66 Transactions Tennessee Academy of Science 



FERNS FOUND IN THE VICINITY OF 

 SEWANEE 



BY JOHN T. MCGILL, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. 



[Read before the Academy, May 4, 1917.] 



"Gray's Manual of Botany," seventh edition, "A Handbook of 

 Flowering Plants and Ferns," is limited to the flora of the eastern 

 provinces of Canada and to that portion of the United States east of 

 the 96th meridian and north of the southern boundary of Kansas, 

 Missouri, Kentucky, and Virginia. Seven families of ferns are rep- 

 resented within this area. Omitting two of these comprising only 

 three genera of insignificant aquatic plants, which embrace four 

 species altogether, the remaining five families include twenty-four 

 genera. Four of these embracing seventeen genera have been found 

 within a distance of three or four miles of Sswanee, showing that 

 this region — and perhaps other parts of the Cumberland plateau — 

 is very rich in flora of this kind. 



The following statement shows the number of genera and species 

 found in each of the five families, in the area of the United States 

 and Canada mentioned above and in the vicinity of Sewanee" : 



Hymenophyllaceae in U. S. and Canada, 1 genus, 1 species; at 

 Sewanee, 1 genus, 1 species. 



Polypodiaceae in U. S. and Canada, 18 genera, 58 species; at 

 Sewanee, 14 genera, 27 species. 



Schizaeaceae in U. S. and Canada, 2 genera, 2 species; at Sewanee, 



genera, species. 



Osmundaceae in U. S. and Canada, 1 genus, 3 species; at Sewanee, 



1 genus, 2 species. 



Ophioglossaceae in U. S. and Canada, 2 genera, 9 species; at 

 Sewanee, 1 genus, 1 species. 



*Docl(tr MrCill used in |)r('-ciilin,u iIk' paper lanlt'in slides made rei'ently 

 from specimens of all llie species of ferns which he luid collected at Sewanee 

 nearly thirly-six years previously. The specimens had been remarkably well 

 preserved, as indiealed l)^ ilie pictures. — Ed. 



