80 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
hills to the satisfaction of Mr. Davenport, and had tak- 
en a seat in the shade for awhile, I... . brought out my 
fronds of simulatum and asked him whether he considered 
they were fronds of Thelypteris or Nove. He replied that 
he considered they were fronds of neither. I then gave 
him a short account of my observations on the fern, tell- 
ing him it was very abundant in some localities, remark- 
ing that the differences between the fern and Thelypteris 
and Nove were evidently not produced by environment, 
as without searching particularly I had noticed several 
places where a person without changing position could 
lay hands on a clump of each fern. Mr. Davenport be- 
came interested and we made arrangements for an ex- 
cursion to the Small Pox woods in Salisbury a week from 
the following Sunday. Our trip to Crooked Pond was 
made on Saturday. 
This is my story, or as much of it as has not appeared 
in the botanical journals. See . . . Fern Bulletin, 
Vol. IV, no. 3, for an article by myself... . 
Anyone previously unfamiliar with this fern and who 
yet could easily distinguish between Thelypteris and 
Nove would, at the first sight of a growing clump, con- 
clude that the fern was Nove with a peculiar habit of 
growth. Further examination, however, shows that 
the fronds at the base are more like those of Thelypteris 
but with inflexed pinnae of a differing shape. When 
pressed these fronds become still more like those of 
Thelypteris in appearance and so are very deceiving. To 
be sure, the venation is not that of Thelypteris, but as 
some fronds of Thelypteris have pinnae with quite simple 
veins, the experts let this difference pass by. Many 
little details of differences between the three ferns I com- 
municated to Mr. Davenport and it was Mr. Davenport, 
be it remembered, that gave the final decision that the 
odd form was a new fern to be called Aspidium simulatum. 
NEwsuRyPorT, Mass., May 27, 1907. 
