8 American Fern Journal 



side excursion, over an exceedingly rough wcod-road, to 

 a place where an ancient and insecure wooden bridge, 

 high up over a turbulent stream, commands a view of 

 distant mountains, framed in by the sides of a wild and 

 wooded ravine. It also commanded a view of the finest 

 and most completely inaccessible specimens of Asplen ium 

 viride I ever saw. Here, in rocky woods, were several 

 trim clumps of the holly fern, Pohjdichum Lonchitis, 

 looking like a smaller, neater and more elegant edition 

 of our own Christmas fern. Here, too, in a cold springy 

 place by the roadside, where the ground was covered with 

 the interlaced stems of an alpine willow, Salix reticulata, 



were large patches of the pretty fern-ally, Selaginella 

 selaginoides . 



Our last stopping-place before reaching Bozen was at 

 Karersee, near the summit of the watershed between the 

 Fassathal and the Eggenthal. The "See" is insignificant 



nowhere, I believe, are tinier bodies of water dignified 



with 



but 



the forest which surrounds it is magnificent. It is a pure, 

 not very dense stand of tall old Norway spruces. It 



signs 



unlike 



pastured. The ground under the trees is covered with 

 unimaginable quantities of deep, soft moss, in which 

 grow delightful woodland plants. The most interesting, 

 perhaps, was a little orchid. 1 stera cordata, which here 

 occurred in abundance, in two forms, one with green, the 

 other with brownish flowers. Here were old friends 

 the wood sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella, Lycopodnnn annoHnum 



and, in the way of ferns proper, Dryopteris spinulosa and 

 Phegopteris polypodioides, both -een only here. Here. 

 too, we saw for the first time Dryopteris Filix-ma* and 

 for the only time, the delicate triangular fronds of Cysto- 

 pteris montana. 



