THE CLIMBING FERN NEAR HARTFORD 111 
the United States. And, finally, the climbing fern is 
one of the rarer species of the world. Its range, ‘“‘south- 
ern New Hampshire to Florida, Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky” is not large, as the ranges of species go, and 
within this territory it occurs in abundance only at 
scattered and often widely separated localities. The 
number of individuals in existence must be insignificant 
compared, for instance, with the number of royal or 
cinnamon ferns. In all these respects, then, it occupies 
a place of distinction. 
It may be doubted whether Lygodium was very 
common about Hartford when the first settlers came. 
As we know it now, it is a plant very particular as to 
the place in which it grows. It will not endure too 
much water, or too little, too deep shade, or none at 
all; and here, at least, it insists on a sandy soil. Its 
favorite haunts are bushy hollows in the sand plains 
where the soil is covered with three or four inches of 
moist black leaf-mold in which its slender rootstocks 
lie. Such habitats must have been rare under primitive 
conditions when this region was pretty completely cov- 
ered with dense forests, largely of white pine. They 
must have been confined to the borders of the bogs and 
sloughs occasionally found in the sand-plains. 
with the light which came in from the open spaces of 
the sloughs, the moisture of their banks, and with the 
aid of its climbing habit which would enable it to make 
head among the shrubs which likewise seek such 
situations, Lygodium could, and doubtless did, flourish. 
s the settlements grew, suitable habitats were un- 
t in pastures and along the 
hem it spread and there 
al, it became one 
s of the country- 
consciously provided for i 
edges of fields and roads; to t 
it multiplied until, though always loc 
of the familiar and well-known plant 
side. 
; ‘ aye o di in 
At some time in the sixties, some one discerned 
