39 



eau, cut into by several streams which have made valleys and 

 gorges trending mostly to the east. The most northerly of these is 

 the Silver. The Silver rises in a group of springs flowing perhaps 

 20,000 gallons per hour. The ground is moist, the shade dense, 

 and the ground largely boulder limestone. The ferns are scattered 

 over approximately two acres immediately surrounding the springs. 

 The point of first discovery lies some 120 rods to the northeast of 

 tli is point, upon the rocky tali and slopes above Kennedy creek. 

 A few plants occur also near the banks of the Silver, about a mile 

 from its source. The valley of the Pretty lies about two miles to 

 the south of the Silver. The fern occurs here in some abundance 

 along the rocky slopes of the valley, though the land is higher and 

 drier, and the shade not so dense. Many granite and schist bould- 

 ers occur here, but do not carry Hart's-tongue, the fern being 

 always rooted in the limestone crevices. 



Mr. Os-ler is of the opinion that the fern is also to be found in 

 the valley of the Pine and the Mad, the formation and aspect being 

 similar. The Holly fern always occurs with the Hart's-tongue at 

 these stations, and near the springs the Walking-leaf in consider- 

 able abundance. Mr. Osier has kindly furnished a series of photo- 

 graphs of the ferns in their native environment. In a later letter, 

 attention is called to the fact of the fern's destruction in quantity 

 by young cattle. 



(d) The Woodstock Station. The Hart's-tongue was discov- 

 ered near Woodstock, N. B., in the late fall of 1882 by James Sut- 

 ton, a gardener in the employ of Mrs. Charles Connell, of Wood- 

 stock. During a visit to this village the next September, the atten- 

 tion of the late Peter Jack, of Halifax, N. S., was directed to the 

 plant, a single rather undersized specimen, which had been pre- 

 served in Mrs. Connell's greenhouse. Mr. Jack immediately rec- 

 ognized it as " Scolopendrium vulgare." * From Mrs. Dibblee, nee 

 Connell, of Woodstock, and Mr. G. U. Hay, of St. John, N. B., I 

 have learned that it was collected some six miles to the westward of 

 Woodstock, upon the "Richmond Road," near the Meduxnakik river 

 where it was open to the northwest. Mrs. Dibblee has stated also 

 that the station ' ' has been all burnt over, ploughed up, and is now 

 a fine farm," and that the fern grew upon what is commonly called 



* See Notice of New and Rare Plants by George I,awson, in Proc. and Trans. 

 Nov. Scot. lust. Nat. Sci. Q. 71-72. 1883-6 ; also a paper by G. U. Hay, entitled 

 Potai4y of the I'pper St. Joint, in Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc. N. Br. No. 2, pp. 31 and 37. 



