Puetps: A PLEA FOR FERN PROTECTION 23 
large cities and ship bale after bale of our hardy ferns to 
the florists. The land owners do not seem to care to 
put a stop to this thieving, though if so much as a hen 
were taken from the farm yard, there would doubtless be 
a flourish of shotguns. 
It has been argued that as the Fehon are perennials the 
frond harvest does no harm. But many of the ferns 
gathered are shallow-rooted; the men work very hurried- 
ly, for haste pays; and their path through the woods is 
marked by a windrow of broken rootstocks. How long 
does it take a fern to come from the spore to maturity? 
Surely no less than six years, probably much longer. 
But suppose the fronds were carefully collected, what of 
the scattering of spores for the production | of new ferns? 
When the harvest first began to be yearly gathered, — 
the work was done in the fall after the spores were ripe — 
and scattered. Every year it has begun a little earlier, 
till the past June I saw six bales of ferns, each containing 
- from 5,000 to 6,000 fronds, waiting for shipment at a 
little ‘gwen station. The ferns were Aspidium oot oo 
ginale, A. spinulosum and varieties, and Polysti Bae 
aeriidichobia. On none of the fronds did the spores = 
seem to be ripe and some fronds were still so > young | st t 
the tips were not fully developed. — 
Is not this traffic a menace to our fern ‘ont Is it 
not within the province of the American Fern socie 
| aoe some steps toward heewgene reoriea yeneratic 
ae gis ds? 
- Sansncey, Conn. 
