THE FERN BULLETIN 



VOL. VI. APRIL, 1898. No. 2. 



FERNS IN THE NEW JERSEY PINE BARRENS, 



By C. F. Saunders. 



RICH in flowering plants as is the flora of the New Jersey Pine 

 Barrens, the species of ferns found there are rather few, al- 

 though these few include at least two species, to do homage 

 to which in their native haunts, the plant-lover thinks it no hard- 

 ship to make long pilgrimages. These are Schizaea pusilla and 

 Lygodium palmatum. The latter is one of the loveliest of Amer- 

 ican plants, with twining stem adorned with palmate leaflets, 

 bearing small resemblance to the popular idea of a fern. It loves 

 the shaded, mossy banks of the quiet streams whose cool, clear f 

 amber waters, murmuring over beds of pure white sand, are so 

 characteristtc of the pine country. There the graceful fronds are 

 to be found, sometimes clambering a yard high over the bushes 

 and cat-briars ; sometimes trailing down the bank until their tips 

 touch the surface of the water. 



The Lygodium is reckoned among the rare plants of the re- 

 gion — though often growing in good-sized patches when found at 

 all — and is getting rarer. Many of the localities which knew it 

 once now know it no more, both because of the depredations of 

 ruthless collectors, and to some extent, probably, the ravages of 

 fire. The plant is in its prime in early fall, but may be looked for 

 up to the time of killing frosts. 



Very different in aspect, though closely related in certain es- 

 sential structural features, is Lygodium' s cousin Schizsea, repre- 

 sented in the New Jersey Barrens by the species pusilla, whose 

 fertile fronds (much taller than the sterile) rarely exceed four 

 inches in height. It delights in the damp sand and sphagnum of 

 those abrupt depressions which one often comes upon in the pines, 

 suggestive of amphitheatres in which elves might gather to hold 

 plays. Here the vines of the wild cranberry creep ; Lycopodiums, 

 mosses and sundews luxuriate ; and that odd little member of the 



