MRS. TAYLOR'S GEORGIA FERNS. 



By B. D. Gilbert. 



The collection of ferns made by Mrs. E. B. Taylor 

 near Thomasville, Ga., during the season of 1905, 

 is the most significant and valuable in its entirety of any 

 that has been made since Mr. A. A. Eaton made his dis- 

 coveries in Southern Florida in the winter of 1903-4. 

 Mrs. Taylor has already written of them most charmingly 

 for readers of The Fern Bulletin, but I wish to speak 

 of a few of the species purely from a botanical point of 

 view. 



Nephr odium molle Desv. has for some time been one 

 of the uncertainties of our flora. This species is so much 

 like N\ patens that it is difficult to distinguish unless one 

 is familiar with both species, but when once known, its 

 venation renders it unmistakable. It was to be expected 

 that a fern which is so common in the West Indies should 

 appear in Southern Florida, and Mr. Clute has already 

 shown that it is there *in abundance. But one would 

 hardly look for it as far north as Georgia. Mrs. Tay- 

 lor's specimens are true N. molle, however, and they 

 mark the northern limit of the species so far as 

 is now known, being about 2\ degrees farther north than 

 the Florida stations. It seems quite likely, however, that 

 the Georgia specimens have escaped from cultivation. 

 They are probably not of native growth, but the soil and 

 climate are propitious for them. 



Lygodium japonicum Sw. is a species which might 

 easily become naturalized under favorable conditions. It 

 fruits freely and its spores germinate easily wherever 

 they fall, as may often be seen in greenhouses where 

 the fern is cultivated and where it clambers over every- 

 thing within reach. Mrs. Taylor's specimens were gath- 

 ered in and near a deep ditch about three miles from 

 Thomasville, where a fence had separated the ditch from 

 a greenhouse that had been destroyed by fire, and the 

 spores of the fern had found shady and congenial lodging 

 1 laces nearby. This is a distinct addition to our natural- 

 ized flora. 



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