II FERTILE FRONDS PARTIALLY LEAF-LIKE, 

 II FERTILE PORTION UNLIKE REST OF FROND 



only instance in statute law," Dr. Eaton remarks, 

 " where a plant has received special legal protec- 

 tion solely on account of its beauty." 



I have never seen the plant growing, but remem- 

 ber that when a child my home in New York was 

 abundantly decorated with the pressed fronds which 

 had been brought from Hart- 

 ford for the purpose. Even in 

 that lifeless condition their grace 

 and beauty made a deep impres- 

 sion on my mind. 



Mr. Saunders has described it 

 as he found it growing in com- 

 oMertiie pinnui. pany with Schizcza, in the New 



Jersey pine barrens : 



" Lygodium palmatum ... is one of the love- 

 liest of American plants, with twining stem adorned 

 with palmate leaflets, bearing small resemblance to 

 the popular idea of a fern. It loves the shaded, 

 mossy banks of the quiet streams whose cool, clear, 

 amber waters, murmuring over beds of pure white 

 sand, are so characteristic of the pine country. 

 There the graceful fronds are to be found, some- 

 times clambering a yard high over the bushes and 

 cat-briers ; sometimes trailing down the bank until 

 their tips touch the surface of the water. 



" The Lygodium is reckoned among the rare 

 plants of the region though often growing in good- 

 sized patches when found at all and is getting 

 rarer. Many of the localities which knew it once 



now know it no more, both because of the depre- 



76 



