Garden and forest [Volume 4, Issue 190]

nature. To-day, again, one feels the power of the encroaching forest; of the littleness of man against the eternal forces.
Let him pause an instant and he is swept from the face of the
earth; his proudest home a ruin, over which the wild vine
clambers; his once stirring town a prey to the readvancing
wilderness. Such sights, I am told, are to be seen in the far
west, where the embryo town, deserted, relapses into desolation. A strange fear came upon me as I looked. We who preserve forests do we not cherish a foe in this great blessing?
The lonely terror of the great woods came upon me, and in
thought I saw this busy region once more a waste; all this
bustling, nervous life stilled; our civilization an overgrown
wreck; an Oak-forest where the State-house stands; a group
of Pines on Marblehead Neck.
Climbing another of these hills I was reassured. There sat
Lynn upon the shore as large as life, with the chimneys of its
manufactories belching smoke, its railroads teeming with
traffic, its harbor white with sails. Other towns came into
view from other elevations-Peabody and Salem, only three
miles distant from the park's eastern gate; distant Danvers
among its Elms, and Wakefield, Malden, Everett and Chelsea,
all within easy driving distance, on the west, while electric
cars, packed with people, were bringing throngs for rest and
solace to the wild solitudes of the great woods.
Then came to me a new sense of pride in our people, who
in the midst of their struggle for a living, with all their greed
of gain thick upon them, find time to think of their children
and to plan an everlasting pleasure for the future citizens.
This friendliness of spirit is more fine even than the forest
which it cherishes, and one honors the men who conceive this
idea and labor to confer this boon upon their neighborhood.
The moving spirit in acquiring this park for Lynn was Mr.
C. M. Tracy, whose zeal and example induced many citizens
to join in purchasing the land which was a nucleus for future
acquisitions. Later, like all great enterprises, it outgrew its
founders, and the town. itself had to come in with its right of
eminent domain, and add more and more to the reservation.
Lovers of nature and the people, like Mr. P. A. Chase, have
bought other forest-lands to protect it and ultimately increase
the noble dimensions of the park, and so the good work goes on.
A fine grove of noble Hemlocks was rescued from the very
axe of the headsman by Mr. Chase, and forms one of the most
beautiful ornaments of the park, the trees being of great size,
with a stony brook flowing between the hills on which they
grow. Cardinal-flowers bloom, and great Ferns wave beside
this murmuring stream, and the sunlight sifts in among the
branches, and makes of it an enchanted grove, from which
there is an outlook upon one of the four ponds that add so
much to the charm of this region of rock and woodland.
I have not spoken of the beauty of the drives, which, following the lines of the old cart-paths, wind in graceful curves all
through the forest, nor of the wild paths that lead by short
cuts to Dungeon Rock and to the look-outs from the hill-tops,
as well as to interesting vistas and places of interest. It was a
pleasant sight to see car-loads of people hurrying to the woods
for change of scene, and to hear the echo of glad children's
voices and to see the look of enjoyment in the tired faces of
pale mothers who had escaped hither from the town.
The scheme of the park includes places of recreation for
young and old. The drained marsh in winter will be excellent
for skating. There are to be ball-grounds and tennis-courts,
and conveniencies for picnics, rough tables and seats being
already provided for the last in an appropriate place. It is the
People's Palace, where they can take continual delight, and to
which not only the inhabitants of Lynn can resort, but those
of seven neighboring towns, none of which are more than
three miles from its various entrance-gates. This great
domain is the magnificent gift of a generous people to the
Commonwealth, and well may the citizens of Lynn take pride
in so princely a possession.
Our "great, avaricious, sensual America," that Emerson
talks of, has a warm heart beating in her young breast, and a
generous hand to give. Never is the cry of the needy unheard
by her, and to her children she gives royally and wisely.
This noble public spirit in our people, this large-hearted,
open-handed bestowing, is a splendid sign for the future. If these
things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the
dry? If now, in the hot impatience of hungry youth,'our
citizens still plan for the future of their neighborhoods, how

much the more, as the country matures, will these gifts increase, as, fired by the great examples of their ancestors, the
future sons of the Republic lay the foundations of long-enduring benefactions, none, however, to be more precious to the
people than the great and beautiful woods of Lynn.
Hingham, Mass. MA. C. ]Robbins.

483

Filices Mexicana.-II.
XW E now continue the enumeration of the Ferns collected during the seasons of I888, i889 and I890,
by Mr. C. G. Pringle, of Charlotte, Vermont, in the states
of Nuevo Leon, Jalisco, San Louis Potosi and Machoacan,
Mexico. We are indebted to Mr. George E. Davenport,
of Medford, Massachusetts, for the list, together with notes
and descriptions of new species and varieties. The numbers used correspond with those on Mr. Pringle's tickets
which accompany his distribution.
ASPLENIUM PUMILUM, Swz. (2583). Shaded damp banks of
Barranca, September, I889; also 2028, same locality, December, I888. This is undoubtedly true jiumilum, and very distinct from Pringle's I444 of his I887 collection, which was
referred to this species with some hesitation in "Fern Notes,"
X., in Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, vol. xv., p. 226,
and which will now have to be otherwise disposed of. Professor Eaton suggests that it may be a very dwarf form of A.
Mexicanum, Mart. & Gal., now A. fragrans, or a possible
hybrid between that species and A. 1pumilum. But whether
those species grew in the same locality, or near by, where it
was collected, or not, I do not know, as my own specimens of
all three Ferns were collected in different localities far apart.
It is, however, unlike any form of A.fragrans that I have seen,
and, as it is left in so unsatisfactory a condition of determination, I venture, as a possible solution, to give to it the provisional name of A. dubiosum, in recognition of its present
uncertain character, and submit the following brief diagnosis:
ASPLENIUM DUBIOSUM (I444). Collection of I887, n. sfj.
Stipites tufted, I' to 2' long, brown, naked; laminae I' to 2'
long, 34' to I' broad at base, varying from oblong-lanceolate
to deltoid-ovate or triangular, pinnately divided into from two
to four pairs of wedge-shaped ovate or obliquely ovate pinnae,
lower ones the largest; upper portion sinuately pinnatifid,
with obliquely obovate or cuneate dentate divisions, to the
apex; lowermost pinnae deeply cleft into one or two pairs of
obliquely obovate or wedge-shaped toothed divisions at the
base, and sharply dentate to the apices; texture coriaceous;
main rachis green, channeled along the face and extending
downward on to the stipes; sori oblique, becoming confluent
when mature.
Habitat: Ledges, Arroyo, Aucho, Sierra Madre, state of
Chihuahua, October ISth, 1887. Resembles A. pumilum in the
shape of its fronds, but with the evergreen texture of A. montanumr, and more sharply toothed divisions.
ASPLENIUM SHEPHERDI, Spreng. (2025). Under wet cliffs near
Guadalajara, December, I888. A form which appears to'me
to be var. inequilaterum, Baker.
ASPLENIUM TRICHOMANES, L., var. reeiens, Davenport (I838).
Moist banks near Guadalajara, November, I888.
BOTRYCHIUM VIRGINIANUM, Swartz (3408). Wooded hills of
Patzcuaro, October, I890.
BLECHNUM OCCIDENTALE, L. (I870). Springy banks near
Guadalajara, November, I888.
CHEILANTHES COOPERE, D. C. Eaton (I863). Shady mossy
ledges or rocky banks, in damp places, chiefly in the Barranca
and its branch canons, November, I888.
CHEILANTHES GRACILLIMA, D. C. Eaton (2037). Dry ledges
of Sierra Madre. Altitude 8,500 feet, October, I888.
CHEILANTHES LENDIGERA, Swartz (3368). Dry ledges, hills of
Patzcuaro, November, i8go. Specimens large and beautiful.
CHEILANTHES MEIFOLIA, D. C. Eaton (1987). Northern slope
of the Sierra Madre, near Monterey, abundant on'cool, shady,
often rocky, steep banks of gulches and ravines, June, I888.
CHEILANTHES MICROPHYLLA, Swartz (I988). With broadly
deltoid or triangular-ovate fronds, from limestone gulches
and shady banks of mountains east of Monterey; and (I989)
with tall and narrow fronds from partially shaded banks of
dry gulches in cool, shady canons, foot-hills of the Monterey,
Sierra Madre, June, I888; also 2024, from near Guadalajara,
December, I888, a very pubescent form, with broadly oblong
fronds. The three forms are distinct enough in appearance
for different species, but I can find no good characters by
which to separate them even as varieties.

CHEILANTHES PALMERI, I). C. Eaton (2584). Shaded ledges,
near Guadalajara, September, I889.
CHEILANTHES TOMENTOSA, Link (2603). Near Guadalajara,
I889, a rather lax form, with but slight pubescence.
CHEILANTHES VISCOSA, Link (I842). Moist banks, near
Guadalajara, November, I888, large and fine.
DICKSONIA RUBIGINOSA, Kaulf (3407). Rich ravines, Tama.
sopo Canfon, June, 1890.

OcToiER 14, I891.]

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