—79— 



The first fern to greet me after leaving city limits is the 

 Christmas fern {Dryopteris acrostichoides). It lifts its shining 

 leaves here and there along the roadside in a sturdy way that is 

 quite refreshing. I sometimes think I like this fern better than 

 any other, not because of its delicacy but for its strength ; and 

 then, it is an evergreen and to a transplanted New England 

 woman who revelled as a child among delightful clumps of pine 

 and spruce and hemlock, evergreens have an especial charm. 



A little further along this road, nestled at the foot of a 

 broad-spreading beech tree, growing amid the leaves and scarlet 

 berries of the partridge vine, we find the Maiden-hair (Adiantum 

 pedaitim). Just here the road descends. Nearer the creek we 

 come upon great patches of the Sensitive fern {O node a sensi- 

 bz'lis), and what I suppose to be the Marsh Shield-fern. This 

 fern does not, in all respects, closely resemble the Marsh Shield- 

 fern I find in New England, beiug stouter and decidedly hairy, 

 but it is surely a Dryopteris and answers that description more 

 nearly than any other I find in my "Manual," so I call it 

 Thelypteris and place a mental interrogation point after it. 



We cross a bridge. On one side of our road is a steep hill- 

 side. In such a "coigne of vantage" in New England one would 

 be sure to find the Sweet Pasture fern and the brake, but I have 

 never found Dickso7iia punctilobula in this part of Ohio, and 

 P ten's aquilina is not common. Half way up this hill there is a 

 spring, a grateful watering place in the edge of the woods. I 

 have found here two or three fronds of the brake every season 

 for years, but they are always small and look like immature 

 plants. I have occasionally seen this fern in other places about 

 here, but very seldom. Not long ago I was invited by a friend to 

 look at a rare " tree-fern," transplanted to her garden with the 

 greatest care. I knew, of course, it could not be a "tree-fern," 

 but my surprise can be imagined when I found her treasure to be 

 our common New England "brake." 



Leaving the hillside, we next came to a stretch of rather open 

 woodland and find along the roadside, in addition to the ferns 

 already mentioned, the black shining stipes of the Ebony fern 

 (Asplenium ebeneum). Over the fence, a little further in the 

 woods, Moon wort {Botrychium Virginianum) grows in great 

 abundance. On the shaded roadside near, we find the Beech 

 fern. When I came to recognize this genus I read in some 

 botany that Phegopteris hexagonoptera was often to be found 



