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just under their reflexed edges. Pellsea atropurpurea clings 

 closely in the crevices in the sandstone cliffs along the Missouri 

 river, and is only to be obtained after a careful search and a hard 

 climb. This fern has fruit dots similar to those of Adiantum, 

 but the lines of fruit are continuous and the leaves are much 

 coarser in texture. On the top of the hills at Weeping Water grows 

 a small fern, the back of whose leaves is covered with a starch- 

 like powder. This is Notholaena dealbata. 



Three more ferns and fern allies are reported from Franklin 

 county. Botrychium ternatum, another moon-wort; Equisetum 

 variegatum, a scouring rush, and Osmunda regalis, the so- 

 called "flowering fern," are here found. Franklin, Nebraska, is 

 the only locality west of the Mississippi river from which this fern 

 has been reported. 



Over half of our twenty-six ferns are found in the north- 

 western part of the State, where some of the Rocky mountain 

 conditions prevail. Onoclea sensibilis, the sensitive fern, and 

 O. Struthiopeteris, the ostrich fern, creep across the Dakota line. 

 Aspidium spinulosum, A. thelypteris and A. cristatum, three 

 shield-ferns, are found here. Cheilanthes lanuginosa here, as 

 elsewhere, protects its spores from the winds and weather by 

 covering them with a layer of fine brown hairs. Woodsia oregana 

 and W. obtusa, two delicate little ferns, are found in the canons 

 in the foothill region. Asplenium Filix-foemina, the so-called 

 "female fern" of the ancients, shows its large and graceful 

 leaves in the same localities Equisetum limosum is found in the 

 northern part of the State. 



Marsilia vestita, a small aquatic fern, is also found in these 

 parts. Each of its leaves is divided into four leaflets and presents 

 almost the appearance of a "four-leaved clover." The spores 

 are borne inside of pods formed by modified leaves. 



Probably the most interesting of all the fern allies which we 

 have in the State has been reported but once. Isoetes melano- 

 poda has been collected near Exeter. As this genus, Isoetes, is 

 probably that which, of all existing genera, comes nearest the 

 flowering plants, a great deal of interest is attached to it. The 

 plant grows in the edge of shallow water. It is very similar in 

 appearance to grass and is therefore hard to find. It may be dis- 

 tinguished from a clump of grass by the swollen bases of its 

 leaves, and in the leaf bases the spore cases filled with many 

 small spores. To discover this form elsewhere should be the aim 

 of every collector of ferns and their allies in the State. 



