. 
8 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
In studying the plant with the upper side of the 
frond toward me I noticed that the fertile stem did 
not seem to occur in the middle of the base of the sterile 
segment, but was adherent to it on the left for about 
an inch, Of 700 specimens examined in the field, siz 
‘were found to be in the exact center, none adherent | 
on the right. _ 
Nortcu, Stone Co., Mo. 
More Pleasures from Old Fields 
H. E. RANSIER 
Much that appeared in the previous article relating 
to the hart’s tongue fern and its variations might app!y 
equally well to the walking fern, but because the latter 
is so common, nearly every one has had opportunities 
of becoming familiar with it. 
On account of its small fronds and its habit of grow- 
ing so thickly in beds together, it requires a closer and 
much sharper inspection to detect variant forms, than 
does its more favored and thriftier growing relative, 
the hart’s tongue. 
I certainly enjoyed discovering accidentally my first 
walking ferns, more than I did my finding the harts 
tongue where I knew others had done so before me. 
And the first ones grew within sight of my place of but 
hess and barely outside the corporation limits, in 4 little, 
glade locally known as “Ewer’s Gulf,” scarcely 4? 
eight of a mile long, yet a rarely failing source of pleas- 
ure for a ramble any day. 
Walking ferns are so widely distributed and commo? 
that nearly every one has an opportunity to eran 
the variant forms, and as the fronds are not affect 
by much of anything except a severe drought, they cae 
be found at all seasons of the year. 
