THE FERN BULLETIN 



VOL. XL JANUARY, 1903. No. 1 



THE FERN FLORA OF LOUISIANA. 



By Willard N. Clute and R. S. Cocks. 



Of all the States that border the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana 

 seems to have received the least attention from collectors. Half 

 a century or more ago, botanists like Hale, Riddell, Drummond 

 and Carpenter were active in making the flora known, but more 

 recently less has been written regarding it. Although several 

 botanists, among whom the late A. B. Langlois and Dr. Joor 

 were prominent, have since been engaged in studying the plants, 

 their neglect to publish their observations or to distribute speci- 

 mens has prevented a wider knowledge of the facts. 



The ferns and fern allies probably received even less study 

 than the flowering plants. With the exception of Langlois' Cat- 

 alogue of the Plants of Louisiana, published in 1886, there have 

 been no recent publication on the flora of the region. The first 

 published list of Louisiana plants that we have been able to find 

 is C. C. Robin's "Florula Ludoviciana," published in 1803, and re- 

 vised and enlarged by Rafinesque in 1817. In this list are to be 

 found Adiantum pcdatum, Asplenium ebeneum, Osmunda spec- 

 tabilis and Equisetum praealtum. Next to this comes the "Cat- 

 alogus Florae Ludovicianae," by J. L. Riddell, contributed to the 

 New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal for May, 1852. This 

 is abridged from an annotated manuscript work entitled "Plants 

 of Louisiana," contributed by Riddell to the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion in 1861 and based upon specimens in his own herbarium. All 

 trace of this work seems lost at present, and we are therefore 

 uncertain what ferns are indicated by Dryopteris aureliana (No. 

 1784) and Lastrae petiolata (1785). In 1869-70 Prof. A. Feather- 

 man, of the Louisiana State University, prepared a list of the 

 flowering plants and ferns of the State which was also sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. This list was never published. 



