THE FERN BULLETIN 



Vol. XII. 



APRIL, 1904. 



No 2 



THE FERN FLORA OF FLORIDA. 



By A. H. Curtiss. 



LIBRARY 

 N t£\V YORK 



While Florida is rich in ferns as compared with other States, 

 yet her fern flora is not half what it would be if her topography 

 and soil were like that of the islands which so closely approach 

 her on the south. In point of fact, there are few other States so 

 poorly adapted to ferns. Nine-tenths of the surface is covered 

 with open pine woods, growing out of coarse sand and affording 

 very little shade. Then there is a large area in the aggregate of 

 marshes and wet prairies which are uncongenial to ferns. Scat- 

 tered all over the State are what are termed "hammocks," which 

 are groves or forests of what at the north are called hardwood 

 trees, sometimes with an intermixture of pines, and as the soil 

 found in these is mostly sandy, ferns find themselves but little 

 more at home than in the piney woods. 



As may be judged from these* facts the aggregate quantity 

 of ferns to be found in Florida is very small. A variety of Pteris 

 aquilina is the only fern found among the pines, Woodwardia 

 Virginica being met with on the borders of wet weather ponds, 

 and Osmunda cinnamontea along the borders of small streams. 

 The latter are hidden in almost impenetrable growths of hard- 

 wood trees, bushes and vines. In the depths of these thickets is 

 found a very handsome fern. Nephr odium Floridanum, and in 

 open miry spots there is plenty of Nephr odium thelypteris, JVood- 

 wardia angustifolia and sometimes Osmunda regalis. In the oak 

 woods of Northern Florida one seldom sees any fern except Poly- 

 podium incanum and Nepkrodium patens. 



This is a most unattractive prospect for a fern collector; 

 yet one can find many a choice fern in Florida if directed to the 

 right places. On the western side of the peninsula there is a 

 region of outcropping limestone running northwestward to the 

 southeastern corner of Alabama and at the south merging into 

 the o!d coral and "coquina" rock which is somewhat elevated 



