GROUP V ''^"'''ILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE AND SIMILAR ; 



V sporahgij^ im linear or oblong fruit -dots 



she had found the Hart's Tongue. The station 

 being previously quite unknown, this was a most 

 interesting discovery. On entering the ravine we 

 had discussed its possibility, but I had fancied that 

 any hope of it would be unfounded, as I supposed 

 the ground had been thoroughly canvassed by the 

 many botanists who had visited the neighborhood. 



The plants were still young, but large and vigor- 

 ous, growing in a partial opening among the bass- 

 woods, maples, and beeches, on a steep slope cov- 

 ered with fragments of limestone, some thirty or 

 forty feet from the base of the cliffs. We must 

 have found from twenty to thirty plants within a 

 radius of as many feet. 



Unfortunately, as it turned out, the discovery 

 found its way to the columns of the local paper, 

 and on our return to the station, some weeks later 

 our eager expectation of seeing the young plants 

 in the splendor of maturity was crushed by find- 

 ing that the spot had been ruthlessly invaded and 

 a number of the finest plants had disappeared. Be- 

 fore long it will be necessary for botanists to form a 

 secret society, with vows of silence as to fern local- 

 ities and some sort of lynch law for the punishment 

 of vandals. 



This fern, so rare with us, is a common plant in 

 Europe, its fronds attaining at times a length of two 

 or three feet. In Ireland and the Channel Islands 

 it is especially abundant. In Devonshire, England, 

 it is described as growing " on the tops and at the 

 sides of walls ; hanging from old ruins . . . drop- 



I5S 



