16 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
have developed subsequently in many places, and 
permitted invasion by plants adapted to growth under 
acid conditions, a considerable number of the original 
occupants still persist, and are today classed as “ north- 
ern’’ species. 
In more southern regions, on the other hand, decom- 
position usually outstrips disintegration, so that soils 
containing undecomposed carbonate minerals are re-. 
latively rare. Except where limestone outcrops, or 
where leafmold accumulates, therefore, the dominant 
soil reactions are inclined to be acid, and the plants, 
established there since long before the glacial period, 
have become adapted to growth in such soils. The 
favoring of circumneutral soils by northern species, and 
of acid soils by southern ones, is thus connected with the 
geological history of the respective regions. 
WasuinetTon, D. C. 
More About Early Days of the American Fern 
Society. 
C. E. WATERS. 
In the second number of this Journau for 1919, was 
an interesting article by E. J. Winslow on “Early Days 
of the Fern Society.” It brought back a host of pleas- 
ant memories and made me feel like a historical charac- 
ter. Most historical characters did whatever they 
became notorious for a long time ago, and they are 
almost invariably dead ones. 
It does seem like a long time since the summer of 1887 
when, a boy just out of grammar school, I spent a sum- 
mer in the Pennsylvania mountains east of Altoona. 
There a botanist friend showed me that it was possible 
to become acquainted with the ferns and wild flowers 
