THE FERN BULLETIN 



VOL. XII. JANUARY, 1904. No. 1 



THE FERN FLORA OF CALIFORNIA. 



By S. B. Parish. 



For six hundred miles, from north to south, California, long 

 and narrow, faces the Pacific; but its breadth is but two hun- 

 dred miles. An area on the Atlantic coast, correspondingly 

 bounded, would extend from Boston to Charleston, but inland 

 only to Ithaca. 



But by reason of the differences of altitude the narrower 

 dimension offers greater climatic variations than are due to the 

 prolongation in latitude. One considerable range of mountains 

 follows the coast, and further inland the Sierra Nevada lifts its 

 lofty summits 10.000 to 14,000 feet above the sea. Both at the 

 north, and at the south, these ranges coalesce ; between them 

 they embrace a great central valley, drained by rivers which find 

 a common outlet through the Golden Gate. 



There is as great variance in this territory in respect to the 

 amount of precipitation. Along the foggy northern coast the 

 annual rainfall is from thirty to sixty inches ; the Sierra Nevada 

 is heaped high with snow in winter, and in summer frequent 

 showers keep fresh its Alpine meadows. Everywhere else there 

 is a deficient precipitation, which reaches its minimum in the 

 southern deserts, where the normal is but five inches, and 

 where, in places, the parching atmosphere may, for a twelve- 

 month, be unalleviated by a single drop of rain. Temperature 

 shows as wide a range, from peaks congealed in perpetual snow, 

 to sheltered nooks where frost is never known. 



Here exist, then, in great diversity, and in varied com- 

 bination, the conditions — temperature and precipitation, latitude 

 and altitude — which should produce a greatly diversified flora. 

 It is distinctly disappointing to find in this great area, with such 

 varied climatic conditions, no more than 50 ferns, or, including 

 the fern allies, 76 filicoid species. Compare this, not with a 

 fern paradise, such as the Island of Jamaica with its 500 species, 



