NEBRASKA FERNS AND FERN ALLIES. 



THE student of ferns finds that Nebraska does not offer a very 

 wide or a very fertile field for his researches. Although 

 our flora as a whole is rich and varied, it is greatly lacking 

 in these interesting and beautiful plants. This fact is easily 

 understood when we remember that ferns love the shady ravines 

 of the wooded parts of the Eastern States or the dense thickets 

 of the tropical jungles. Here on the great plains the sunlight is 

 too powerful and the air is too dry to present favorable conditions 

 for them. 



There are, however, a few ferns which have thickened their 

 epidermis, have accustomed themselves to life under difficulties, 

 and are found in dry soil or on almost barren rocks in the bright 

 sunlight. And it is true there a few localities in the State where 

 conditions favorable for fern growth are approached. In the 

 bluffs along the Missouri river there is now and then a delightful 

 ravine, shaded by overhanging trees, carpeted with mosses and 

 liverworts, and kept always moist by a small stream flowing 

 down its midst from the limestone springs above. In this soft, 

 velvety moss-carpet, ferns are abundant in number of individuals, 

 if not of species. In the hills in the northwestern part of the 

 State moist canons are numerous and in them ferns abound. 

 Franklin and Kearney counties, in the southern part, also possess 

 a number of localities favorable for fern growth. These facts 

 have made it possible for a few ferns and fern allies to become a 

 part of the flora of our State. 



Out of the about 4,000 known ferns and fern allies, only twenty- 

 six are reported for Nebraska. Five of these occur generally 

 throughout the State. Cystopteris fragilis, the bladder fern, 

 with its tufts of leaves, bearing on their backs roundish fruit 

 dots, is probably the most abundant. Botrychium Virginianum 

 is found near the heads of ravines among the fallen leaves. It 

 is one of the more primitive ferns and bears its spores in a grape- 

 like cluster of spore cases branching off from the vegetative part 

 of the leaf near the base of the blade, which is broad, delicate 

 and much divided. Three scouring rushes or horsetails are found 

 generally over the State, Equisetum arvense, E. robustum, and 

 E. lsevigatum, the latter being more abundant in the eastern part. 



The rest of our ferns are more local in their distribution. In 

 the Missouri bluff region we find Adiantum pedatum, the maiden- 

 hair, with its delicate, spreading leaves, bearing lunate fruit dots 



