112 



the fern bulletin 



In its general appearance the plant shows more of 

 the characters of the ebony spleenwort ; except in the 

 tapering and rooting fronds which are like the walk- 

 ing-fern. My original plant is growing in a medium- 

 sized plant jar and ten of the eleven fronds are heavily 

 fruited. Seven of these fronds are over 12 inches 

 long : and three or four of them 20 inches long by 4z l / 2 

 inches broad. The tips of five of the fronds are forked : 

 the forks being linear and from 2 to 4 inches long, 

 making the extreme length of one frond 2 feet. From 

 the forks proliferous plants have been produced; and 

 in several instances the pinnatifid pinnae have also pro- 

 duced individual plants, which would root if they were 

 brought in contact with the soil. During the spring of 

 1908, three of the proliferous fronds were placed in 

 the earth of a side jar and have grown well, producing 

 plants with eight or nine fronds similar to those of the 

 original plant. These side plants, November 22, had 

 fronds that were beginning to fork at the tips and two 

 of the fronds had begun to fruit. Very evidently the 

 plant has the mode of propagation of the Walking- 

 fern: and if proper care is taken of it, will within a few 

 years form a mat of considerable extent. The plants 

 in the side jar have not severed their connection with 

 the main plant ; although they probably will in time, 

 for there is some discoloration of the parent fronds. 



The habitat of this hybrid fern is very similar to the 

 station at Proctor, Vt. ? noted by G. A. Woolson in 

 Fern Bull. 9:89-90, Oct. 1901 and in Rhodora 3:248- 

 249, Oct. 1901, where the fern was found growing 

 in a limestone pocket with the two parent species. The 

 station for G. H. Ross's Rutland, Vt. plant, which is 

 deposited in the herbarium of University of Vermont, 

 cannot be over thirty miles distant from the Hart fort 1 , 



