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Athyrzum in the production of spores; in fact the fertile fronds 

 are noticeably heavier than the sterile ones. 



My own opinion with regard to the distribution of Scolopen- 

 drium in America is that it is more plentiful than it has been 

 thought to be, and this opinion I find is shared by one of our 

 members, my friend, Mr. Maxon, who lives in the Scolopendrium 

 region of New York and has proposed a special hunt for it. 

 There are numerous deep ravines in the vicinity similar to those 

 in which it grows, and I believe it will yet be found in many of 

 them. 



Another fern to which fully as much attention attaches as to 

 Scolopendrium is the little curly grass {Schzzcea puszlla) . It, too, 

 has been found at widely distant points. The Rev. Mr. Wag- 

 horne found it recently in Newfoundland; Mrs. Britton collected 

 it in Nova Scotia, and many collectors before and since have 

 found it growing in the marshes of its New Jersey haunts. Who 

 will say that it does not grow in many intermediate places ? Its 

 small size is an added element of difficulty in its discovery, while 

 those who have never seen it growing might easily pass it, not 

 knowing exactly what to look for, or where to search. If you 

 will call to mind some half-desiccated cranberry marsh, inter- 

 spersed with little dryish knolls on which the blueberry grovvs, 

 and imagine Schzzcea growing at their bases just on the border of 

 the damper places, in company with Lycopodiums, Sundews, 

 Sedges and other marsh vegetation, you will have an idea of how 

 I have seen this fern growing. 



Schzzcea has never been found far from the coast, I think, 

 but this does not imply that it needs the vicinity of the sea, for 

 its haunts are in fresh water marshes. There is a much larger 

 margin for speculation regarding the distribution of this fern 

 than that of Scolopendrznm, and we may confidently predict that 

 it will be found in many places where it is now overlooked. I 

 have not given up hope of finding it in some Long Island marsh. 



To give one other and still more striking instance of an 

 American fern with a very limited distribution, which is likely 

 always to remain so, I need only mention Trzchomanes Peter siz. 

 As yet it is only known from one small ravine in northern Ala- 

 bama, but while its range is certainly very limited, none of us 

 will be much surprised when some day other stations for it are 

 recorded. When it is remembered that the section in which it 

 grows has been explored only superficially and that the whole 



