The Fern Bulletin/v01
The Linnaean Fern Bulletin, Number 1
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OFFICERS Every lover of ferns in America is cordially invited to join the Chapter. The dues are $1.00 yearly. Send for Constitution and list of members. |
NOTES ON ASPIDIUM CRISTATUM. _____ |
This is one of our most interesting species, showing as it does the effects of light and surroundings upon its growth. In its natural habitat it is, usually surrounded by a dense, low growth of other plants that, like itself, luxuriate in rich, damp woods and swamps. The fertile fronds grow almost vertically and are two or three times as long as the sterile ones which are simply ascending. The fertile fronds no doubt grow this way because it is more important for the preservation and increase of the species that the spore-bearing parts of the plant should receive every advantage due to better light, more air, etc., than than the sterile fronds should avail themselves of such advantages. It must also be noted that the sterlle fronds are a shade ligher in color than the fertile ones on the smae plant. But most interesting of all, the pinnae on the fertile fronds are turned so as to lie in a horizontal plane. Reading of this in a book gave me a clue to the following observaions: I planted some of the ferns, in my yard in the city, near a board fence, so that they had only a northern exposure. This spring the fern came up luxuriantly and bore many sori. The ferns nearest the fence had the upper surfaces of the pinnae turned almost directly . . .
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. . . — C. E. Waters, Baltimore, Md.
TRAVELLING FERNS. _____ |
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. . . — Willard N. Clute, Binghamton, N. Y.
Fern Spores and Other Notes. |
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. . . — Mrs. M. L. Stevens.
The Linnaean Fern Bulletin, Number 2
[edit]Ferns of Susquehanna, Pa. _____ |
. . .—James A. Graves
The Linnaean Fern Bulletin, Number 3
[edit]Notes from Vermont _____ |
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. . . and varieties unless it be var incisum of Aspidium acrostichoides, which is found just across the river in New Hampshire and should be on our side. Perhaps we are also justified in making another variety of Cystopteris fragilis.
I can appreciate the experience of Mr. Graves in the last BULLETIN. I have lost a good deal by means of the bugbears which even Botanists have put in the way of Fern Study. No part of Botany is more interesting, and no branch of it is in my opinion easier than this. Few plants are so apt to hide away out of sight as Ferns. Yet after you've hunted for them all over the mountain side you may find them close by the road from which you started. The little Woodsia glabella was reported up the cliffs of Willougby Mt. as far as one could climb in the ravine. But after climbing as high as I could, again and again, I found it not two rods from where I left my buggy. And what "red letter days" we fern hunters have. I don't think we are naturally any more enthusiastic than other people, but we can tell just when and where we found such and such little rock ferns years ago and now and then a finding of a rare one in an unexpected place does us more good than it would to find a purse of money, (the owner would be sure to come for that.) My friends will probably testify that I am a quiet, sober, matter-of-fact sort of a character, but I am afraid I just stood still and shouted "Hurrah!" when I first saw the Woodwardia Virginica. The Professor had the old tradition of its whereabouts well learned years before, and with him I had searched the region thoroughly. For some four or five years afterwards I had gone over the ground again every year in vain. Even wading out into the pond to search some little islands for it. But with a hint from Mr. Pringle, (the falher of us all in Botanical collecting,) I tried again, and there it was in all its glory, alone on the water's edge. So stately that 1 saw it across the pond and knew at once it could be nothing but this, one of our most magnificent of Ferns, with its wonderful chains of spores, and its largest of all rhizomes (I think I must disagree with our president, in Bulletin 1.) It was a proud day for me, when reponing to Mr. Pringle my success, he replied that he thought I was the third person to find it there. — James A. Bates, Randolph, Vt.
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Fern Localities. |
Since it is time to send in my regular quarterly report, I will make a few corrections and additions to the list of ferns appearing in the September number of the Popular Science News. My list of ferns was made out for my locality, solely, although I have found many of the ferns in olher states and also have some ferns not found near Baltimore. I have collected Pellaea atropurpuraea at Birmingham, a small village about eighteen miles east of Altoona, Pa. The plants were on the face of a limestone cliff, in a very exposed situation. Asplenium Trichomanes grows at the same place as the above, but the plants found by me were on mossy rocks in the woods. A. ruta-muraria was also found by me at the same place, on a limestone cliff. Some plants were growing scarcely five feet above the roadside. A. montanum grows at Rock Enon Springs, Va., on sandstone cliffs. I have one particulary fine specimen seven inches in length. It resembles A. ruta-muraria very closely. Camptosarus rhizophyllus also grows at Birmingham, Pa., on limestone. Near Baltimore I know of two localities where plants are found on trap rock, but they are not nearly so large or so numerous as those on limestone.
Aspidiun noveboracense is very common around Baltimore. I have also found it abundantly at both of the Pennsylvania localities and at Rock Enon and at Burke's Garden in Virginia.
Aspidiun spinulosum intermedium is to be found at Swiftwater, Pa.. and at Burke's Garden, Va.
A. spin. dilatatum grows at Birmingham and Swiftwater. Pa.
Cystopteris bulbifera grows at Birmingham. Pa.. and at Burke's Garden, Va.
C. fragilis. I have recently found this for the first time. In my report it was stated that another of our local botanists had found it.
Woodsia Ilvensis grows near Calamity Rock on the west shore of Lake George, N. Y. W. obtusa at Birmingham, Pa.
Dicksonia pilosiusculla is one of the commonest ferns around Baltimore. It must have been through some oversight that I omitted it from my report, for there is certainly no lack of it. It also grows at Birmingham, Pa. — C. E. Waters, Baltimore, Md.
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Forking Fronds. |
Supplementary to the account of forked fronds in Bulletin 2, I would note what seems a rather interesting occurence of forked fronds of the Bladder Fern (Cyslopleris bulbifera). On August 10 while out collecting ferns I noticed that forked fronds of this species were quite common in a small ravine on the Winooski River near Burlington, a locality where this fern is very abundant. I have a specimen in my herbarium collected at the time with the divisions of the frond measuring ten inches, and I believe in none of the instances observed the divisions could have been less than five or six inches long. In exchanging specimens we should bear in mind that plants may be sent through the mails for one cent for each two ounces. Botanical specimcns are classed as 4th class matter, and the rate of postage on 4th class matter is one cent an ounce; but an exception to this rule provides that “plants, of all kinds,” may be sent for one cent for each two ounces. When mailing packages of specimens (if they are to be so sent) we should be careful to mark them either “Plants,” “Herbarium Specimens,” or “Ferns.” — Geo. G. Hinsdale, Burlington, Vt.
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Iowa Ferns. |
I have not been able to do as much botanizing as I had hoped to do this past summer. This part of the country is fernless, for we have neither wood nor rocks very near us, and my vacation was not as long as I expected. I spent it at West Union, Ia., and found growing there quite abundantly, both Pellaeas, Cystopteris bulbifera and Woodsia obtusa upon the limestone rocks. I found growing in the same situation specimen of Cystopteris bulbifera, some eighteen to twenty inches long and others only two to four inches in length. The smaller differed slightly in shape from the longer fronds, and but for the presence of the bulblets, I should have thought they might be another variety. In the woods I found Phegopteris polypodioides and P. Dryopteris, the Onocleas and Osmundas, Botrychium Virginianum, Pteris aquilina, Aspidium Acrostichoides and A. Noveboracense. The meadows in wet portions abounded with A. thelyteris. — Mary E. Carr, Adrian, Minn.
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A Fern-Book Offer. |
The Secertary has received the following self-explanatory note from Prof. Underwood:
Dear Lady: — Noticing a recent statement in "Science" that you were secretary of an organization for the study of ferns, I will say that in case any of your correspondents wish to procure “Our Native Ferns and their Allies,” 4th edition, recently issued by Holt, that I can furnish a limited number of copies at the reduced price of one dollar, post paid. In case classes of five or more are organized and will order five or more copies at one time for one address I can make the price somewhat less. I do not know the full scope of your organization, but assume it to be, in part at least, field and systematic study. — L. M. Underwood, Greencastle Ind. Nov. 1893.