rROIIP VI FERTILE AND STERILE FRONDS LEAF-LIKE 

 AND USUALLY SIMILAR; FRUIT-DOTS ROUND 



57. SMOOTH WOODSIA 



Woodsia glabella 



Northern New York and Vermont, and northward from Labra> 

 dor to Alaska, on moist rocks. Two to five inches long, with 

 stalks jointed at base. 



Fronds. — Very delicate, linear or narrowly lanceolate, smooth 

 on both sides, pinnate ; pinnce roundish ovate, obtuse, lobed, lobes 

 few ; fruit-dots scattered ; indusium minute. 



The Smooth Woodsia closely resembles the 

 Northern Woodsia, and one may expect to find it 

 in much the same parts of the country. In texture 

 it is still more delicate ; its fronds are almost per- 

 fectly smooth, its outline is narrower, and its pinnae 

 are but slightly lobed. 



Mr. Pringle tells us that a letter from Mr. George 

 Davenport, asking him to look for Woodsia gla- 

 bella, awakened his first interest in ferns. His own 

 account of these early fern hunts is inspiring in its 

 enthusiasm : 



" In 1873 George Davenport was beginning his 

 study of ferns. A letter from him, asking me to look 

 for Woodsia glabella . . . started me on a fern hunt. 

 The species had been found on Willoughby Moun- 

 tain, Vt., and at Little Falls, N. Y.; might it not 

 be growing in many places in Vermont ? When I 

 set out I knew, as I must suppose, not a single fern, 

 and it was near the close of the summer. You can 

 imagine what delights awaited me in the autumn 

 woodlands. I made the acquaintance of not a few 

 ferns, though it was too late to prepare good speci- 

 mens of them. In this first blind endeavor I got, of 



206 



