38 



THE FERN BULLETIN 



of the Asplenium but so far they have not been re- 

 ported. In truth there are an even dozen reported 

 from that territory counting the sub-orders, that I 

 have not found. As before stated it is a big country 

 and it is also a little difficult to move around from 

 range to range. Then too the rare ones apparently 

 dwell in the wildest' and least accessible places. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF ASPLENIUM ALTERNANS. 



By Willard N. Clute. 



Before the fern known as Asplenium Ferrissi was 

 described as a new species from Arizona, the possi- 

 bility of its being a Mexican fern was carefully in- 

 vestigated. A specimen was sent for name to one of 

 the large Eastern herbaria making something of a 

 specialty of these plants, and all the available litera- 

 ture and specimens gone over without results. Only 

 then did we venture to present it as new. It did not 

 occur to any of those who saw the fern that it might 

 be a species of far off India. In fact, it is easier to be- 

 lieve, or to make others believe, that it is a new species 

 than it is to convince them that it is a plant whose 

 natural haunts are more than ten thousand miles 

 away. At the time it was collected, specimens were 

 sent to several of our prominent fern students and 

 none recognized it. 



Of its identity with Asplenium altemans there 

 seems to be no doubt, but in thus settling one question 

 we raise a much more difficult one, namely, how the 

 fern happened to grow where it does. There seems to 

 be very few cases on record that approach it in mys- 

 tery. Here and there on the globe, fern species have 

 been found in very restricted habitats. The case of 



Joliet, III. 



