76 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
dance of the fern. I found that, given the proper con- 
ditions, a hillside with marginale and a swamp with crist- 
atum, the new fern, the hybrid, was nearly always to be 
found at the dividing line. On these excursions I was 
often alone, but sometimes accompanied by my nephew 
or by Dr. Noyes. I found the hybrid in Amesbury, 
Newbury, Topsfield, West Newbury and growing abun- 
dantly at Crooked Pond in Boxford. 
I got together my notes and in the summer of 1892, 
made up a package of specimens and sent both notes 
and specimens to Prof. Eaton of Yale. .... [Hel 
coincided .. . . with my views as regards the fern being 
a hybrid and advised me to publish an account of it. I 
answered that I preferred to have him do so. _ Prof. 
Eaton then sent the package to Mr. Davenport, from 
whom I a little later received a letter to that effect. I 
then invited Mr. Davenport to meet me at Topsfield 
depot, there to take conveyance to Crooked Pond in 
Boxford. . . . 
On arriving at Crooked Pond I showed the fern to Mr. 
Davenport, growing in as many as a dozen places. In 
fact, Crooked Pond is, or was, an ideal place for Aspidium 
cristatum x marginale. I made it clear to Mr. Davenport 
that the fern in question grew nearly always at the foot 
of the rocky hills next the marsh. I showed him that in 
several instances a large fern occupied the central posi- 
tion with younger ferns clustered about it, and that 
these smaller ferns had originated from radiating root- 
stocks, that the fronds resembled those of marginale at 
the tip and those of cristatum below, and that the plants 
had a remarkable tendency to produce misshapen and 
abortive fronds. I then left the case with Mr. Daven- 
port who lifted some of the ferns to, as he said, culti- 
vate and study them on his grounds at Medford. : 
In this connection, see Botanical Gazette, Dec. 1894, 
and Garden and Forest, Vol. IX, No. 454, wherein are 
eT lata 
ta hk RT Se art hal Sent ae 
