Various

“ If one is to judge by appearances alone, there can be no question as to L. lucidulum being different from L. porophylum but if the different appearances that plants put on under different conditions of warmth, light and moisture are to be considered then there are a number of fern species in this country in need of a name. Compare Woodsia obtusa grown on a sunny cliff with the same species grown on a moist one, or Equisetum arvense in woods and on railway banks. Nobody at present can say positively whether the form called porophyllum is a species or not. ”

“ As a usual thing, the spore-bearing leaves are produced after the vegetative leaves have unfolded and when we find a plant in full fruit in late summer, that lacked spores in spring, it is due to the developing of the fertile leaves later. This is especially true and most noticeable in ferns that produce their fronds in crowns, but even in those species with running rootstocks, we commonly find evidences of zonation. Following out the idea of zonation we find among many of the fern allies that not only are the sporophylls assembled in zones but the zones terminate the central axis or branch. ”

“ Curious as it may seem this plant with elongated sori oblique to the midrib is now regarded as a Polypodium! Before its settling down in this genus, it had been placed in Antrophyum, Grammitis, Loxogramme and Selliguea as well as Gymnogramma. This is by no means due to the variable nature of the fern. Through all these vicissitudes it has remained unchanged. The fluctuations from one genus to another even from one tribe to a different one, have been due to the varying opinions of mere man and his efforts to fit the fern to a set of descriptions of his own making. ”

“ I have been observing the habits of Onoclea sensibilis for many years, even raising plants from the spores to five years old; caring for other plants for years, changing conditions, and varying my experiments, until I have come to the following conclusions:
When the soil is constantly and evenly moist and unusually rich, and the plant is constantly shaded, it tends to produce its fertile fronds flattened out like the sterile, with all stages to those only partly rolled up. These unrolled fertile fronds do not differ from the rolled up ones, on the same plant, except in this one particular. ”

“ Since lands covered with grass are not adapted to the growth of ferns, and consequently are limited in species, their number and variety must be much restricted for this reason. This must have been the case in the primitive condition of the prairies before they were so generally taken up for cultivation. 33 The loss in the original fern-flora is slight in this regard when compared with that of flowering plants. As nearly all of the state is in the region of the glacial drift, the soil is influenced by this condition also. ”

“ It is an extremely local plant and may be looked for perhaps for years before being found though it has a wide distribution and is apt to be plentiful where it grows at all. It prefers rather moist soil and seems to like Goldie’s fern for a neighbor as I have often found them in close proximity.
The fronds grow in tufts from a creeping rootstock and are said to reach a height of four feet but all that I have seen were shorter by at least a foot. The blades are simply pinnate with many long, narrow pinnules tapering to slender tips. ”

“ It will grow in any good garden soil, but in such situations it must be protected from its enemies, the ordinary weeds of cultivation, which otherwise would soon run it out. The same thing is true of many plants besides ferns. The cactus plant that cheerfully endures the intense insolation and frequent drouth of the sand barrens, succumbs very soon to the grass and weeds when planted in rich soil.
Stipe or Stipes.—When it comes to the designation of the stalk of a fern leaf, there is a wide difference in the way British and Americans regard it. ”

“ Perhaps some of the readers of The Fern Bulletin know of localities where Botrychium ramosum and B. simplex are to be found growing near each other. If any such are known it seems that further investigations relating to this subject might be made. Or perhaps it would be enlightening if spores of B. ramosum 48 in sufficient quantity were to be sown on some dry hillside that was easily accessible to the experimenter. Immediate results however should not be expected as these Botrychiums move very slowly, according to some experimenters requiring several years before germination of the spores. ”

“ The ravines cut in the drift and in the underlying rock where it is reached, with their varying degrees of moisture and shade, show the greatest variety in fern-life, though a greater abundance of certain kinds may be found in woods and swamps. The prevailing rocks are limestone, but sandstones occur in some localities, especially along the Illinois and Rock rivers. ”

“ While reposing in the genus Gymnogramma, the fern was well-known to be somewhat unorthodox. In every large assemblage of species there are, in addition 44 to those which are typical, certain others that diverge somewhat, but not enough to form a separate genus. Thus our plant was placed in the section Selliguea. Sometimes, indeed, Selliguea was isolated as a separate genus, but usually accompanied by the statement that if it were not for the shape of the sorus it would make a good addition to the section Phymatodes of Polypodium. ”

“ The blade is oblong, tapering both ways from the middle and there is little difference between the fertile and sterile fronds.
The sori are borne in regular double rows on the pinnules and while in general they are like those of the spleenwort yet they are frequently curved after the fashion of the lady fern, making a puzzling question on which the botanical doctors fail to agree.
This species is fairly common over a wide area and while not possessing any striking beauty is interesting and attractive to the true lover of ferns. ”

“ THE FERN FLORA OF ILLINOIS. By E. J. Hill.
The state of Illinois has an area of about 55,000 square miles. It lies between the parallels 37° and 42° 30′, thus giving a length of 51⁄2° or about 380 miles. This north and south extension produces a milder climate in the southern part, but no fern of essentially southern distribution comes in except Polypodium polypodioides, though the two quill-worts of the state are perhaps better placed under this head also. ”

“ For the heaviest trunks we must look among lowlier species, where the circumference of the short trunk in some cases is so great that immense weights are attained. In Australia and New Zealand there grows a relative of the common cinnamon fern named Todaea barbata which quite takes the palm in this respect. The trunks are great rounded mosses five or six feet high and at least twenty feet in circumference, most of the upper surface being beset with living fronds. ”

“ Americans invariably speak of a single stalk as a stipe and they may be somewhat astonished, upon referring to a dictionary, to find that while stipe is given as a legitimate word, it comes direct from the latin Stipes which the Britons, with perhaps a more classical education, are accustomed to use. ”

“ It is likely that the new manipulator of the genus is as near right as anybody. The main thing is to discover what are the real indications of relationships. With some students it is venation, with others the shape and position of the indusium, with others the character of the vestiture and still others may have other rules by which to judge. When we agree upon the proper earmarks, anybody ought to be able to put the ferns in their proper groups. ”

“ If one will examine the crowns of the cinnamon fern, it will be readily seen that sporophylls and vegetative leaves form alternating circles. Curiously enough, the fertile fronds, which appear at maturity within the circle of sterile leaves, really 59 belong to the outer circle, as befits the group that is to develop first. The sensitive and ostrich ferns are other species in which the zones of fronds are very distinct. ”

“ The finding of a rare plant in a new locality is always a source of especial pleasure to the discoverer, aside from being an item of value to the botanist in general.
Schizaea pusilla was first collected early in this century at Quaker Bridge, N. J. about thirty-five miles east of Philadelphia. The spot is a desolate looking place in the wildest of the “pine barrens” where a branch of the Atsion river flows through marshy lowlands and cedar swamps. Here amid sedge grasses, mosses, Lycopodiums, Droseras and wild cranberry vines the little treasure has been collected. ”

“ Another small beetle known as the vine weevil (Otiorhyncus sulcatus) is fond of the plants both in the adult and larval stages, but the newcomer has already developed a reputation for destructiveness that places it first as a fern pest.
Walking Fern and Lime.—Nearly everybody who cultivates the walking fern (Camptosorus rhizophyllus) , thinks it necessary to supply it with a quantity of old mortar, quick-lime or pieces of limestone under the impression that the fern cannot live, or at least cannot thrive without a considerable amount of calcium in the soil. ”

“ The sterile fronds, curled like corkscrews, grew in little tufts and were more readily visible than the fertile spikes which were less numerous and together with the slender stipes were of a brown color hardly distinguishable from the capsules of the mosses and the maturing stems of the grasses which grew all about. Lying flat upon the earth with face within a few inches of the ground was found the most satisfactory plan of search. Down there all the individual plants looked bigger and a sidelong glance brought the fertile clusters more prominently into view. ”

“ The list is mainly a compilation made at the request of the editor of the Fern Bulletin. No special fitness for the task is claimed, since my personal knowledge of the region covered is almost wholly confined to five of the northeastern counties, Kankakee, Will, Cook, Dupage and Lake. Only casual trips of slight duration have been made to other places. The publication most relied on for the state at large is the “Catalogue of the Phaenogamous and vascular cryptogamous plants of Illinois,” H. N. Patterson, Oquauka, Ill., 1876. ”

“ As a matter of fact it has been reported on sandstone, shale, gneiss and granite and may possibly grow on others. Its noticed preference for limestone is apparently not due to its dependence on calcium but rather to the fact that it is more nearly adjusted to the plant covering of limestone 56 rocks than it is to others. ”

“ Mr. S. Fred Prince, long a member of the Fern Society is already at work on the index and we hope to issue it not later than the end of the year.
* * * * * * * *
Further information received from the purchaser of the complete set of this magazine recently sent to Germany, apprises us of the fact that the set is not to remain in Europe. It was purchased for a customer in South America (Argentine) , therefore the set owned by M. C. Belhatte at Paris is the only one in Europe. ”

“ By what ever name called, the species manages to thrive over a wide stretch of country in the Eastern Hemisphere, being found from Japan and China to the Himalayas, Ceylon and the Guinea Coast and represented in many of the islands of the Pacific including Fiji and Samoa. The specimen from which the illustration was made was collected by K. Miyake near Kyoto, Japan where it is reported “not so common.”
45 THE TALL SPLEENWORTS. By Adella Prescott. ”

“ Asplenium ebenoides (R. R. Scott.) Reported from Jackson county, Ill., but without further reference in Fern Bulletin, vol. V., p. 13.
Asplenium Trichomanes (L.) “On shaded rocks, Jackson and Union counties, French ”

“ Wabash, Schneck.” (P.) Southern Illinois. Vasey. Starved Rock, two plants. Ferriss.
Athyrium filix-foemina (L.) Frequent in rich, moist woods in Cook and adjoining counties, as well as throughout the state as given by Patterson, Peoria, Brendel; Jackson, Saml. Bartley; Henderson, Patterson; Ravinia, Willow Springs, Cook county, Prince.
Athyrium thelypteroides (Michx.) “Near Glencoe, Cook county.” Higley Raddin; “Peoria and Fulton counties, Brendel and Wolff; Wabash, Schneck.” (P.) Joliet, rare; Starved Rock abundant, Ferriss. ”