298 
THE PLANT WORLD. 
tissue-tensions. He was less happy in his theory of the responses 
of plants which, after the fashion of his time, he tried to explain 
in a crass, mechanical way. But the few mistakes of the great 
student are hardly worth consideration in view of the mass of his 
work which has remained unchanged by time. If one reviews the 
sum total of the work of his life, and the significance of its results, 
one is forced to clearly recognize that Hofmeister was not merely 
an active and industrious man of learning, such as botany has 
often possessed, but a real genius, such as appear in a science only 
between long intervals of time. 
NOTES ON THE FERNS OF NORTH-CENTRAL 
ONTARIO. 
By A. B. Klugh, 
Ontario Agricultural College. 
The last two days of July and the month of August, 1905, I 
spent awheel touring the Bruce Peninsula and the northwestern 
portion of Grey County, Ont., with a view to ascertaining the 
fern-flora of that region. The rock-formation of this area is 
limestone, outcrops of which occur with great frequency, and 
it is on these outcrops that we find the characteristic ferns of the 
region. 
That there are many more species to be found and many other 
stations for rare species to be discovered goes without saying, as 
every botanist knows how often plants exist in a well-worked 
area for years without discovery and especially is this the case 
in such country as that through which I travelled, where much 
difficult climbing is entailed. 
One of the ferns which render this region particularly interest¬ 
ing is the hart’s tongue (Scolopendrium vulgare). At many 
places throughout the area it is abundant, always growing in 
woods at the top, or on the slopes, of limestone ridges. For a de¬ 
tailed account of this species as it occurs here I would refer the 
reader to my notes in the Fern Bulletin , October, 1905, and here 
I wish to deal more particularly with the other species found. 
