146 CERATOPTERIS THALICTROIDES. THE HORNED FERN. 



transportation to this fairyland, — the student of natural history 

 and especially of botany feels equal gratitude for present facilities 

 to explore the inmost recesses of its forests ; and though it is now 

 over three hundred years ago since Captain Jean Ribeau gave 

 the account of his "Voyage to Florida," nearly as many new 

 plants are discovered in this long known land as in some of the 

 newer territories of the United States. 



The subject of our present sketch is one of these recent dis- 

 coveries. Indeed the only published note of its existence that 

 we find in American literature as we write is in the "Catalogue 

 of the 'Davenport Herbarium' of North American Ferns," where 

 it is recorded as having been obtained from " Prairie Creek, in 

 slow moving water, Southern Florida," the specimen "gathered 

 In July, 1878, and donated by Professor D. C. Eaton." The 

 specimen from which our drawing was made is growing in the 

 greenhouse of the Arnold Arboretum, near Boston, under the 

 charge of Mr. Jackson Dawson. As it has not, therefore, found 

 its way into our books of reference, we have had to go to a 

 European source for the description already cited, which is of 

 the genus. As there is only one known, it does for the specific 

 character as well. 



Though a new discovery among the " Flowers and Ferns of 

 the United States," it has been long known to botanists, having 

 been figured by the old English author, Plukenet, before the time 

 of Linnaeus. Indeed, it is one of the most widely extended of 

 all ferns, being found in the warmer parts of all the four quarters 

 of our globe. To Linnaeus, however, it seems to have been 

 known only as a native of Ceylon in the East Indies, and the 

 knowledge we have of its world-wide extension shows what great 

 progress geographical botany has made. In his time, too, it was 

 known as Acrostichum thalidroides, for the natural relationships 

 of ferns were not .known very well at that time, and it is chiefly 

 within the past fifty years that the large fern-genera of the early 

 fathers of modern botany have been broken up into sections con- 

 venient for more perfect study. Even so late as 1 789, w-hen the 



