IRRESISTIBLE CHARM OF FERNS _ 109 
The general similarity of the four lists is shown by 
the fact that the four combined include only 40 species, 
which is only 6 less than the list for all New England ° 
and New York, north of Connecticut. . The missing six 
are Dryopteris fragrans, D. Filix-mas and four coastal 
plain species, namely the two Woodwardias, Dryopteris 
simulata, and Lygodium. 
All the stations report Ophioglossum vulgatum. Of 
the seven Botrychiums named in Gray’s Manual the 
Green Lakes and Willoughby have all except B. angust- 
isegmentum. The other two localities lack B. Lunaria, 
and Dorset fails to report B. simplex. It is hardly 
conceivable that it is not there. 
AUBURNDALE, Mass. 
The Irresistible Charm of the Ferns 
EDWARD HALE CLARKSON 
“Why a fern should fill one mind with strong emotion 
and a spray of moss another’? wrote Philip Henry 
Gosse in his “Romance of Natural History’ nearly 
sixty years ago “we can give no reason. Yet that 
such is a fact every admirer of nature who has an ele- 
ment of poetry in his soul will admit.”” “The desire” 
said Humboldt “which we feel to behold certain ob- 
jects, is not excited solely by their grandeur, their 
beauty, or their importance. In each individual 
this desire is interwoven with pleasing impressions of 
youth, with early predilections ad particular pursuits 
and the love of an active life.’ 
How vividly I recall a most eventful walk with a 
congenial friend and naturé-lover on a certain crisp 
and sunny autumn day many years ago, to a charming 
bit of woodland just across the Merrimac River from 
Newburyport! Climbing a stone wall, in a few minutes 
