6 



THE FERX BULLETIN 



and this area seems to be shrinking. Number 1, by 

 actual count is a straggling colony of TO plants, and 

 lies west of the bridge, having the poorest and most 

 stunted plants. Number 2, east of the bridge consists 

 of 100 or 125 individuals. Number 3 is much further 

 eastward, up the gorge after you pass the old grist mill 

 and falls and reach what is known as the pot hole, well 

 known to local bathers by its wide deep pool of clear 

 cold water hemmed in by jutting ledges and congre- 

 gating hemlocks. This station has but 47 or 50 plants 

 but they are the finest and most flourishing of the 

 three groups. They differ from the others in having 

 more shade — perhaps rhe others get too much sunshine 

 — and in being removed from roadside dust and gutter 

 wash. 



At this point. Mill Creek flows about due west and 

 the plants, growing on the north side, have conse- 

 quently a southern exposure, none being found on the 

 opposite cliffs where other ferns, such as Dicksonia, 

 Cystopteris, two species of Phcgopteris, marginal 

 shield ferns and polypody grow so profusely. Among 

 the rest I gathered forked fronds and fronds with ab- 

 normally large divisions beyond the middle. 



Few specimens are to be had without climbing up 

 from below or hanging down from above and this 

 coupled with the small size and insignificant appearance 

 of this rare fern, for it lacks beauty in the popular 

 sense at least, will make it immune from the depreda- 

 tions of the ordinary fern gatherer. And barring the 

 changes wrought in its original environment by man's 

 mechanical operations at this point we would be will- 

 ing to conclude that its perpetuity in the park flora is 

 assured. For surely no botanist or fern collector will 

 ever commit the deeds of a vandal among its strag- 

 gling bands. 



