168 



Joint Field Trip with American Fern Society at Sparta — 

 August 6 and 7 



A party of 8 fern enthusiasts assembled at Sparta on August 

 6th to visit the best fern spots of the region. The first stop was 

 made at an upland swamp in the hills southeast of the village. 

 A thorough search of this locality resulted in the discovery of 

 25 kinds of ferns including 8 Dryopteris species and one hybrid 

 D. cristata x intermedia. Five Botrychiums were noted, espe- 

 cially noteworthy finds being a small colony of Botrychium an- 

 gustisegmentum and one plant tentatively identified as Botry- 

 chium simplex. The next stop was in the vicinity of Sparta Glen 

 where Goldie's Fern, Ostrich, Oak, Long Beech, Bulblet Blad- 

 der and another Botrychium — B. Matricariaefolium — brought 

 the list to 31. By this time the heat and humidity of the after- 

 noon forced a postponement of the rest of the trip until the 

 following morning when a trip to the limestone ledges and 

 swamps in the valley added eleven more. Among these were 

 Adder's Tongue, Rue Spleenwort, Virginia Chain Fern, an- 

 other Dryopteris hybrid, and the rare hybrid between the Walk- 

 ing Fern and Ebony Spleenwort. 



In addition to the ferns, the following flowering plants were 

 particularly noted: Allium tricoccum, Liatris spicata, Melan- 

 thium virginicum, Lobelia cardinalis, Ilabenaria psy diodes, Po- 

 tentilla fruticosa. 



Luxuriant stands of Equisetum hyemale var. affine were seen 

 in three places. 



James L. Edwards 



Field Trip of September 11 



A party of seven crossed Green Pond Mountain and the bed 

 of Green Pond which was entirely dry. Island Pond was found 

 to be much lower than usual with no water flowing through the 

 south outlet. 



A bush of Viburnum acerifolium was noted having the upper 

 leaves like V. Lentago. The dark berries and orange pedicels of 

 the sassafras were very attractive. A fruiting plant of Vitis was 

 found but the group was too busy with the fruit to decide which 

 species it was. Several plants of the bottle gentian and of the 

 white snake root were observed. On the shores of Island Pond, 

 there were still left a few dwarf plants of the seven-angled pipe- 

 wort. 



Vernon L. Frazee 



