280 THE CURLY GRASS AND THE CLIMBING FERN. 
points. It would scarcely surprise botanists to hear that 
it had been found on Long Island where there are many 
spots that exactly duplicate its favourite New Jersey 
bogs. 
The name of the genus is from the Greek, meaning to 
split. It seems unmeaning enough, applied to our 
species, but the fact that foreign members of the group 
have fronds that appear as if divided to the midrib with 
some sharp instrument makes the name very appropriate. 
There are fifteen species in warmer climes. Our species 
has the distinction of growing nearer to the Pole than 
any other member of the family. Our illustration is 
made from a specimen collected by the author at Forked 
River, N. J. 
The Climbing Fern. 
The slender twining fronds of the climbing fern 
(Lygodium palmatum) may seem an anomaly among ferns 
to American collectors, but in warmer regions climbing 
ferns are common and are found in several different 
families. The family to which our plant belongs, how- 
ever, is the true climbing fern family, for all of its twenty- 
five or more species are climbing. Indeed, the generic 
name means flexible and alludes to the scandent stems. 
One species in the West Indies sometimes reaches a 
length of thirty or forty feet, having perhaps the longest 
frond of any living fern. 
The fronds of our species seldom exceed a length of 
three feet. They are scattered on a slender, cordlike 
rootstock that creeps along just beneath the surface of 
the earth. The stipe is dark, shining brown and con- 
tinues through the frond as the rachis. A few inches 
above the soil, it begins to give off short, alternate 
