Earty Days or THE FERN SOCIETY ot 
were calling them at that time,—the odd spinulosums, 
Clintonianums and Boottiis. ‘‘They constitute the 
most interesting problem in New England ferns,’’ he 
declared. When I visited him in the Massachusetts 
General Hospital, during his last illness, he said, “‘Some 
New York fellows have been describing some of those 
Nephrodium forms as hybrids.”’ 
At about the same time with the Botrychium tenebro- 
sum controversy there appeared in the Bulletin a new 
phase of the irrepressible conflict between old Britain 
and young America in the form of a discussion between 
Mr. Chas. T. Druery of London and Mr. Clute on the 
comparative value of the American method of fern study 
and the British, which consists largely in seeking out 
and propagating sports or horticultural varieties. Al- 
though this discussion was brief, it was indelibly fixed 
in our minds by Clute’s two-headed rabbit simile, which 
immediately took rank as a classic in fern literature. 
In the year 1907, the Society lost three of its most 
valued members and most eminent fern students by the 
deaths of B. D. Gilbert, L. M. Underwood and Geo. E. 
Davenport. Gilbert had been president of the Fern So- 
ciety, and endeared himself to many of us beginners by 
his enthusiasm and lively interest in whatever problem 
we submitted to him. Davenport was vice-president 
in 1902. Underwood, as the author of the manual of 
Ferns and Fern Allies, was perhaps the most widely 
known authority on the subject in America. 
In 1910 it was decided that the Society should own 
and control its official publication, and the American 
Fern Journal, which had been started by Mr. R. C. Ben- 
edict, was adopted. This move was the subject of 
considerable controversy, but the event seems to have 
justified the venture. During the year 1911 the growth 
in membership exceeded that for any other year in the 
history of the Society. And though the four years of 
