NOTES ON THE FERNS OF THE URAL AND 

 CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS. 



By Mary A. Fleming. 



WHEN, in 1897, I went to St. Petersburg to attend the 

 International Congress of Geologists, and to take part 

 in its excursions to the Ural and Caucasus mountains, I 

 imagined I should gather many ferns. From Moscow to the 

 Ural mountains we traveled over the black zone of Russia, which 

 resembles very much the prairies of the western part of the 

 United States. Like everything in that vast country, the plants 

 are simply enormous. The rich black earth is very fertile, and 

 the grasses and other herbage were very luxuriant. When we 

 reached the European side of the mountains we found no ferns. 

 The upper parts are destitute of vegetation, and though on the 

 lower slopes there are forests of birch and pine trees, there were 

 no ferns seen until we reached the Asiatic slope. We did not 

 enter the woods to search for them, but on the edges of the for- 

 ests, for miles, we saw immense plants of Osmunda. Its great 

 fronds were the largest I ever saw. The French and Germans 

 expressed great surprise when we found no other ferns. The 

 tops of these not very high mountains are in great, bare rock- 

 masses, quite difficult to ascend. Some of us contemplated run- 

 ning away for a botanical excursion into the woods, but found 

 each day's program too fascinating, and there was danger of 

 being lost in that sparsely-settled region, if we left the main 

 party, guided by the Russians. 



On our journey to the Caucasus we passed over immense 

 steppes, covered with tall plants, each striving to stretch its stout 

 stems above its neighbors. Among these plants, the legends of 

 Urania say, the Cossack can with his horse hide from his foes. 

 In this sea of flowers mallows predominate. Thousands of beau- 

 tiful bright- colored flowers, six feet or more in height, carpet the 

 valleys of the Caucasus, and on the limestone crags are found, 

 in great masses, a few varieties of ferns, very like our own spe- 

 cies. On the hillsides is a medley of European forest trees with 

 the most wonderful undergrowth, of which all travelers speak, 

 of Laburnums, Azalias, Rhododendrons and Laurels ; farther up 

 are the Crystalline Schists, quite bare, and above them gleam the 

 white tops covered with eternal snows. The few ferns which I 



