12 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
are all about alike in soil preference. The oak fern, D. 
Linnaeana (Phegopteris Dryopteris) has not been ob- 
served in the most acid soils, and thrives best in those of 
such low acidity, or even slight alkalinity that it is 
placed in the cireumneutral soil class. The long beech 
fern, D. Phegopteris, is more wide ranging, growing, 
though greatly stunted, in the acid soils above the tree 
line on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire; being most 
luxuriant in glacial drift of very slightly acid reaction; 
but doing well even on limestone ledges. It is classed 
as indifferent. The broad beech fern, D. hexagonoptera, 
grows in a somewhat more restricted range of conditions, 
but does sufficiently well on both the acid and alkaline 
sides as to be placed in the same class. 
The marginal-fruited fern, D. marginalis, grows on 
rocky slopes, and might have been included in the for- 
mer paper (which treated of rock ferns). It is very wide 
ranging as far as reaction is concerned, though not ob- 
served in typically mediacid soils. A minimacid reac- 
tion seems to suit it best, but it also thrives in decidedly 
alkaline soil on limestone ledges, and it is classed as in- 
different. 
Goldie’s fern, D. Goldiana, is a rather typical circum- 
neutral soil plant, having been found in Virginia and 
Vermont in soils of at most minimacidity, in Maryland 
and Pennsylvania in minimalkaline limestone soils. 
The variety or subspecies known as celsa is on the other 
hand a plant of intensely-acid soils, growing most lux- 
uriantly throughout the Dismal Swamp, Virginia, where 
mediacid reactions are practically universal. 
The male fern, D. Filiz-Mas, has not been studied by 
the writer in the field. In certain nurseries it thrives in 
minimacid soils, and the soil in which it grows in one 
source of their supply, the mountains of Colorado, has 
been found to be practically neutral. A soil sample 
kindly sent to the writer by Miss Nancy Darling from 
