IRRESISTIBLE CHARM OF FERNS 113 
Cliff Brake, while from every dripping ledge, the long 
tapering fronds of the Bulbiferous Bladder Fern hang 
like a curtain. On the sunnier walls the Purple Cliff 
Brake and Rue Spleenwort find a home. Ever since 
the Chittenango cut its channel through these rocks, 
wind and weather have been steadily at work tearing 
them to pieces. Huge banks of rock fragments slope 
from the base of the cliffs to the water. Over them the 
falling leaves of centuries have spread a soft yielding 
carpet of mould that affords a congenial soil for such 
trees as Basswood, Hemlock, Striped Maple, Cedar 
and others. In the shade of these, where there is al- 
ways semi-twilight, the Harts Tongue elects to grow 
so lightly are the plants anchored in the yielding 
aon that they may be easily lifted out, roots and all, 
without digging. We find ourselves wondering how 
they manage to exist with such a precarious foothold, 
but the number of young plants to be seen testifies to 
their vigour. In September the spores are ripe and 
then nearly every frond is loaded on the under side with 
velvety brown lines that look like embroidery.” 
“The Ferns,” wrote George E. Davenport in the 
Bulletin of 1902, “appeal irresistibly to everything 
that is best within us.” 
It is not always the largest and showiest of the ferns 
that gets the most attention. Writing of the little 
Rusty Woodsia, C. F. Saunders said, ‘‘ Woodsia Ilvensis 
is one of the most interesting of our native ferns, and the 
unpretentious but sturdy, unwavering fight of the furry 
little plant with the sun and frost will speedily win for it, 
I think, a place in the heart of anyone who will give it 
due attention.” | 
To prove that this little fern’s struggle for existence 
is very real, two photographic reproductions are shown. 
The first (Plate 7) pictures a colony with fronds curled 
up, and apparently dying as the result of very dry 
