58 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



only a question of time when this graceful fern shall cease to exist 

 in Massachusetts. 



Mr. Buswell remarked that members of the society interested in 

 the preservation of this class of plants had taken pains to plant 

 roots and spores of the rarer species of ferns, and seeds of flower- 

 ing plants, in out of the way places for the purpose of keeping 

 them from extermination, and he hoped to hear from some of these 

 gentlemen. 



Mr. Eobinson said that in Connecticut a law had been passed 

 forbidding the gathering of LygodimnjKdmatum, The fronds are 

 annual, and may be gathered in August without injury. 



E. H. Hitchings said that when collecting ferns he had scattered 

 spores in favorable places, and had also planted roots and seeds of 

 the rarer native flowers. 



W. H. Ilalliday wished to inquire whether the close cutting of 

 the fronds had a tendency to exterminate ferns. He stated that 

 two years ago he had, in August, cut all the fionds from a very 

 large patch of Dicksonia jiimctilohuJa ; the next season at the 

 same time he visited the place and found very few ferns. 



Eev A. B. Muzzey alluded to the Camptosorus rhizophyUus or 

 Walking fern, of which he had been able to get but few specimens 

 in this vicinitj^ though he found it plentiful in Lenox, Mass., but 

 he knew a gentleman who found a single specimen in eastern Mas- 

 sachusetts. He had experienced a difficult}^ in cultivating ferns 

 in a Wardian case ; some say it must be kept close, while others 

 advise opening and giving air occasionall3\ Diff'erent species no 

 doubt require difl'ereut treatment, and if we put half a dozen species 

 into the same case we shall find it difficult to produce the condi- 

 tions best adapted to all. 



Mr. Davenport said that most ferns mature their buds for the 

 succeeding year's growth along a creeping rhizome under ground, 

 or in the sheathing base of the stipe, during the growing season, 

 and if the plants were cut down or gathered before this work 

 was accomplished, the roots would become weakened and gradu- 

 ally die out. This might account for the disappearance of the 

 Dicksonia alluded to by Mr. Hallidaj'. 



In regard to the "Walking fern having been found in eastern 

 Massachusetts, as mentioned by Mr. Muzzc}', he thought it quite 

 likely to have been introduced, as he had never heard of its grow- 

 ing naturally in this State, except in the western part, where it 



