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old and become prostrate these buds produce new plants. One 

 may often collect specimens in which the old fronds each bear 

 c everal plantlets. 



The way in which the star fern fruits makes it a near rela- 

 tive of Vittaria, Taenitis, Antrophyum and Meniscium, all small 

 tropical genera containing no species with common names. Not 

 much farther removed are the genera N otholaena and Gymno- 

 gramma, in fact the plant called Gymnogramma rufa is thought 

 by some to form a very good connecting link between the latter 

 genus and the genus Hemionitis, to which the star fern belongs. 



As fern students now regard Hemionitis it contains upward 

 of half a dozen species, four of which belong to American 

 tropics, the rest being found in the warmer parts of the Old 

 World. The only other American species that is at all common 

 is a pinnate plant, H. pinnata, which so closely resembles Gym- 

 nogramma rufa that it is hard to separate them. The star fern 

 is found nearly throughout the West Indies and occurs on the 

 mainland from Mexico to Peru. In Jamaica it is sometimes 

 called strawberry fern, for what reason is not apparent. In no 

 way does it resemble a strawberry. 



SOME FERNS OF THE CAVE REGION OF STONE 

 COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



By S. Fred Prince. 



This country lies in the southern part of the Ozark Range, 

 the greatest elevation being about 1,600 feet above sea level. The 

 surface is cut up into long, crooked, steep-sided and much 

 branched ridges, forming long narrow valleys and "draws," often 

 bounded by precipitous cliffs, sometimes several hundred feet 

 high. Whatever their height, these cliffs are usually hollowed 

 in at the base, and below them is a steep slope covered with 

 detritus from above. There are no lakes, and very few marshy 

 places, and these of small extent and duration, being due mostly 

 to overflow in spring. The country is so steep that the water 

 drains off very rapidly, most of the streams being a succession of 



