WOODWARDIA VIRGINICA. COMMON CIIAIN-FERX, 99 



afford a good study. There was not room to show the root of 

 this species on our plate, but it is much coarser and thicker than 

 the species with which it often grows, and may be readily distin- 

 guished by this alone. Mr. Robinson, in his interesting little 

 work — "Ferns in their Homes and Ours" — uses xh^lVoodzuardia 

 to illustrate the great value of the root study. He observes: "To 

 connect Woodivardia Virginica with the extreme form of Pteris, 

 it will be only necessary to suppose the loose crown of the 

 Woodwardia so elongated that only one frond will be found to 

 every Inch of stem, and the terminal point of growth to keep at 

 a given distance below the surface of the ground." There is 

 nothing more instructive than such comparisons as these 

 between one species or genus and another. 



The name of Virginica is derived from one of the adjectives 

 given before the binomial system came Into vogue, as so many 

 modern specific names are. It occurs with a figure in the 

 work of Plukenet, an old author, and It is by the aid of this 

 figure that the plant described by Michaux as Woodiuardia 

 Banistenana is known to be the same, for his statement that he 

 found it " in the mountains of North Carolina" could scarcely 

 apply to this species, for no one has found It there, or in any 

 mountain region, as it is wholly a lowland plant, seldom being 

 found at elevations much above the level of the sea, Nuttall 

 found it In Arkansas, and it works up into Ohio and to Michigan, 

 and from thence is found eastwardly to Liverpool in Nova 

 Scoda. Its favorite home Is along the Atlandc sea-board States, 

 extending down to Florida and Mississippi. A fern very much 

 like it appears in Japan, but is regarded as on the whole distinct 

 from our species. It varies somewhat even in our own land, and 

 one marked variety was thought to be a species by Pursh, and 

 named Woodivardia Thdypteroides. 



In the wet and bushy swamps of New Jersey, the common 

 Chain-Fern has often an Important part In giving character to 

 the scenery. It thrives among alders. Magnolia glauca, Andro- 

 mcdas, and other Ericaceous plants; with sedges, swamp grasses, 



