THE FERN BULLETIN 



49 



the base and tapering to a long thread-like tip usually 

 lie nearly flat on their mossy bed tracing quaint pat- 

 terns in plain green on the shaded velvet of the moss. 



The sori are linear suggesting the spleenworts and 

 are scattered irregularly on the back of the frond, but 

 the walking fern, like a few others, does not depend 

 entirely on spores for its perpetuation and increase 

 but thrusting its slender frond tip into the soft moss, 

 takes root, forming a new plant which in its turn steps 

 forward until in a favorable locality dense colonies of 

 sturdy plants are formed, two or three generations be- 

 ing sometimes found still connected with the parent 

 plant. 



Having first heard of this fern at Chittenango 

 Falls it had always been associated in my mind with 

 the mist and spray of water falls and I was surprised 

 to find it growing high and dry on rocks with but a 

 scanty covering of moss far above the little stream 

 that flowed in the bottom of the ravine. It was so 

 plentiful that I gathered several specimens both for 

 my garden and herbarium with a clear conscience but 

 owing in part to the drouth of the previous summer 

 the plants lacked the vigor of those growing in a more 

 favored spot. A few really fine plants were found 

 where a little deeper and damper soil was available, 

 but it seemed to me that only the dense shade which 

 conserved the moisture of the small stream below 

 saved them from extinction. 



Returning by another path we found some fine 

 plants of the long beech fern and most unexpectedly 

 (to all but our generous guide) the adders-tongue, a 

 large number of tiny plants being found in a dry 

 pasture on the hillside. Do you wonder that it was 

 a happy, if tired, woman who slept that night only to 

 dream of ferns? 



New Hartford, N. Y. 



