Anyone who has seen this odd fern growing in its native haunts will
probably concur in the opinion held by some, that while it is looked
upon as one of the rarest of ferns its small size and its habit of
growing in the midst of other low plants have no doubt caused it to be
passed over by collectors in many regions where it really exists. This
should be an encouragement to collectors to keep the fern in mind in
their field excursions with a view to adding new stations for it to
those now known. 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. But though
I have hunted for it more than once my eyes have never been sharp enough
to detect its fronds in this locality.
In October of last year, however, a good friend guided me to another
place in New Jersey where he knew it to be growing and there we found
it. It was a small open spot in the pine barrens, low and damp. In the
white sand grew patches of low grasses, mosses, _Lycopodium
Carolinianum_, _L. inundatum_ and _Pyxidanthera barbata_, besides
several small ericaceous plants and some larger shrubs, such as scrub
oaks, sumacs etc. Close by was a little stream and just beyond that a
bog. Although we knew that _Schizaea_ grew within a few feet of the path
in which we stood, it required the closest kind of a search, with eyes
at the level of our knees before a specimen was detected. 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.
When the sight got accustomed to the miniature jungle, quite a number of
specimens were found but the fern could hardly be said to be plentiful
and all that we gathered were within a radius of a couple of yards.
This seems, indeed to be one of the plants whose whereabouts are
oftenest revealed by what we are wont to term a "happy accident" as for
instance, when we are lying stretched on the ground, resting, or as we
stoop, at lunch, to crack an egg on the toe of our shoe. I know of one
excellent collector who spent a whole day looking for it diligently in
what he thought to be a likely spot but without success when finally,
just before the time for return came, as he was half crouching on the
ground, scarcely thinking now of _Schizaea_, its fronds suddenly flashed
upon his sight, right at his feet.
The sterile fronds of _Schizaea pusilla_ are evergreen so the collector
may perhaps best detect it in winter selecting days for his search when
the ground is pretty clear of snow. The surrounding vegetation being at
that time dead the little corkscrew-like fronds stand out more
prominently. The fertile fronds die before winter sets in but their
brown stalks frequently nevertheless remain standing long after.--_C. F.
Saunders in Linnaean Fern Bulletin, Vol. 4._