47 



where. This is an early fern and often in dry seasons by August "the 

 fruit will have perfected and the fronds entirely have disappeared (it 

 should be looked for in June). I found at Essex in September, 1873, 

 a plant that, thinking the dry summer was its winter rest, had with 

 the September rains again started; I collected several fine young 

 fronds at that late date. 



This varies considerably ; the less cut form is var. dentata, but not 

 approving of naming every variation, as some seem to do, the most 

 prominent ones only are given in this list. 



8. ADIANTUM PEDATUM L. 

 Maiden Hair. 



By many considered our most beautiful fern, and when seen in the 

 grand clumps two feet or more high, as I have seen them in this 

 county at the fine locality in North Andover, one can hardly find in 

 any conservatory a more elegant, graceful or delicate fern. It grows 

 sjjaringly in Salem, Danvers, Lynnfield, Georgetown and some other 

 places. In the western part of this state, Vermont and southward, 

 it is found by the acre. It varies but slightly even in Californian 

 specimens. 



9. PTERIS AQUILINA L. 

 Eagle Fern. Bracken. 



Common along railroad tracks and gravelly places skirting and in 

 the woods. This is in England one of the rankest growing ferns, 

 sometimes attaining a height of twelve feet. I think six feet from 

 the ground to the tip, when lifted up, is the extreme that has been 

 noticed here. Most beautifully crisped forms and often strange devel- 

 opments of the pinnules may be found in the county specimens, some 

 of which approach the var. caudata which grows south. 



10. WOODWARDIA VlRGINICA Smith. 



Chain Fern. 



(The fruit upon the underside of the fertile pinnules is in short 

 lines, resembling the links of a chain.) 



In searching for this fern I spent three days before finding it in a 

 locality now nearly destroyed, known to Mr. Russell. Since then I 

 have found it growing profusely around many ponds or in swamps at 

 Beverly, Hamilton, Essex, Manchester, Wenham, Georgetown (Mrs. 

 Homer), etc. This is the only fern I have ever observed growing 

 under water. Many grow near the water, but this I have repeatedly 

 found growing, even at low water seasons, with the rhizome creeping 



