TROPICAL FERNS IN SOUTHERN STATES. 



By Willard N. Clute. 



The fern study of the Southern States has one fasci- 

 nating element about it that those who have confined 

 their collecting to regions further north can know little 

 about. When a northern collector goes after ferns he 

 knows pretty much what to expect. On the rocks he 

 counts upon finding the polypody, the bladder ferns, the 

 woodsias, and some of the smaller spleenworts ; in the 

 woods, the larger spleenworts, the wood or shield ferns, 

 and the grape ferns ; in the swamps, the osmundas, the 

 sensitive fern, and the ostrich fern ; along the highways 

 and in the field, the bracken, the dicksonia, and a sprink- 

 ling of the hardier species of wood and swamp. If for- 

 tune is kind to him he may chance upon the walking 

 fern or the cliff brakes among the rocks, or the wood- 

 wardias in the swamps, but in any event his rarities are 

 species known to grow in the general region, and zest is 

 given to his excursions, not by the hope of finding some- 

 thing new. but by the hope of finding some rare species 

 that, according to all the indications- of the soil, shade, 

 and moisture, should be found there. 



With the southern collector the case is different. He 

 is confined to no previously cut and dried list of species, 

 but may continue to ramble 'among familiar scenes war- 

 ranted in the expectation of being a discoverer of unre- 

 corded species. The reason for this is two-fold. First of 

 all, the country has not been as thoroughly explored by 

 the botanist as have the Northern States, and in addition, 

 the explorations, due to the peculiarities of growth and 

 habitat assumed by southern ferns, have to be conducted 

 in a different way. At the north, where the struggle for 

 existence is not the most strenuous, the plants of a single 

 species may form extensive colonies over large areas, so 

 that a single trip of any length may show approximately 

 what the fern flora of a given region contains. As one 

 approaches the equator, however, the competition of spe- 



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