AMERICAN FERN Society 57 
the past; and this is putting the case very mildly in- 
eed. 
Symposia are frequently tiresome; nevertheless, the 
suggestion which has heretofore been advanced of 
taking up for study some common fern, or genus of 
ferns as represented in the United States, is not without 
merit. Our knowledge of the various species of our 
own locality is very uneven, far more so than can prop- 
erly be charged to lack of opportunity for observation. 
Do we note individual characters only when they are 
outstanding? Are we too eternally interested in adding 
a new record to our list to study critically the ferns as 
we pass them by—‘‘identified?” Are not the intimate 
details of the Christmas fern less known to us than those 
of the rarer species? Why do we fail to be truly in- 
quisitive abo&t our common species? Dryopteris simu- 
lata would have been described long before 1894 if fern 
students had known clearly from both field and her- 
barium study the essential characters of D. novebora- 
censis and D. thelypteris. 
Without apology for either the questions or the ex- 
hortations, your President, who thanks you sincerely 
for the honor conferred upon him by re-election, suggests 
that by way of trying out this plan we shall all turn our 
attention this summer to the three species of Dryopteris 
just mentioned. The first two are within the reach of 
most of us, and all three have been written about a good 
deal during the last 25 years. Let us study these 
plants in the field, every phase of them, throughout the 
season; let us collect specimens from as diverse habitats 
as possible, showing all phases in size and development; 
let us compare the species, detail by detail, in our 
homes, jotting down the essential characters of each in 
parallel columns; and then let us send in, for publica- 
tion in the JournaL, our observations or at least the 
facts new to us, or those of which we can find no record. 
