62 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



different regions that are practically fern-less. The 

 prairie region of the Middle West, on the edge of 

 which this magazine is now located is one of these. 

 One might travel about Joliet all day and never find a 

 fern. A few species may be found, however, if search 

 is made in the right places. An outcropping ledge of 

 limestone may yield the walking fern and the purple 

 stemmed cliff-brake, a shaded swamp or swale may 

 harbor the sensitive fern, and in the woods Cytopteris 

 fragilis is usually present. The common and familiar 

 ferns of the East — the cinnamon fern, Christmas fern, 

 lady fern, and bracken — are entirely missing. Within 

 a year or two a single small colony of Pteris aquilina 

 has made its appearance along a railway and its where- 

 abouts will not be indicated for fear somebody will 

 dig it up. Just imagine guarding the bracken in this 

 way in the East! By going twenty or thirty miles 

 from the city we can find a fair number of ferns, but 

 the conditions mentioned prevail for lesser distances. 

 Notwithstanding this it must be said that about six 

 miles away may be found a colony of Pellaea gracilis 

 which has rarely been found so far south in any part 

 of the world. That ferns are able to grow here is 

 attested by the fact that in one of our public parks 

 there is one of the best collections of ferns to be found 

 in any city of its size. Another region that is entirely 

 ferhless is Southern Louisiana. In a flora of that part 

 of the state recently issued by Prof. R. S. Cocks, not 

 a single fern is catalogued. The conditions here are 

 so different from those in Southern Florida that we 

 wonder at the cause until we consider the physiography 

 of the two regions. Southern Florida is built of cal- 

 careous rocks; Southern Louisiana resembles nothing 

 so much as a vast and bottomless mud pie. Without 



