6 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
spleenworts, Asplenium ebeneum and A. parvulum, both 
still carrying their fruiting fronds, which were badly 
dilapidated, however, the small sterile fronds forming 
flat rosettes around them. A steep, sloping bank was 
carpeted for many square yards with the Christmas 
Fern. There were also three plants of Asplenium 
trichomanes. 
We dug up a lot of Ophioglossum Engelmanni plants 
“just to see,’ and found they were getting ready for 
the first warm, wet weather. 
II. OpHtocLossum ENGELMANNI.—In March, 1915, 
I was very much surprised and delighted to come upon 
a colony of, perhaps, 100 plants of this fern, which, 
with all my hunting, I had never before found. Before 
the day’s trip was over, I had found it in more than @ 
hundred places, growing on the glades where the soil 
is sometimes not over three inches deep. Some of 
the colonies must have numbered thousands of plants. 
During the past two years I have made the following 
observations: They seem to grow most luxuriantly In 4 
black, tenacious soil mostly but a few inches deep, 
ledges of limestone which buttress all these hills at about 
1000 feet and lower, though there are many colonies 
growing in the loose, friable stony soil of. the ‘higher 
elevations. A number of plants which I transplant 
to the garden (1200 ft) have been doing well for tw? 
years. The territory studied so far is about 3 miles 
long by two miles wide and includes high ridges and 
deep mountain stream ravines. They were found at 
elevations from 800 to 1200 feet. 
In the area described they occur literally 
sands. I dug up large numbers of plants in sever 
the colonies and found them often connected by long; 
slender horizontal, often much-branched rootstocks, 
forming such a dense network that it was difficult 6 
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