126 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



This curious little fern, which bears so little resemblance to a 

 fern as popularly understood, has long been the most prized 

 among the many botanical rarities of the Jersey Pine Barrens. 

 It was first discovered in 1805 at Quaker Bridge, where an inn 

 well known to the botanists of old, offered shelter to those who 

 wished to stop over night on their way to the coast. Situated 

 as it was in the very heart of this interesting country, it furnished 

 one of the few available stopping places for those who desired 

 to study the flora or fauna of the Pines, and who in the absence 

 of railroads were unable to return to Philadelphia at night. It 

 thus became the only known station for many species of plants 

 which were later found to have a much wider distribution. With 

 the coming of the railroad and abandonment of the old wagon 

 roads to the sea, the old hostelry at Quaker Bridge disappeared, 

 as did other similar buildings, so that the spot is now more of a 

 wilderness and less accessible than it was a century ago. The 

 party who had the good fortune to discover the Schisesa con- 

 sisted of Dr. C. W. Eddy, J. Le Conte, Fredk. Pursh and C. 

 Whitlow. Pursh described the curious little plant in his Plora 

 in 1814, leaving one to infer that he alone was the discoverer, 

 but Rafinesque, in his review of Pursh's work* states that he 

 did not find any of the specimens and that he described the plant 

 without the permission of the real discoverer. Dr. Torrey has 

 confirmed the first part of this statement, saying that Dr. Eddy 

 was the discoverer and that Le Conte was the only other member 

 of the party to find any specimen [Redfield Torrey Bull. VI, 

 82-83]. I'he plant was apparently not found again until July, 

 1818, when Dr. Torrey and Wm. Cooper drove from Philadel- 

 phia to South A'mboy, by way of Quaker Bridge and Monmouth, 

 spending a week in the Pines, while Dr. Torrey made his first 

 acquaintance with the peculiar flora. 



The order of its subsequent discovery at other stations has 

 not been recorded; we only know lliat Torrey and Gray had 

 obtained it at Toms River by 1837. Dr. Joseph Leidy collected it 

 at Batsto in 1861 and C. F., Parker at Atsion in 1870 and at 

 Egg Harbor City by 1884. 



*Amer. Mo. Mag. II, p. 174. 



