covered with cane and 

 with cedar-hummocks near there, lie about fifteen miles south of 

 us. Where we reside the soil is either red clay, or a mixture of 

 sand and gravel, except in the creek and river bottoms. The 

 face of the country is rolling, covered with hills from one hun- 

 dred to two hundred feet above the level of the sea. We find 

 no stones here except conglomerate, or 'pudding-stone,' as it is 

 familiarly called. The geologists say the whole formation here 

 belongs to the tertiary. I was agreeably surprised some years 

 ago to find some miles away from our home, in a deep glade 

 formed by the gradual work of a little brook which now runs 

 through it, several plants which I have never found around our 

 home, though I know these woods quite well. One of these 

 was the Asplcniiim cbenoides, which then seemed to me so 

 peculiar that I sent a piece to a botanical paper, and learned 

 from the editor that it had been found in only one place in the 

 United States before. The Virginian saxifrage, the Walking- 

 fern, and several others quite common in the north, are here, but 

 only in this deep shaded glen with the Asplenmm cbcnoidesy 



An interesting question in connection is conveyed in Mr. 

 Williamson's expression, "somewhat doubtful species." Dr. 

 Berkeley, above cited, thought it a probable hybrid, but appar- 

 endy only because a single plant was found growing with Campto- 

 sorus — the " Walking-fern," and ^.s^/^;?/?/;/^ cbcnciun. Miss Tut- 



