AMprican FerRN Society 29 
assistance from Others, he learned sufficient Latin and 
Greek to understand their technical yses and acquired a 
good reading knowledge of French and German. For 
years most of his Spare time was spent in the fields and 
he built up an extensive knowledge of the natura] his- 
tory, in almost all jts branches, of the region accessible 
to him; knowledge which he put freely at the service of 
all inquirers. 
His special interest in fern-worts dates, he has said, 
from about 1890. With true scientific instinct, he was 
attracted to groups which were imperfectly known or 
offered especia] difficulties, such as the quillworts, some 
of the grape-ferns and the hybrids in Dryopteris; and he 
was able to add something to our understanding of each 
of the groups he particularly studied. He published 
several papers jn Periodicals and a well-known book on 
the ferns and fern-alljes of New England. 
ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE SOCIETY 
Not all of the officers’ reports for 1918 had been receiv- 
ed by the editors at the time of going to press. Such of 
them as are at hand are printed below ; the others will fol- 
low as received, 
Report of the Secretary for 1918 
There is little to tell of the past year. Although it was 
the twenty-fifth since the founding of the Society, no ef- 
fort was made to Mark the anniversary, as might have 
been done in other times, except by a historical article 
Soon to appear in the JourNat, No meetings have been 
held and no special activities undertaken, But the 
Tegular work of the Society has gone on about as usual. 
