137 



and included in its course a variety of wooded hills and swamps 

 and open fields. 



An old well contained the first fern of especial interest, a small 

 plant of the Japanese Cyrtomiuiii falcatum, a fern commonly 

 cultivated for fern-dishes, and related to our genus Polystichum. 

 Its occurrence at that place is explained by the presence of a 

 greenhouse near by, from which the spore which produced this 

 plant was presumably blown. It grew in a crevice of the well- 

 coping, protected from either extreme heat or cold by the partly 

 open flooring of the well-house, and was of a size to indicate 

 that it lived through at least one winter. With a little protection, 

 it should prove hardy in the latitude of Washington and further 

 south.* 



Of the native ferns, about twenty species were seen, including 

 members of eight genera of the Polypodiaceae, of Osmunda, and 

 of Botryclihivi and OpJiioglossinn. The last was found in an old 

 sedgy meadow, apparently a former lake which had been filled 

 in by vegetative growth. After a close search, a considerable 

 supply was found but it was not yet matured. For those who 

 have not found this fern growing, a descriptive note may be of 

 interest. The texture is soft and flabby, almost exactly like 

 that of the common sheep-sorrel, Riunex Acetosella, but the 

 color is lighter and the leaf, of course, is not lobed. 



A low wet woods in the same valley contained a fine series of 

 the Dryoptevis marginalis-spimilosa-cristata group, including 

 S9me of the less common members. 



D. MARGiNALis, in its normal form, was found here and 

 throughout the trip. 



D. SPINULOSA. The form usually considered the type was 

 found several times. It seems to be commoner in this region 

 than the variety intermedia and grows generally in low damp 

 woods. In central and northern New York, the reverse is true. 

 The common form is D. spinidosa inter^nedia, which frequents 

 rocky slopes and upland woods, but is found at its best on shady 

 exposures. The form I identify as the type varies considerably 

 in the cutting of the frond, but is probably never so much 



*The writer has since seen this fern in cultivation out-of-doors at Stamford, 

 Conn., where it is protected in the winter by a few inches of leaves. 



