THE CURLY GRASS AND THE CLIMBING FERN. 279 



believed to have come from New Jersey and to have 

 been wrongly labelled. 



In parts of New Jersey, this plant may be said to be 

 fairly common, and new stations for it are frequently 

 discovered. It delights to grow in wet open places in 

 the midst of sphagnum and cranberry vines, with Lyco- 

 podium Carolinianum, L. alopecuroides and the sundews 

 for companions. Usually there are cedar swamps in the 

 vicinity. When all these plants are present, one may 

 have great hope of finding the fern. New stations for it 

 have been predicted from a distance by means of its com- 

 panion plants, and the prediction subsequently verified 

 by the finding of specimens. New stations, however, are 

 most frequently found by accident. The one at Tom's 

 River is said to have been discovered by a botanist who, 

 in placing his open press on the ground to put in some 

 plants, found Schizcea peeping up between the sides. 



Besides the name of curly grass given it from the form 

 of the' sterile fronds, it is sometimes called one-sided fern 

 because the fertile pinnae appear to be all on one side of 

 the rachis. Lawson, in his " Fern Flora of Canada," 

 gives it the fanciful name of Atlantis fern, but this, like 

 most manufactured names, has not come into general 

 use. 



At present, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are the 

 only places outside of New Jersey in which this fern is 

 known to grow, if indeed, it is now found in Nova Scotia 

 at all. The station, which was a small one, is said to 

 have been destroyed by fire. In the vast stretches of 

 country between Newfoundland and New Jersey there are 

 bogs with many variations of soil and temperature, 

 some of which should be suitable to its growth, and it is 

 not unlikely that our plant may yet be found at other 



