# Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club/Volume 6/Ferns of New York State

Published in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 6 (1878), pp. 266-268.
§ 266. Aspidium marginale, Swartz. — I have found in several localities in this State forms of a fern which do not agree with any description of A. marginale, Sw., that I have seen, and yet resemble it in manner of growth and general appearance of fruit; so I suggest the propriety of regarding it as a distinct variety.   I submit the following description:
Stipe 1'-3' long, with copious tuft of lanceolate ferruginous scales at the base; frond 4'-6' long, 1½'~3' wide, once pinnate with lower pinnae deeply pinnatifid, upper merely lobed.   Sori usually one at each sinus, rarely two, one on each side of pinnule, Jamesville, N. Y.; Stockbridge, N. Y.; Chittenango Falls, N. Y., growing on limestone cliffs.   Specimens have also been sent me from Worcester, Mass.  Two mature specimens in my collection, fully fruited, are only five and one-half inches above the rootstock.
* Lucien M. Underwood
* Cazenovia, N. Y., Oct., 1878.
§ 267. Ferns Of New York State. — Mr. Benjamin D. Gilbert, in the Utica Herald of October 18th, in a notice of Mr. Williamson's "Ferns of Kentucky," writes as follows:
An examination of this volume naturally suggests a comparison of the Kentucky ferns with those of our own State.   Mr. Williamson describes 41 species and varieties, of which two have not as yet been found in his State, but are included because a more thorough search will be likely to discover them there.  One of these is the very rare Cheilanthes tomentosa, Link, a native of both Tennessee and North Carolina, not far from the borders of Kentucky.  The other is Woodsia Ilvensis, R. Br., which, although belonging farther north, the author thinks may possibly occur among the mountains of Kentucky.  This fern is common in New York State, growing upon ledges of rock.  One other fern, Aspidium cristatum, Swartz, is placed in the book on the authority of a young lady who reported it from a single locality, although Prof. Hussey afterward searched the locality named without success.  This fern also grows in New York State, and is met with frequently in swamps, both in the Mohawk valley and on the hills.  If we deduct these three species, the number absolutely known to be growing in Kentucky is thirty-eight.  Four of these are not to be found in New York State.  They are, Polypodium incanum, Swartz, common South, but not found in the Northern States; Asplenium pinnatifidum, Nuttall, which is reported as plentiful in Kentucky; Asplenium Bradleyi, D. C. Eaton, an extremely rare species found only in Tennessee and Kentucky; and Trichomanes radicans, Swartz, the Killarney fern, a species widely-diffused throughout the world, although of rare occurrence in America, being found only in Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky.  This leaves thirty-four species and varieties which are common to New York and Kentucky.  But has the former State any ferns which do not appear in the latter?  Let us enumerate them.  The following list comprises the species and varieties already discovered in this State, which are not known in Kentucky.
| Pellaea gracilis, Hooker. | Aspidium aculeatum, Sw., and var. |
| Woodwardia Virginica, Smith. | Braunii, Koch. |
| Woodwardia angustifolia, Smith. | Struthiopteris Germanica, Wild. |
| Scolopendrium vulgare, Smith. | Woodsia Ilvensis, R. Brown. |
| Polypodium Dryopteris, L. | Woodsia hyperborea, R. Brown. |
| Aspidium fragrans, Swartz. | Woodsia glabella, R. Brown. |
| Aspidium spinulosum, Swartz. | Botrychium Lunaria, Swartz. |
| "     "   var. dilatatum. | Botrychium simplex, Hitchock. |
| "     "   var. Boottii. | Botrychium lanceolatum, Angst. |
| Aspidium crislatum, Swartz. | Botrychium rutaceum, Swartz. |
| "     "   var. Clintonianum, Eaton. | Botrychium lunarioides, Swartz. |
Here is a list of twenty-two ferns native to New York State, which are not found in Kentucky.   That is, deducting the four Kentucky species not found here, we have eighteen species and varieties more than Kentucky, making in all fifty-two ferns which grow in the State of New York.  No other State in the Union, east of the Mississippi, can show such a list of ferns as this, and in no other are Scolopendrium and Woodsia hyperborea known to exist.  In one other State only, viz., Vermont, has Woodsia glabella been found.  Our herbarium will verify every species here quoted, except Aspidium fragrans, which Professor Peck found at Lake Avalanche, in the Adirondacks, and Aspidium aculeatum, which he discovered at Lower Ausable lake and one other point in the mountains.  Our specimens of these species came from points farther west.  So far as we are aware, no complete list of the New York ferns has been published since Paine's catalogue was issued, and several species have been added since that time.  The above list comprises all that are now known as natives of the State, including, of course, the thirty-four species which are common to the two States.  Should the time ever come when a separate history of our New York ferns shall be written, it will, or at least it ought, include some curious and interesting bibliography.
§ 268. The complete list of New York ferns will be, adopting Mr. Davenport's views about Aspidium spinulosum (Am. Nat. Nov.):
| 1. | Polypodium vulgare, L. | 28. | A. cristatum, Swartz. |
| 2. | Adiantum pedatum, L. | 29. | Var. Clintonianum, Eaton. |
| 3. | Pteris aquilina, L. | 30. | A. Goldianum, Hook. |
| 4. | Cheilanthes vestita, Swartz. | 31. | A. marginale, Swartz. Var. ? ——, Underwood. |
| 5. | Pellaea gracilis, Hook. | 32. | A. acrostichoides, Swartz. |
| 6. | P. atropurpúrea, Link. | 33. | A. aculeatum, Swartz. |
| 7. | Woodwardia Virginica, Smith. | 34. | Var. Braunii, Koch, |
| 8. | W. angustifolia, Smith. | 35. | Cystopteris bulbifera, Bernh. |
| 9. | Asplenium Trichomanes, L. | 36. | C. fragilis, Bernh. |
| 10. | A. ebeneum, Ait. | 37. | Struthiopteris Germanica, Willd. |
| 11. | A. montanum, Wild. | 38. | Onoclea sensibilis, L. |
| 12. | A. Ruta-muraria, L. | 39. | Woodsia obtusa, Torr. |
| 13. | A. angustifolium, Mchx. | 40. | W. Ilvensis, R. Br. |
| 14. | A. thelypteroides, Mchx. | 41. | W. hyperborea, R. Br. |
| 15. | A. Filix-femina, Bernh. | 42. | W. glabella, R. Br. |
| 16. | Scolopendrium vulgare, Smith | 43. | Dick.sonia punctilobula, Kunze. |
| 17. | Camptosorus rhizophyllus, Link. | 44. | Lygodium palmatum, Swartz. |
| 18. | Phegopteris polypodioides, Fée. | 45. | Osmunda regalis, L. |
| 19. | P. hexgonoptera, Fée. | 46. | O. Claytoniana, L. |
| 20. | P. Dryopteris, Fée. | 47. | O. cinnamomea, L. |
| 21. | Aspidium Thelypteris, Swartz. | 48. | Botrychium simplex, Hitch. |
| 22. | A. Noveboracense, Swartz. | 49. | B. Lunaria, Swartz. |
| 23. | A. fragrans, Swartz. | 50. | B. matricariaefolium, A. Br. |
| 24. | A. spinulosum, Swartz. | 51. | B. ternatum, Swartz. |
| 25. | Var. dilatatum, Eaton. | 52. | B. lanceolatum, Angstroem. |
| 26. | A. Americanum, Dav. (Amer. Nat., XII., 714.) | 53. | B. Virginicum, Swartz. |
| 27. | A. Boottii, Tuckerman, (ibidem.) | 54. | Ophioglossum vulgatum, L. |