FERNS AND FERN ALLIES. 
109 
factor which may be called “ botanist’s luck ! ” When we have 
found one we should always look closely for more, the presence 
of that one indicating a favor¬ 
able habitat. 
For my part, I always feel, 
when I spy one of these queer 
little plants peeping out of the 
dried leaves, like calling out, 
f ‘ Hello, old fellow ! ” How¬ 
ever young he may be individ¬ 
ually he is the representative, 
by direct descent, of an old, 
aristocratic and exclusive fam¬ 
ily. He has managed by dint 
of a long series of natural sel- 
fig. 2. ections reinforced by a healthy 
constitution to hold his own against the odds of specialization 
and elimination and over-population. He still evolves his 
spores in the same old way ; he still persists in forming his buds 
two, three, possibly four years in advance — these may all be 
found by careful searching — and he utterly refuses to hurry at 
any stage of his growth. I admire him for his independence, 
and heartily wish I could predict for him a better fate than that 
which I know is in store for him. Alas ! like the Adams family, 
he is “ a back number.” Pretty soon — i. e. in a million years 
or so — the common, vulgar, new ferns which evolve their spores 
in a more economical way and develop the tissues with greater 
strength and have acquired the power of growing faster will 
crowd upon this poor fellow’s descendants and leave them no 
foothold on this great globe of ours! 
In the next article I will continue the consideration of this 
peculiar family, describing the other species of Botrychium and 
their haunts, and also Ophioglossum (adder-tongue fern), the 
grandfather of them all and, in truth, a “ name to conjure with.” 
Figure i represents a whole plant of the “ ternate grape-fern 
Figure 2, a sterile leaf of the same seen from above; both 
