A NEW VARIETY OF THE OSTRICH FERN. 



By William A. Terry. 



Somewhere about twenty years ago, I commenced 

 growing a complete collection of the native ferns of 

 this section in my home grounds. I wished to be- 

 come familiar with all their peculiarities through the 

 entire season and decide from their variations which 

 were really the typical forms of the species. I also 

 hoped to give protection to rare species that were 

 threatened with extinction. As there were some six 

 or eight species that I did not find in Bristol I applied 

 to several botanical friends for information as to lo- 

 calities where they might be found. The late James 

 X. Bishop of Plainville gave me two stations for the 

 ostrich fern. Goldie's fern and the purple cliff -brake in 

 Plainville. I had previously known of abundant col- 

 onies of climbing fern near the same place. Mr, James 

 Shepard showed me several small colonies of the walk- 

 ing fern and gave me a new station for the climbing- 

 fern in Plainville. Mr. Lumen Andrews of Southing- 

 ton gave me a station for the oak fern. Goldie's fern 

 and the chain fern ( JJ^oodwcu'dia virginica) in South- 

 ington. Some years later. Bishop told me of a new 

 find, a remarkable colony of JJ r oodzcardia augustifo- 

 lia in the town of Orange. I afterwards found this 

 abundant in South Haven. 



Bishop's colony of the ostrich fern was quite large. 

 Some hundreds of the plants were growing in the open 

 in direct sunlight. These were all large clumps. In 

 the woods many of them were smaller and on the 

 border were many quite small and detached, evidently 

 grown from spores. To make sure of success, I took 

 plants. both large and small as I had known of several 

 instances in which plants moved failed to grow. All 



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