eaved Grape Fern. _Botrychium lanceolatum_
Matricary Grape Fern. _Botrychium ramosum_
Common Grape Fern. _Botrychium obliquum_
_Botrychium obliquum_ var. _dissectum_
_Botrychium obliquum_ var. _oneidense_
Ternate Grape Fern. _Botrychium ternatum_ var. _intermedium_
Ternate Grape Fern. _B. ternatum_ var. _intermedium_
Rattlesnake Fern. _Botrychium virginianum_
Filmy Fern. _Trichomanes Boschianum_
Fruiting Pinnules of Filmy Fern
Crosiers
Noted Fern Authors
Spray of the Bulblet Bladder Fern

PREFACE

A lover of nature feels the fascination of the ferns though he may know
little of their names and habits. Beholding them in their native haunts,
adorning the rugged cliffs, gracefully fringing the water-courses, or
waving their stately fronds on the borders of woodlands, he feels their
call to a closer acquaintance. Happy would he be to receive instruction
from a living teacher: His next preference would be the companionship of a
good fern book. Such a help we aim to give him in this manual. If he will
con it diligently, consulting its glossary for the meaning of terms while
he quickens his powers of observation by studying real specimens, he may
hope to learn the names and chief qualities of our most common ferns in a
single season.

Our most productive period in fern literature was between 1878, when
Williamson published his "Ferns of Kentucky," and 1905, when Clute
issued, "Our Ferns in Their Haunts." Between these flourished D.C. Eaton,
Davenport, Waters, Dodge, Parsons, Eastman, Underwood, A.A. Eaton, Slosson,
and others. All their works are now out of print except Clute's just
mentioned and Mrs. Parsons' "How to Know the Ferns." Both of these
are valuable handbooks and amply illustrated. Clute's is larger, more
scholarly, and more inclusive of rare species, with an illustrated key to
the genera; while Mrs. Parsons' is more simple and popular, with a naive
charm that creates for it a constant demand.

We trust there is room also for this unpretentious, but progressive,
handbook, designed to stimulate interest in the ferns and to aid the
average student in learning their names and meaning. Its geographical
limits include the northeastern states and Canada. Its nomenclature follows
in the main the seventh edition of Gray's Manual, while the emendations
set forth in _Rhodora_, of October, 1919, and also a few terms of later
adoption are embodied, either as synonyms or substitutes for the more
familiar Latin