FERNS OUT OF PLACE. 



'HE Pine Barrens of New Jersey contain comparatively few 



ferns, at least in the southeastern part of the State. The 



dry, hot stretches of sandy wood or thicket do not attract 

 this moisture-loving tribe, and even along the borders of the 

 streams and bogs, where fairly favorable conditions for their 

 growth are found, they are by no means plentiful. In a journey 

 of some forty miles through the most barren of the "barrens" 

 last July, the only species found were the bracken, royal fern, 

 cinnamon fern, common chain fern and Schizaea. We were there- 

 fore somewhat surprised, upon coming to a well somewhere in the 

 midst of this inhospitable region, to find in its moss-covered 

 depths four species of ferns which had apparently strayed long 

 distances from their native haunts. These four were the oak fern 

 (Phegopteris Phegopteri's) , the lady fern (Asplem'um Filix- 

 famina), the ebony spleenwort (A. ebeneum), and one of the 

 wood ferns (Dryopler/s sphiulosa, var. ). As regards the oak 

 fern, the "Catalogue of Plants Found in New Jersey" gives but 

 two stations for it, both in the northern part of the State. The 

 ebony fern is reported by the same authority to be "frequent 

 throughout the State," but Mr. C. F. Saunders has noted in this 

 journal (6:23. iSgS) that he has never discovered it upon frequent 

 trips to these barrens. The lady fern has been found in the same 

 county, but was not seen on our trip, while the wood fern has be- 

 fore been found only in the northern part of the State so far as 

 known. How these ferns came to meet in this old well, so far 

 from their kindred, is something of a puzzle. If, as it appears, 

 they originated from spores blown from the nearest station, some 

 of them must have traveled a hundred miles or more. And it is 

 still a question whether these are merely adventitious spores 

 which happened to rind a footing, or whether such spores are con- 

 stantly rained upon the region only to die without a sign. — 



IN THE paper presented by Mr. Davenport at the Boston meet- 

 ing, he entirely misunderstands the distribution of this species 

 and its supposed ancestors at Havana Glen, Alabama. Both 

 Camptosorus and Asplem'um pi aty neuron grow at the glen, but 

 only a single small area of Camptosorus was found and that at a 



W. X. C. 



ASPLENIUM EBENOIDES— A CORRECTION. 



