280 THE CURLY GRASS AND THE CLIMBING FERN. 



points. It would scarcely surprise botanists to hear that 

 it had been found on Long Island where there are many 

 spots that exactly duplicate its favourite New Jersey 

 bogs. 



The name of the genus is from the Greek, meaning to 

 split. It seems unmeaning enough, applied to our 

 species, but the fact that foreign members of the group 

 have fronds that appear as if divided to the midrib with 

 some sharp instrument makes the name very appropriate. 

 There are fifteen species in warmer climes. Our species 

 has the distinction of growing nearer to the Pole than 

 any other member of the family. Our illustration is 

 made from a specimen collected by the author at Forked 

 River, N. J. 



The Climbing Fern. 



The slender twining fronds of the climbing fern 

 (Lygodium palmatum) may seem an anomaly among ferns 

 to American collectors, but in warmer regions climbing 

 ferns are common and are found in several different 

 families. The family to which our plant belongs, how- 

 ever, is the true climbing fern family, for all of its twenty- 

 five or more species are climbing. Indeed, the generic 

 name means flexible and alludes to the scandent stems. 

 One species in the West Indies sometimes reaches a 

 length of thirty or forty feet, having perhaps the longest 

 frond of any living fern. 



The fronds of our species seldom exceed a length of 

 three feet. They are scattered on a slender, cordlike 

 rootstock that creeps along just beneath the surface of 

 the earth. The stipe is dark, shining brown and con- 

 tinues through the frond as the rachis. A few inches 

 above the soil, it begins to give off short, alternate 



