﻿THE FERN BULLETIN 



37 



name of "The Garden of Eden." Opposite comes 

 down a canyon from which the garden is watered. An 

 Indian named Andreas used to live at its mouth and 

 from him it was named Andreas' canyon. Up it ran 

 a difficult trail leading to nowhere. Perhaps three 

 miles, or it may be more or less, for the distance is a 

 guess at this length of time, this trail crossed over a 

 low ridge of the mountain to avoid the narrow gorge 

 through which the stream at that point flows and just 

 above, it came to an end under a cliff on the left bank. 

 Here we sat down by the cool stream and ate our lunch 

 and then turning to an examination of the cliff, col- 

 lected among other things the type of the fern of 

 which I am writing. This was in March, 1881 and I 

 was just beginning my acquaintance with the desert 

 flora. Almost every plant was unknown to me so that 

 my overloaded press could contain but a scanty gather- 

 ing of any one species. I saw that the fern was new 

 to me but had no thought that it would prove to be so 

 to better informed students and so made no exception 

 in its favor. The few specimens gathered were sent 

 to Mr. Davenport who described and figured them in 

 the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 8:61. In 

 April of the next year I revisited the place confidently 

 expecting to secure a good supply of the new fern but 

 without succeeding in finding a single specimen. I 

 have never been there since, nor, I am confident, has 

 any other botanist. I hope others may not be deterred 

 by my disappointment and may be more fortunate. As 

 as aid to such an one. I will remind him that the fern 

 has a considerable general resemblance to Notholaena 

 Parryi, which is very abundant in that region, but it is 

 readily distinguished on close examination. 



