More VeRMoNT FERN Lists QT 
Asplenium fontanum, were it really there. The results 
of a whole day’s search were, however, negative. 
The following notes may nevertheless be of interest. 
The soils on these cliffs showed a specific acidity ranging 
from 1 (neutrality) to 300, so that plants of widely dif- 
ferent soil preferences have locally founda foothold there. 
Such ferns as were seen were growing for the most part 
in the soils of the lower acidities, from 1 to 10. It would 
be expected that A. fontanwm would thrive here, for it 
is reported to grow elsewhere in limestone soils, where 
the reaction is likely to be nearly neutral. This it was 
possible to confirm on a specimen collected at Mt. Re- 
vard, France, by Mr. Walter Mattern, while serving with 
the American Expeditionary forces, and sent to Mr. 
Harold W. Pretz, who kindly turned it over to the writer. 
The soil adhering to the plant’s roots showed a specific 
acidity of 3. The failure to rediscover this fern on the 
Lycoming cliffs, in spite of thorough search in apparently 
chemically suitable locations, made under circumstan- 
ces unusually favorable, certainly suggests that if As- 
plenium fontanum ever did grow in that locality, it has 
subsequently been exterminated.—EpGaR T. WHERRY, 
Wasuineton, D. C. 
More Vermont Fern Lists.—Local fern lists, in 
competition or comparison with Mr. Winslow’s Will- 
oughby list, continue to be sent in to the JOURNAL. The 
editors are very glad to receive them in any quantity 
and are only sorry that space does not permit printing 
them in full. 
The two lists now at hand are both from Vermont— 
only Vermont, apparently, being able to compete effect- 
ively with Vermont. Mr. H. C. Ridlon sends a list of 
30 species of true ferns and 4 Ophioglossaceae found with- 
in an eighty-acre area on the Charles Downer State For- 
