
          779.

*N. Bootii

hillside and near the top chose our camp.  A fire was built
and coffee prepared.  Although it had rained a good deal the
ground was comparatively dry on account of the good drainage.
It had now stopped raining and the sun was trying to shine.
After dinner, I went to the brook and here, close to the roadside
and also farther in the moist thicket I found Nephrodium simulatum
growing beautifully.  I secured a number of pretty specimens.  The
fertile fronds of this fern, as are also those of N. thelypteris & N. novaeborecense,
are very much contracted; still one may find many fronds
half way between sterile & fertile, that is that they are partly fertile <s>but</s> and have
the appearance of a sterile frond.  After I had put my fronds into the
press we <s>took a</s> walked along the road.  I thought it would lead to
Magothy bridge, but after walking some distance we decided to
return.  When we came to the N. cristatum spot we stopped and I
collected a number of pretty fronds both sterile & fertile and also
specimens of N. spinulosum.  One particularly handsome specimen
of N. cristatum was collected. It may possibly turn out to be N.
cristatum var. [clintoniana].*  It, like all the specimens of N. cristatum
had the peculiar whitish appearance of the under side of the
rhachis.  It was 4 o'clock when we ready to leave W.
        