Earty Days oF THE FERN SOCIETY a7 
without the tiresome school lessons in botany over 
which my sisters groaned. In 1893 my qualifications 
for membership in the nascent Fern Chapter of the 
Agassiz Society were not great, and it never entered my 
head that so many years later my fingers would be busy 
tapping out these reminiscences. My one fear then was 
that Mr. Clute might not accept my application for 
membership, but there need not have been such a fear. 
It has been my experience that most societies of this 
sort are only too eager to get new members and their 
dues, and on one or two occasions our Treasurer has 
even dunned me for mine. 
Proud as we were when our articles appeared in the 
Bulletin, we did not think that the day would come 
when libraries and herbaria would try to get complete 
sets of them, but even that has happened. Then we 
were greatly pleased when our scientific papers with 
their labored attempts at “fine writing” appeared on 
those tiny pages. We may wish now that some of these 
had not been written, but of the Bulletin as a whole we 
need not be ashamed. Even if it had contained no 
contributions of value, it would still have been worth 
while, for it helped the members to form friendships by 
correspondence if not by actual acquaintance. It was 
a place where those who needed help could make known 
their difficulties and feel pretty sure that somebody 
could help them. One such question led to working up 
an analytical key based on the stipes, just to see if it 
could be done. This led to the unexpected conclusion 
that the stems are not only very characteristic, but 
their features are subject to less variation than the leafy 
parts of the fronds. With practice one can get to re- 
cognize stems from which all the pinnae have been 
stripped, provided the scales are left on. 
It has not been my fortune to be acquainted with 
many of the members, but the memories of three or four 
