HELPFUL HINTS
The following hints may be helpful to the young collector:
1. A good lens with needles for dissecting is very helpful in examining the sori, veins, glands, etc., as an accurate knowledge of any one of these items may aid in identifying a given specimen. Bausch and Lomb make a convenient two-bladed pocket glass for about two dollars.[1]
[Footnote 1: In the linen tester here figured (cost $1.50) the lens is mounted in a brass frame which holds it in position, enabling the dissector to use both hands. A tripod lens will also be found cheap and serviceable.]
[Illustration: Linen Tester]
2. Do not exterminate or weaken a fern colony by taking more plants than it can spare. In small colonies of rare ferns take a few and leave the rest to grow. It is decidedly ill-bred to rob a locality of its precious plants. Pick your fern leaf down close to the root-stock, including a portion of that also, if it can be spared. Place your fronds between newspaper sheets and lay "dryers" over them (blotting paper or other absorbent paper). Cover with a board or slat frame, and lay on this a weight of several pounds, leaving it for twenty-four hours; if the specimens are not then cured, change the dryers. Mount the prepared specimens on white mounting sheets. The regulation size is 16-1/2 by 11-1/2 inches. The labels are usually 3-3/4 by 1-3/4 inches. A sample will suggest the proper inscription.
HERBARIUM OF JOHN DOE
Ophioglóssum vulgatum,
L. (Adder's Tongue)
Willoughby Lake, Vt.
August 19, 1911. Wet meadow.
Coll. X.Y.Z. Rather common
but often overlooked
Place the label at the lower right-hand corner of the sheet, which is now ready to be laid in the genus cover, usually of manila paper 16-1/2 by 12 inches. It is well to jot down important memoranda at the time of collecting. This is the method in use at the Gray Herbarium in Cambridge. It can, of course, be modified to suit one's own taste or convenience. The young collector can begin by simply pressing his specimens between the leaves of a book, the older and coarser the better; and he can mount them in a blank book designed for the purpose, or if he has only a common blank book, he can cut out some of the leaves, alternately with others left in place, as is often done with a scrap book, that when the book is full it may not be crowded at the back. Or he can use sheets of blank paper of any uniform size and mount the specimens on these with gummed strips, and then group them, placing those of the same genus together. Such an extemporized herbarium, though crude, will serve for a beginning, while stimulating his interest, and advancing his knowledge of the ferns. Let him collect, press, and mount as many varieties as possible, giving the name with date and place of collecting, etc. Such a first attempt may be kept as a reminder of pleasant hours spent in learning the rudiments of a delightful study.
We cannot insist too strongly upon the necessity of handling and studying the living plant. Every student needs to observe for himself the haunts, habits, and structure of real ferns. We would say to the young student, while familiarizing yourself with the English names of the ferns, do not neglect the scientific names, which often hold the key to their meaning. Repeat over and over the name of each genus in soliloquy and in conversation until your mind instantly associates each fern with its family name--"Adiantum," "Polystichum," "Asplenium," and all the rest. Fix them in the memory for a permanent asset. With hard study and growing knowledge will come growing attachment. How our great expert, Mr. Davenport, loved the ferns! He would handle them with gentle touch, fondly stroke their leaves, and devoutly study their structure, as if inspired by the All-wise Interpreter.
"Move along these shades
In gentleness of heart: with gentle hand
Touch--for there is a spirit in the woods."
[KEY TO THE GENERA]
This key, in illustrating each genus, follows the method of Clute in "Our Ferns in Their Haunts," but substitutes other and larger specimens. Five of these are from Waters' "Ferns" by permission of Henry Holt & Co.
As the indusium, which often determines the name of a fern, is apt in some species to wither early, it is important to secure for study not only a fertile frond, but one in as good condition as possible. For convenience the ferns may be considered in two classes.
I
THOSE WHICH HAVE THE FRUITING PORTION IN GREENISH, BERRY-LIKE STRUCTURES AND NOT ON THE BACK OF FRONDS
A. FRUITING FRONDS WHOLLY FERTILE
(Fertile and sterile fronds entirely unlike)
| 1. Fruit in a one-sided spike in two ranks; plants very small; sterile fronds thread-like and tortuous. Curly Grass. Schizæa. |
| 2. Fruit in a club-shaped, brown or cinnamon-colored spike loaded with sporangia; fruit in early spring. Cinnamon Fern. Osmunda cinnamomea. |
| 3. Fruit in berry-like, greenish structures in a twice pinnate spike, which comes up much later than the broad and coarse pinnátifid sterile fronds. Wet ground. Sensitive Fern. Onoclea. |
| 4. Fruit in pod-like or necklace-like pinnæ; fertile frond pinnate; sterile frond tall, pinnátifid; fruit late. Ostrich Fern. Onoclea struthiopteris. |