EXPERIENCES WITH A Fern GarpEN—II 115 
the rock pile, and the third among some flat pieces of 
flaky limestone. The third one alone seemed to be 
planted in soil adapted to its needs. The plant set in 
the ordinary soil, away from stones, a vigorous specimen, 
died in 1912, the one at the base of the rock pile failed 
to appear in 1913, but the other, set among limestones, 
grew finely till 1916, when, after producing a half-dozen 
fine fronds, it began to decline and was dead by the 
middle of summer. The first fronds of spring appeared 
from April 25 to May 10 and the dark brown to shiny 
only partly fertile. On upright fronds the pinnae 
usually stand in a horizontal position. 
In June, 1911, I selected two obtuse woodsias from 
among dozens growing on a rocky bank, for my fern 
garden and planted them in the ordinary soil of the 
garden. They thrived wonderfully in their new home, 
producing more and finer fronds than in the wild state. 
On their native rocks, exposed to the sun for at least 
half of the day, the ferns were rather slender, more or 
less decumbent, and yellow-green, but on my fern bed 
most of them were strong, erect, and bluish green, and 
one peculiarity was that they were much more hairy 
than their former companions growing on the ledges. 
The woodsias are among the first to appear im spring, 
Sometimes appearing as early as March 25 and never 
delaying their coming beyond the middle of April. 
Practically all the fronds are fertile and the brown 
‘porangia continue to ripen on successive fronds from 
about the 5th of June till into September. I have good 
evidence that some ferns die of old age. One of the 
obtuse woodsias, a strong plant, multiplied and spread 
Cutward so rapidly that its root base measured over 
seven inches in diameter by the close of 1913. In the 
