— I M 



more attention is being paid to their cultivation, and it is earnestly 

 to be hoped that those species will be grown {Trichomanes and 

 Hymenophyllums , especially) which are threatened with extinc- 

 tion through the cutting down of the forest which is both their 

 shelter and their home. 

 Aratapu, New Zealand. 



NOTES ON JAPANESE FERNS. 



By Kiichi Miyake, Ph. D. 



About two hundred and fifty species of ferns are known to 

 grow wild in the Japanese Islands. If Formosa, which recently 

 became a Japanese possession, be included, the number would be 

 much greater. Japan thus has more species of ferns than the 

 whole of the United States, three times as many as are found in 

 the British Isles, and may be called one of the richest fern coun- 

 tries outside of the tropics. The Japanese Islands have been 

 pretty well explored in the last thirty years, and nearly all of the 

 flowering plants and ferns have been identified by botanists. 



The majority of the Japanese ferns are herbacious species, 

 and tree-ferns grow only in the southernmost part of Japan, 

 where also occur other sub-tropical and tropical species like those 

 found in the East Indies and in tlv. Malay Archipelago. There 

 are a number of species of ferns, which are found only in Japan ; 

 thus more than half a dozen species are christened Japonica, or 

 Nipponicum* 



Among the ferns which are more or less widely distributed in 

 different parts of the world and which also occur in Japan, may be 

 mentioned the following : 



Pteris aquilina, Adiantnm pe datum, Scolopendrium vulgar e, 

 Osmukda regalis (variety Japonica), Aspidium Ulix-mas, Asplen- 

 ium Trichomanes, Pterics crctica, Pteris scrrulata, Lomaria 

 spicarit, Woodzi'ardia rodicans (var. orientalis) , Onoclea sensib- 

 ilis, O. Struthioptcris, Osmunda claytoniana, O. cinnamotnea, 

 Botrychiwm lunaria, and B. virginiana. 



* Japan is called Nippon by its natives; the main Island of Japan is often 

 called Nippon by foreigners. 



